Private universities and elite formation in Russia: Yakut case

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of functioning of private universities in society, determining their place in the educational process. A parallel is drawn with the work of private educational institutions in the United States, which have a glorious history of development dating back to the XVII century. The author of the article relies on the analysis of special literature on this issue, identifies success factors of American universities and “failure factors” of private universities in Yakutia, and also refers to a large-scale sociological study of graduates of the M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University. Research conducted under his leadership (Yakutsk, 469 respondents, 2016, 2017, 2018). The Author concludes that the history of private universities in Russia, which began in the 90s of the twentieth century, is quite dramatic. Branches of the capital's private universities operating in the province are at the greatest disadvantage today. The current situation requires a detailed sociological analysis, a comparative analysis of the performance of public and private universities and identification of the pros and cons of non-state universities on this basis, in order to develop recommendations for correcting the situation.