“Optimizing” Higher Education in Russia. David Mandel

      ibidem-Press, Stuttgart

      Contents

       1. Introduction

       2. Overview of State Policy

       a. The Soviet Period

       b. The “Wild Nineties”

       c. 2000-2012: Return of the State

       d. 2012-18: The May Decrees and the “Road Map”

       3. The Condition of University Teachers Following the “Optimizing” Reforms of 2012-18

       a. Employment

       1. Massive Job Cuts

       2. Permanent Probation

       b.Remuneration

       1.Salary Levels

       2. “Efficient Contracts”

       c. Workloads

       d. Power and Academic Freedom

       1. Exclusion from Governance

       2.Restrictions on Freedom to Teach and Conduct Research

       3.Repression of Union Activists and Other “Troublemakers”

       4.Restriction of Freedom Outside of Professional Duties

       e.Corruption in the University Milieu

       1.Bribe-taking from Students

       2.The Publications Business

       3.“False Dissertations”

       4.Raspil

       5.Morale

       4. “Universitetskaya solidarnost’“

       a.Origins

       b. Founding Positions and Strategic Orientations

       c. Inauspicious Circumstances

       5. UniSol at MFTI

       a. Origins

       b. The Initiative Group

       c. Formation of the Union and Its First Steps

       d. Open Letters

       e. Partial Victories

       f. The High Point

       g. The Administration‘s Counter-Attacks

       6. Rethinking Strategy: By Way of Conclusion

       Bibliography

       Scholarly Publications

       Union and Related Internet Sources

       Mass Media

       Government Documents

       Statistics

       Others

1. Introduction

In 2012, soon after his election to a third presidential term as president, following a four-year stint as prime minister (to avoid modifying the constitution), and in the wake of an unprecedented wave of popular protests, Vladimir Putin issued his “May Decrees.” Notable among them was the government’s commitment to increase the salaries of doctors, scientific researchers and university teachers to double the average in their respective regions by 2018.1 But then on December 30 of that year, the government issued a “road map” for education, revealing that the salary increases in higher education would be paid for, not by significant new government funding, but by “optimization,” which would eliminate 44% of the current teaching positions in higher education. This was justified in part by a forecasted drop in student enrolment.2

      Thus opened a new, accelerated period of reform of higher education. This book examines the impact of these reforms on the condition of Russia’s university teachers and the collective efforts of some teachers, a small minority, to organize themselves in an independent trade union to defend their professional interests and their vision of higher education.

      Apart from the subject’s intrinsic interest, an in-depth examination of this specific aspect of social policy provides valuable insight into the nature of the Russian state, as well as into the condition of “civil society,” in particular the popular classes, to which Russian university teachers belong according to their socio-economic situation, if not necessarily their self-image.

      The policies promoted by the Russian government in higher education are not unique to that country. Over the past few decades, similar policies have been promoted, in various forms and degrees, in many countries. Many academics who read this book will recognize tendencies at work in their own countries and institutions. But rarely have these policies assumed so grotesque and destructive a form as in Russia.

It