The End of the Academic Profession in Russia?

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The End of the Academic Profession in Russia?

Elena Denisova-Schmidt - DSc in Philosophy

Introduction

In March 2017, Vera Afanasieva, a professor of philosophy at Saratov State University, a mass public university located in central Russia, published on her blog an open letter to Olga Vasilieva, the then Russian Minister of Education and Science (2016-2018) [Afanasieva 2017]¹. This letter was a plea for help; the author described the current situation at her university and argued why it is no longer attractive or advisable to be a professor today under the heading “Five reasons why one should not become a professor.

Afanasieva first stressed the amount of very often unnecessary administrative work many faculty members have: `A professor now is [...] a clerk, a scribbler. Professors were tortured [...] to [produce] unnecessary lists, information, ratings, questionnaires, portfolios, programs, plans, plans for plans, reports, reports about reports. [...] The mountains of trash that come from the pens of professors would be the envy of any paranoid graphomaniac.' She goes on to say that university departments and chairs `were turned into offices long ago', and their primary role is to satisfy Russian officials. Secondly, the author expresses concern about the level of professionalism of some faculty members: `[Many] people [.] are convinced that the doctoral degreeDoctoral diploma - diploma of doctor nauk (Doctor of Science)., like any other, can now be bought or obtained by some method far from scientific research. In a country in which the level of education is so low, and practically everything is sold, not every professor amazes us with the knowledge of their specialization; not everyone is a thinker, erudite or even just well-educated; not everyone received their diplomas for scientific merit.'

Furthermore, Afanasieva stresses the financial challenges that many faculty members currently face: `the profession of professor is unprofitable, even costly. Professors' salaries today are comparable with the dole in Mexico, and the modern university professor works like the proverbial Russian horse. They read a dozen lectures a week; are constantly correcting someone's stupid texts; replicates on-duty articles and books [.] like a hare on a drum, prints crazy papers (so that at least for a time the warders can't catch them!). ... [It] is not about quality, but about quantity; not about essence, but about appearance; not about activity, but about its wild imitation'.

This imitation of higher education is a significant problem that goes beyond Russian academia. Afanasieva continues by noting that, at her university, `we pay for our office suppliers from our own pocket, we fill up cartridges; at our expense, we go on business trips, cover the costs of conferences that we organize; we publish our own monographs and teaching materials at our own expense [.] Moreover, recently we were ordered to pool our money for the salary of a vice-dean responsible for work with young people'.

The fourth reason for the unattractiveness of a university career is the students and their low level of academic achievement or `unteachable students', in terms of my colleague Elvira Leontyeva and myself [Denisova-Schmidt, Leontyeva 2015]: `The current students not only do not know mythological heroes - they do not know about [Vladimir] Lenin. For them, [Karl] Marx was born in Marx A town in Russia., and [Friedrich] Engels in Engels Another town in Russia. . They can read only from a screen.

At school they were taught not to write, but to regurgitate. I personally never look at the lecture notes of my students - I do not want to have a heart attack. [...] No one prepares for exams; the students have long understood that, for each of them, the university is fighting the teacher and will certainly win, so that sooner or later grades will appear in the student's records. And more: at lectures, the students sit in their coats, and not because it's cold, but they are too lazy to take them off. And sometimes in shorts more reminiscent of underwear, and not because it's hot, but because they came from the beach' Saratov is located on the river Volga.

And, last but not least, Afanasieva mentions the problem of `improper dependencies' [Lessig 2018] within the university administration and other actors: `The professors are in constant fear. They are afraid of their superiors (those who were not afraid flew away long ago). They are afraid of losing their job, and with it the opportunity to engage in science, because modern science is a collective matter. They are afraid of their natural free-thinking, which disgusts the university leadership, party norms, ideological censorship, patriotic attitudes [.] the church canons, the meanness of officials standing over them.

Afanasieva goes on to say that faculty members are so dependent on their students that professors `are afraid of cheeky and ignorant students who spit on them from a high bell tower. They are afraid that they cannot finish, cannot please, to die ineptly from fatigue during another useless clerical campaign. And they are afraid of themselves, afraid that sooner or later, they will remember the great moral principles and ideals of scientific knowledge and dispatch all their tormentors and guards in the way that only Russian professors can do. And they are even more afraid that they will never do it'.

Academic Freedom in Russia

The environment of fear and the lack of academic freedom, which is `the freedom of teachers and students to teach, study, and pursue knowledge and research without unreasonable interference or restriction from law, institutional regulations, or public pressure' [Academic Freedom 2020], an essential part of higher education, is one of the main challenges many faculty members currently face in Russia. The state, as Dubrovsky argues, `... under the slogans of scientific and higher educational reform [...] in fact, revived the Soviet practice of pathological control over all contacts with foreigners [Dubrovsky 2017]. The order “On Export Control”, signed back in 1999 [About Export Control 1999], while pertaining, in general, to control over the export of nuclear weapons, military technology and so on, has nevertheless activated the work of the so-called “first departments” (in charge of ensuring secrecy) and generally invigorated the sphere of excessive control'. This rule applies to all disciplines. In accordance with this document, faculty members at public universities must ask permission before they present or publish their work abroad, among other provisions.

For example, `St. Petersburg [State University] asks for copies of grant applications to foreign organizations, contracts with foreign entities, curricula to be used for teaching foreign students and lists of foreign students, along with their plans of study. academic teaching university russian

Several leading research institutions and foundations were closed or suffered significantly due to the Foreign Agent Law The official name is `On Amendments to Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation regarding the Regulation of the Activities of Non-profit Organisations Performing the Functions of a Foreign Agent'., adopted in 2012. Election and/or public opinion monitoring, (perceived) corruption, gender studies and human or civil rights are the main areas targeted. The European University at St. Petersburg (EUSP) was closed once in 2008, officially due to fire safety violations. 21 March 2008, the last day of the fire inspection crisis, is now celebrated at the EUSP as its second `birthday'. Ilya Utechin, a faculty member, even created a documentary about this event: `Pugovka' (2009) // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0at5VfsYpM, accessed 21.04.2020. The real problem was `a grant, given to a EUSP professor by the European Union for studying electoral behavior in Russia[...]. The crisis was successfully resolved once the EUSP declined the grant' [Dubrovsky 2017].

Since 2016, EUSP has again come under fire due to the complaints of Vitaly Milonov, a prominent conservative member of parliament, who criticizes the teaching of gender studies, which he considers `fake studies' Gender studies was removed from a list of approved master's programs in Hungary in 2018 [Redden 2018].. As a result, `In response to Mr. Milonov's complaints, Russia's Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science (Rosobrnadzor), along with other government agencies, conducted investigations into the university over the summer and fall of 2016. Most alleged violations were reportedly for minor infractions, including the absence of a faculty gym or failure to display anti-alcohol leaflets.' Academic Freedom Monitor, 20 March 2017 // http://monitoring.academicfreedom.info/reports/2017-03-20- european-university-st-petersburg, accessed 21.04.2020. https://riss.ru/analitycs/5043/, accessed 21.04.2020. While an understanding of informal signals, together with civil protests in 2008 and widespread international support, have significantly contributed to resolving the problem, the latest crisis looks to be more challenging. Does EUSP examine more sensitive topics than elections, as they did in 2008? Or is EUSP working `under the cover of scientific activity [... to] use significant opportunities for access to the media and influence on Russian politics'¹¹ as some other “foreign agents” do, according to the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies The Russian Institute for Strategic Studies is a think tank that was created within the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation in 1992. Since 2009, the institute has been working within the Presidential Administration of Russia. According to [Parker, Landay, Walcott 2017], this Institute is apparently responsible for the planning of a possible intervention in the US election 2016.? Or are there several players with various agendas interested in closing the university? Regardless of the underlying circumstances, this attack on such a small The number of enrolled students is less than 300. but efficient university, according to the Ministry of Education [Sokolov 2017], contradicts common sense and might have negative consequences in the long-term for Russian higher education in the international arena. It also contradicts the rules of informal governance in Russia: President Vladimir Putin personally took the side of the university in this dispute. https://eu.spb.ru/news/17402-okhota-na-litsenziyu-kak-atakuyut-universitet-za-kotoryj-vstupilsya-putin, accessed 21.04.2020. But that seems not to function anymore. Does Putin only pretend to support the university, or is he not so powerful?

Students as a `Burden' for the Academic Profession

The academic freedom of students is also under threat - although the Putin generation is considered to be more apolitical than any before [Kasamara, Sorokina 2017; Volkov 2017]. Many young people participated in the anti-corruption protests in 2017 and in the Moscow protests for fair and free elections in 2019. Some of them faced various pressures at their respective universities, including dismissal. It is interesting to note that the official reasons for the dismissal of several students in 2017 was often the lack of academic integrity, which had apparently been ignored before the students' political activism. An interesting case occurred in late 2017 when Cadets at the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation Institute prepared a video, a parody of the Italian DJ Benny Benassi's `Satisfaction' The first parody was actually created by young British soldiers in 2013//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucOhxo9ivg0, accessed 21.04.2020.. The original video shows semi-dressed young women in erotic poses presenting several tools - a hammer, a drill, a sander, a saw, an angle grinder, a heavy-duty jackhammer among others - as a funny reflection on the use of sex-appeal in advertising. The Russian video, which features semi-dressed young men cleaning, ironing, hammering, drilling, drying, dancing and eating a banana, leaves no doubt as to its meaning. The video clip led to a debate: is it gay propaganda? Is it acceptable or not? It should be seen in the historical context. Homosexuality was considered a sickness in Russia until 1998, and male homosexuality was liable for prosecution until 1993. Public discussions about sexual relations have remained taboo for a long time. One episode from the past illustrates this very clearly: on a 1986 TV talk show between audiences in the US and USSR - telemost (“TV Bridge” or “Space Bridge”) - a woman stated: `there is no sex in the Soviet Union'. She was interrupted, and she wanted to end her statement by saying `there is no sex in the Soviet Union showing on TV', but for many people only the first part of her sentence remains // https://russiapedia.rt.com/on-this-day/july-17/, accessed 21.04.2020. Sergey Krasnov, the rector of the Institute, compared this dancing with the Pussy Riot performance in 2012 For more on this action see, for example [Smyth, Soboleva 2014; Sharafutdinova 2014].. According to Krasnov, those young women were scoffing in the temple and now young men are scoffing in the temple of science. The rector promised that the cadets might have difficulties in their professional futures and suggested that those whose academic performance was unsatisfactory would be dismissed. Krasnov goes on to recommend they use their spare time for studying. The case was widely discussed in the media. There were dissenting opinions, however, including those of Vladimir Zhirinovsky Vladimir Zhirinovsky (b. 1946) is the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, which has very strong nationalistic views; a participant in all Russian presidential elections, the party reaches up to 10% of the electorate., a leading politician, and Yevgeny Roizman Yevgeny Roizman (b. 1962) is Russian politician and innovative leader., the then mayor of Yekaterinburg (2013-2018), one of the largest cities in Russia. Roizman wrote on his Facebook page: `I think that the rector of the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation Institute should make an official statement: `My cadets are the coolest, they made a clip and showed that they are bold and witty. I am confident that they will be able to study well and become wonderful pilots! Our school is the best. And those who speak nonsense about my cadets - will deal with me!' Moreover, the video led to a flash mob organized by students in many universities supporting their fellows, often hashtagged #Satisfaction [Gessen 2018]. After public ostracism, scapegoats were found: the faculty members https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oTveLgv7tI, accessed 21.04.2020. No one should ever wonder why a professorship is not an attractive or advisable job in Russia anymore.

Conclusion and Outlook

The academic profession is under threat in many countries. The latest available data from the US (2016) suggest that 73% of faculty positions are outside the tenure track. Depending on the field and/or institution, this includes `adjuncts, postdocs, TAs, non-tenure-track faculty, clinical faculty, part-timers, lecturers, instructors, or nonsenate faculty' [Data Snapshot 2018]. Faculty members on such contracts face an uncertain professional future and restricted academic freedom. Moreover, in many US universities, faculty members are paid only for the nine-month academic year and not for the remaining three months. Some faculty members might even be encouraged by the university administration to look for additional income during that time [ Wessler 2015]. In other countries - such as, for example, the UK - young and mid-career academics are under great pressure to publish research in top journals, otherwise they will not be able to remain in academia. The requirements - one publication per year - are manageable, but might be very difficult to enforce due to many factors, including the fact that top journals are often overloaded with papers and have to reject even brilliant publications, or that a paper might be under consideration for many months (sometimes even up to a year), plus other factors such as maternity/parental leave or extended illness (consider the rate of mental illness among academics in the UK) that might cause low academic performance [Anonymous Academic 2015; Anonymous Academic 2018; Else 2017; Weale 2019]. The academic profession is in crisis in many countries around the world, but in Russia - under certain circumstances - it is additionally burdened by being used as a scapegoat.

References

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Литература

The End of the Academic Profession in Russia? Elena Denisova-Schmidt - DSc in Philosophy, Research Associate, University of St.Gallen (HSG), Switzerland; Research Fellow, Boston College Center for International Higher Education (USA).

This article discusses the attractiveness of the academic profession in Russia today. Unnecessary administrative workloads, “unteachable students”, restrictions on academic freedom, diminishing monetary incentives all contribute negatively to the intellectual, creative and teaching activities of faculty members, especially at mass universities. The article is a reflection on the open letter from VeraAfanasieva, a professor of philosophy at Saratov State University, to Olga Vasilyeva the then Russian Minister of Education and Science (2017). This letter, in which the author highlights several major problems of Russian higher education - “total poverty; paper paranoia and clerical schizophrenia; pathological lies - pseudology and mythomania; the devaluation of knowledge; mental illness” - led to a public discussion in the Russian academic community and a number of visits by law enforcement agencies. The paper argues that some of the symptoms might be common and even prevalent in other academic systems, but stresses the magnitude of these phenomena in Russia, including the possible personal responsibilities of faculty members for students' “extracurricular activities” such as participating in protests.

Key words: academic profession, academic freedom, university, students, Russia

Аннотация

Конец академической профессии в России? Елена Викторовна Денисова-Шмидт - доктор философских наук, научный сотрудник, Университет Санкт-Галлена, Швейцария; Центр по изучению международного высшего образования при Бостонском колледже, США

В статье поднимается вопрос о привлекательности академической профессии в современной России. Бумажная волокита, «необучаемые» студенты, ущемление академической свободы, несоответствующие монетарные стимулы - все это не способствует интеллектуальной, творческой и преподавательской деятельности, особенно в массовых университетах. Статья построена как размышление над открытым письмом Веры Афанасьевой, профессора кафедры философии и методологии науки философского факультета Саратовского национального исследовательского государственного университета им. Н.Г. Чернышевского, как ответ О.Ю. Васильевой, на тот момент министру образования и науки РФ. Это письмо, в котором автор выделяет основные проблемы российского образования: тотальная нищета, бумажная паранойя и канцелярская шизофрения, патологическая ложь, псевдология и мифомания, девальвация знания, душевное нездоровье, - вызвало большой резонанс в академической среде, а также ряд проверок со стороны правоохранительных органов. Является ли сложившаяся ситуация уникальной и только российской проблемой?

Академическая профессия становится менее привлекательной и в других странах. Так, например, в США, по данным Американской ассоциации университетских профессоров (AAUP), только 27% профессорско-преподавательского состава вузов страны работают на постоянной основе, остальные (73%!) - по временным контрактам, которые не всегда предполагают пролонгацию. Более того, во многих американских вузах зарплата выплачивается только за учебный год, т.е. только за девять календарных месяцев, поэтому многие сотрудники высшей школы вынуждены искать дополнительный заработок в летнее время. Согласно некоторым исследованиям, многие преподаватели, работающие на неполную ставку, часто вынуждены обращаться за материальной помощью к государству; 7% семей таких сотрудников получают талоны на питание. В других странах (например, в Великобритании) уже много лет наблюдается рост депрессий и других психических заболеваний среди сотрудников вузов. Конкуренция, постоянный прессинг, связанный с необходимостью публиковаться как можно больше и к тому же в высокорейтинговых журналах вкупе со смутными перспективами карьерного роста являются основными катализаторами душевной нестабильности преподавателей и исследователей в вузах Великобритании. Перечень проблем может быть продолжен с кейсами и в других странах.

Но несмотря на то, что академическая профессия находится в кризисе во многих странах мира, российский контекст и сама практика являются более яркими: здесь преподаватель может быть наказан даже за «внеурочную деятельность» студента, будь то протест в виде танцев в общежитии либо участие в митингах.

Ключевые слова: академическая профессия, академическая свобода, университет, студенты, Россия

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