Assessing the Impact of the “5-100 Project” on the Internal Transformation of Russian Elite Universities

   One of the main (if not the primary) goals of the “5-100 Project” declared to be the internal transformation of Russian universities. It was assumed that the need to meet the program’s indicators would lead participating universities to recognize the necessity of deep reforms.

   The intended outcome was convergence toward the model of a research university, in which (a) most faculty identify as researchers and devote a significant share of their working time to research; (b) employment contracts are flexible and provide substantial rewards for academic achievements; (c) hiring takes place on the open market, while networking mechanisms and inbreeding play a smaller role; and (d) faculty are widely involved in scientific communication with an international audience.

   We use data from a survey of economists affiliated with Russian universities (N = 5,025), conducted in October–December 2021, to assess the extent to which, by the conclusion of the Project, participating universities differed from other Russian universities on these parameters. The results are mixed: although for most variables there is a statistically significant difference between participating and other universities, the effect (a) is comparatively small, and (b) is largely due to a single university—the Higher School of Economics—and disappears once its faculty are excluded from the sample. For example, faculty at other participating universities do not teach fewer classroom hours, are not more mobile, are not hired on the open labor market, do not have greater experience publishing internationally, and only to a limited extent identify more strongly with the role of researcher or engage more deeply with foreign-language literature. The data cast doubt on whether the Project resulted in the internal transformation of most participating universities rather than in superficial optimization.

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