Universities and cities in provincial Russia

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Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin

Universities and cities in provincial Russia

Garold E. Zborovsky - Dr. Sci. (Philosophy), Prof.

Polina A. Ambarova - Dr. Sci. (Sociology), Prof.

Abstract

The analysis of higher education (HE) in Russia focuses on the complicated issues of the relationships between higher education institutions (HEIs) and provincial cities. The authors characterize different typologies of Russian HEIs and cities. It is suggested to distinguish between the HEIs related to the core of HE, semi-periphery, and to the periphery. The situation of peripheral HEIs that are located mainly in provincial cities seems to be the most complicated. Recently, about 300 HEIs and more than 800 branches of universities, a significant part of which belongs to the peripheral group, ceased to exist autonomously. Today the fate of some other provincial HEIs is yet to be defined. Meanwhile, the future of the young people is also tied to the HEIs's destiny as well as the future of the cities' population, where they are located. The analysis of the materials based on the authors' empirical research conducted in the Ural Federal District (UFD) revealed that the elimination of autonomous universities, their transformation into branches and weakening in such a way of the HE in the medium, big and even large cities of the Russian province lead to stagnation and depression of these cities. One of the main factors of this situation is the mass educational migration of young people. The study discusses certain ideas for positive solution of these problems regarding the relationship of provincial Russian universities and cities, which could lead to their preservation and development.

Keywords: higher education institutions, universities, cities, provincial Russia, peripheral HEIs, educational migration of youth, human resources

Аннотация

Университеты и города в провинциальной России

Зборовский Гарольд Ефимович - д-р филос. наук, проф., профессор-исследователь.

Амбарова Полина Анатольевна - д-р социол. наук, проф.

Уральский федеральный университет имени первого Президента России Б.Н. Ельцина

В статье рассматривается одна из актуальных проблем отечественного высшего образования - отношения между университетами и городами, в которых они расположены. Акцент делается на сложных вопросах взаимосвязи вузов и городов в провинции. Авторы приводят различные классификации российских вузов и городов и предлагают выделять вузы, относящиеся к ядру (высокостатусные), полупериферии (среднестатусные), периферии (низкостатусные). Наиболее проблемным оказывается положение периферийных вузов, расположенных в основном в провинциальных городах. В последние годы прекратили своё самостоятельное существование более 200 вузов, значительная часть которых принадлежит к периферийной группе; под вопросом судьба еще некоторых. Между тем за ними стоят судьбы молодёжи, в целом населения городов, в которых находятся эти вузы. На основе анализа материалов эмпирических исследований в Уральском федеральном округе удалось установить, что ликвидация самостоятельных вузов, превращение их в филиалы и ослабление таким путём высшего образования в средних, больших и даже крупных городах российской провинции ведёт к стагнации и депрессивному состоянию этих городов. Один из основных факторов такой ситуации - массовая образовательная эмиграция молодёжи, которая ведёт к истощению человеческого капитала городов провинциальной России и снижению их потенциала.. И наоборот, сохранение самостоятельных вузов в этих городах является важной предпосылкой как их укрепления и роста, так и развития университетов в них. В статье рассматриваются некоторые пути позитивного решения проблем взаимосвязи провинциальных российских вузов и городов, которые могли бы привести к их сохранению и развитию в условиях экономической и социальной неопределённости.

Ключевые слова.: высшее образование, университеты, города, провинциальная Россия, периферийные вузы, образовательная миграция молодёжи, человеческий капитал

Introduction

The burning issue regarding the today's Russian higher education (HE) focuses on the relationships between the universities and the cities, where they are located. Successful development of both higher education institutions (HEIs) and the cities depends on the level of strength and efficiency of these relationships. The more actively the universities are involved in solving economic, social, cultural problems referring to urban life, the more likely they are to get support from the city in order to promote their development. On the other hand, the cities themselves that become hosts for promising and successfully developing universities possess good prerequisites for attracting talented and motivated youth to study and get new impulses for growth. Meanwhile, there is a serious problem that deals with conservation of existing HEIs within these cities in provincial Russia and the cities themselves [1-3].

What is meant by provincial Russia is the huge territory of the country, outside the two capitals (Moscow and St. Petersburg) and metropolitan areas. In Russian social science the issues of physical and social space development of the country have been traditionally considered from the perspective of comparing and contrasting the capital regions and the provinces [4]. For analysis of the modern HE space in Russia, this particular approach seems to be quite relevant. It reflects specific policy and management practices referring to HEIs located in different territories.

This localization is closely linked to the social differentiation of HEIs, social and status inequalities between the capital and provincial HEIs [5]. Today, the official policy and management practices are primarily focused on the HEIs located in metropolitan centers, while HE in provinces receives poor support. The shutting down (liquidation or transformation into branches and structures of the larger universities) about 300 HEIs and more than 800 branches of universities (in 2013-2017), most of which were located in the provincial cities serves as an evidence to the previous thesis1.

We have taken into consideration the situation with HE and HEIs not just in the provincial regions of Russia, but in the Russian provincial cities. Almost half of the 600 (state) and 175 (private) HEIs are located in such cities. Statistical data analysis conducted in 2017 reveals that there are 65 medium (up to 100,000 inhabitants), big (100,000-250,000) and even large (250,000-500,000 inhabitants) cities, where only one or two universities are functioning. There is the same number of cities with the population exceeding 100,000 people, where there is not a single HEI.

The relationship between the HEIs and cities is strongly manifested in the province. That is what makes the situation different referring to the HE in provincial Russia and the one in the capitals and metropolitan regions. Our study was based on the hypothesis that the preservation of HEIs in big and medium cities of the Russian province becomes a source of strengthening and self-development of those cities and regions where they are located, as well as the HE of the country. Conversely, the weakening and destruction of the HE in provincial cities leads to stagnation and depression of these cities. This, ultimately, leads to the reduction of potential of the non-capital cities and regions, deformation of the space development of the country.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the relationship between the HE and the cities of provincial Russia in order to solve the problems related to their joint development. The subject of analysis is the relationship and dependency between contradictive processes in HE and various trends (constructive and destructive) that characterize the dynamics of the cities.

1. The empirical basis, research design, and methodology

Two empirical studies in HEIs and cities of the Ural Federal District (UFD) were carried out by the research team of sociologists of the Ural Federal University in 2016-2018 in order to analyze the problems mentioned above and test the hypotheses. The first study was devoted to the examination of multi-dimensional relations between the universities and medium, big and large cities of the UFD. The second one dealt with the issues of formation of the non-linear model of HE in the UFD.

This district is one of the 8 Federal districts of Russia with a population of 12.3 million people. 115 cities and 53 autonomous HEIs are located in this area. The majority of them (39) are located in two cities-“millionaires” (Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk), and in one extra-large city (Tyumen). The research team studied the HEIs in the cities of the UFD with a population of up to 400,000 people. Some HEIs in these cities possess the status of autonomous HEIs (14), other - branches of HEIs (38). The total number of students in these autonomous HEIs is 54,600 people, the amount of teachers working in them is 3110. There are about 16,000 students enrolled in the branches.

We investigated the cases of four cities (Nizhny Tagil, Surgut, Tobolsk, Ishim), which included the analysis of demographic statistics, statistics on HEIs and the cities, as well as the content of the web-sites and forums. Three cities of the four turned out to be problematic referring to the development HE. That is where the autonomous HEIs were transformed into the branches of other universities. This, in turn, affected the situation in their cities.

For further interpretation of the situations observed in the framework of the case study, materials of the second research were used. 80 half-formalized depth interviews among experts (representatives of academic community, administration of HEIs, 2016), two mass surveys - teachers and students of the Ural HEIs (representative sample of the teachers - 810 people, students - 1860 people, quota sampling, 2017) have been carried out. We also used the results of the documentary analysis of web-sites, and social media pages related to the problems of HE (2018).

Moreover, in the framework of the second study a long-year research (2011-2017) of students' educational motivation and their readiness to study at HEI was completed. It was based on the surveys of teachers linked to the typology of students. Data on more than 200 academic groups (about 4,000 students) have been summarized.

2. Literature review

Examining the interactions between universities and cities in the world science referring to the HE has turned into a special research trend. The broadest interpretations of the problem allow to perform works on various understandings of “the third mission” of universities. In this respect, the conception of the social function of the university seems to be of high importance. Thus, according to D. Charles conception, the universities are considered as structures embedded in various types of urban communities. A complex political context is being formed around the universities, which forces them to pay attention to the possible difficulties of interaction with territorial authorities of various levels [6].

An important tool for the analysis of the interaction between HE and the city is the conception of the “Coordination Triangle” [7]. It allows to explore the interaction of the state, the academic community and the market at the city level. Clark's ideas were implemented in the study of the relationship between the authorities and the HE [8].

The important methodological principles in studying the relations between the universities and the cities were mentioned in the TripleHelix Model [9] and Quadruple-Helix Model [10]. These conceptions offer classic models of collaboration, which is necessary for the cities and regions in order to promote their innovative growth. According to the researchers, interaction between universities, business, state and civil society plays an important role in creation and distribution of various goods and values [11].

The problems linked to the universities' integration into the urban environment have been investigated by other scientists. P. Benneworth and his co-authors marked out the following barriers: orientation of universities on the global context of HE, bureaucratization of university's life, lack of scientific interest to the city and its problems among the university staff, low level of awareness regarding the urban environment, fear of urban stakeholders of the university “experiments” and their lack of faith in their usefulness for the city residents [12].

Some researchers draw attention to the conflict relations between the students and the city community, which take form of the feeling of displacement [13]. Researchers are elaborating the problem of the new kind of gentrification of the urban space by the students - studentification [14; 15].

The influence of universities is regarded not only in negative, but also in a positive way. According to the researchers, the universities play a special role in the cities' development due to the high quality of human capital. The university communities are highly professional and internally motivated, they, therefore, represent a powerful human resource for the city development [16; 17].

The studies of the universities and university cities as parts of urban agglomerations form a special scientific area. The authors show how the development of urban space and urban infrastructure is carried out by the universities [18], how the lobbying takes place, and how the political support in the urban community is being received by the universities [19]. In addition, universities that have adopted the role of economic drivers and civic leaders, mitigate social contradictions that are present in the urban community [20].

We consider the studies, revealing the links between HE and the strategy of development of medium and big cities, of high significance. Here, the cities and universities are regarded as mediators, which provide public goods (health, image, education) [21]. Special emphasis is placed on such social functions of universities as creation and preservation of human capital, construction of social hierarchy in the urban community [22], promotion of traditional economy and the knowledge economy, in particular [23].

Partnership between the universities and actors of urban society form a particular research field. Some studies have been carried out on the interaction between universities and city authorities [24; 25], scientific and educational organizations in the cities [26].

Summing up the results of the studies, mentioned above, we can draw two conclusions. The first one is that HE and scientific researches can stimulate interaction of different social actors to change the mindset of the city community, creativity of the city authorities [27]. The second conclusion refers to the multiple effects of preservation and development of universities in the cities. Recently, the evolution of the of university campuses - from country to city - was recorded by the scholars. The consequences of this process are manifested in the optimization of material environment and physical space of the city and in the development of social space and its social structures.

In the Russian social sciences the emphasis is usually placed on the interaction between the universities and the regions, but not the cities. A large number of studies were devoted to this issue [28-31]. However, the relationship between the universities and the cities, particularly in the provinces, remains to be almost an unknown topic [32; 33]. There are no serious theoretical works or empirical studies dealing with this problem. Bearing in mind this fact, we link it to the relevance of our research.

Table 1 Ratio of the Universities and Cities in Russia