Design of the Macro-Regional Educational Systems: Problems of Typology

Abstract

The article presents a review of existing Russian universities typologies. Lately we have witnessed considerable interest towards this problem arising from the current changes in the field of higher education in Russia, including introduction of USE, transition to two-level model, overall use of rating system of student knowledge evaluation, etc. The sechanges are reflected in all aspects of society’s life which in turn makes universities of all types work harder to meet the requirements of all population groups. Dividing educational institutions according to the role they play in the macro-region is the ultimate aim for organizing university typology. Therefore practical significance of a typology is also manifested in supporting right decision making in the field of higher education management. The aim of this article is to study existing university typologies and possibility of their application in the Russian educational space. The review presented in the article is built on the analysis of national university typologies appearing after 2012. Considering the fact that international educational systems have their own typologies [1], ours can supplement foreign experience taking into account Russian specifics. Analysis of Russian universities typologies presented in the article is built on a methodological approach of modern Russian higher education nonlinear development [2, 3]. Nonlinear model of higher education suggests existence of close network interaction between universities of different types. According to this model all educational space subjects should interact in a horizontal dimension. Therefore there is a need for a brand new university typology that allows for describing national educational space as a unity of macro-regional educational systems each functioning effectively on its territory in a horizontal dimension. By macro-regions we mean Federal areas, by regions - subjects of the Russian Federation. Russian education is a combination of many educational systems, practically autonomous clusters. According to that any typology applied to all educational space of Russia will have its limitations. Therefore the article speaks of a possibility to apply typologies to educational space using the example of one macro-region - Ural Federal area. The choice of this particular region can be explained by its geographic, economic, social and cultural peculiarities. The novelty of the article is in the attempt of using existing approaches to university typology in order to analyze macro-regional system of the Ural Federal area. Applying existing university typologies to macro-regional educational space has demonstrated that at present they are difficult to use as the current situation requires using nonlinear approach. The review has resulted in forming a database forformulating author’s criteria system and a matching typology that would work effectively for a macro-regional educational space.