Editor-in-chief Alexey Klyuev interviews Liu Xiaohung, Rector of Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.

The paper considers the development of hierarchical features in the German higher education system and studies the historical background of ongoing processes of differentiation among German higher education institutions. The widespread ambition to establish internationally competitive ‘world-class universities’ as ‘flagships’ stimulates the differentiation processes of national higher education systems. The objective of this research is to examine the institutional stratification of the German higher education system in its historical development. We use historiographical methods and analyze the accessibility and selectivity of the higher education system as stratification criteria. The paper overviews methodological approaches to the differentiation of the higher education system developed by leading Russian and German researchers. The applied methods let us explain the homogeneity of the German higher education system by the historical role of universities and the influence of their principles and educational standards. The research demonstrates that the current challenges for the German higher education system (internationalization, increasing competitiveness and massification) lead to institutional differentiations. The research results indicate that processes of informal vertical and horizontal stratification are occurring in the German higher education system, regarding both research and education activities. The hierarchy of German higher education sections is based on general vectors in developing, management and national policy of higher education and reflects the most effective interaction between higher education institutions and other stakeholders of higher education. Finally we conclude, that it is useful to project studied experience of institutional development of German higher education system to Russian realities.

This is a concept article proposing trends and methods to improve monitoring of national projects in terms of training personnel for professional development programs at all levels. The paper is based on analysing Russian and international methodologies and practices of education development monitoring. The problem of precise defining personnel development quantitative indicators within national projects implementation is significant both for universities as a part of management decision planning and for government structures, with an information database (correctly representing the process and results of implementing national projects) to be relied upon by the latter. The analysis of Russian federal statistic monitoring forms of personnel development has revealed a number of weaknesses which complicate regular monitoring of national projects implementation. The research has also shown examples of incorrect key indicators setting. The article mainly aims at proposing directions for personnel development methods in ongoing professional development education system according to national project purposes in this part. The article compares EU’s, OECD’s, USA’s, and Russian methodologies and basic monitoring techniques for personnel development. There are revealed their significant differences, advantages and disadvantages, including those used within cross-country comparisons. The analysis shows that foreign models of projects framework cannot be applied to operational monitoring of national projects implementation. The Russian system of federal statistical monitoring requires a certain modification, which can be implemented quite easily and can provide monitoring of national projects implementation in terms of professional development. The article proposes suggestions on improving the monitoring system of national projects implementation according to monitoring purposes. Besides, it can be a basis for future harmonization research for Russian and foreign methodologies of education monitoring. Universities may use the suggestions expressed in the paper for improving national projects implementation monitoring as a part of their management practice. It will allow them to estimate a status and efficiency of their contribution to national projects implementation. The newly proposed methods of national projects realization monitoring can be used by educational bodies and universities within personnel training and improving the system of lifelong vocational training. These methods may be of help when developing control national projects implementation monitoring and vocational training system monitoring in general or in its parts.

The article presents the results of a study aimed at identifying universities’ resources and competencies interrelated with their export activities, and at analyzing these interrelations. To achieve this purpose, the indicators of university activities over a four-year period and the dynamics of their changes are analysed. With the help of panel data analysis methods, the relationships between quantitative indicators characterizing the resources, universities’ competencies, and the results of their export activities are estimated. The annual performance indicators of 589 Russian universities are analyzed through four academic years – from the 2013/14 up to the 2016/17. Over the indicated period, 74 % of the universities included in the sample increased the number of foreign students, this growth in most cases being unstable if taken year by year. The universities with positive changes in the number of foreign students show the following resources and competencies: the development of incoming students’ international academic mobility; international teaching staff and a high level of their qualifications; partnership with enterprises for organizing student practice; international cooperation in research. The results of the study may be of interest for universities planning to develop the export of educational services and making decisions on the implementation of measures aimed at attracting foreign students. The paper analyzes the performance of universities having the necessary data for four years in open access. For further research, the list of analyzed indicators can be expanded, with the values of indicators considered for a longer period of time.

The paper proposes a variant of implementing higher education programs, aimed at ensuring the adequacy of the higher education system to personal, social and economic needs. To justify the feasibility of implementing the suggested version of educational programs, there are analyzed the features of the higher education system in the context of their compliance with current trends in the development of the social, economic, scientific and technological spheres. Certain specific features of the Russian higher education system are specified (as compared with foreign systems and the higher education system of the USSR). The goals and main functions of the higher education system are stated, the requirements for the higher education system as one of the institutions of the social and economic sphere are formulated. On the basis of the formulated requirements, there are set the conditions to be met by modern educational programs. There is as well proposed an optional way of bachelor’s degree program implementation – that is, in two blocks sequence: the first corresponding to the basic undergraduate level, and the second to the main one. The completion of each block is confirmed with a document to certify the fact of the corresponding part of the educational program having been mastered. The authors consider possible positive effects, as well as potential risks and difficulties, of the proposed ways of higher education programs implementation. There are listed corresponding necessary changes to the normative, organizational, technological, scientific and methodological documentation, including those related to the correction of federal state educational standards of higher education and the introduction of federal requirements for the implementation of the proposed blocks of the educational program, their specific features taken into account.

Though containing certain review elements, this article is a research one, as it considers the hybrid nature of reforming the traditional structure of engineering education and the peculiarities of university management when the hybrid system of higher education is being formed. The systematic analysis of the reforms nature and of the traditional structure of higher education transformation in Russia identified a new problem area that is relevant for the development of national higher education – the hybrid educational structures formation as a result of mixing various educational systems. The paper presents the results of studying the hybrid educational structures and hybrid forms of the educational process organization. There is traced the influence of hybrid transformations of educational programs, curricula and educational technologies within engineering universities over the quality of engineers’ training. The formation of hybrid algorithms for assessing the students’ academic achievements and educational models of graduates from engineering universities is discussed. The study showed that the reason for the failure of the engineering educational reform transformations is education sector top managers’ misunderstanding of the reforms hybrid nature. The results obtained can become a basis for adjusting managerial decisions both at federal and at university levels. Moreover, there is a need to revise the reform strategy for engineering education with the help of scientifically-based and far-reaching forecasts of its improvement. The solution of such complex problems of managing hybrid educational structures requires advanced university management training, creative atmosphere and innovation in the university management system. The article is original and important, as it introduces new ideas about the essence of reforming engineering education into the scientific knowledge. The authors did not manage to find any publications on studying the hybrid nature of structural transformations of Russian engineering education.

The purpose of this research paper is to develop a method for assessing the development of youth entrepreneurship at the university. To achieve it, the authors analyze the methodological approaches to youth entrepreneurship development assessment, which exist in Russia and abroad, and complement them with elements of the theory of partnership relations. Based on the results of the analysis, the authors develop their own method of assessing youth entrepreneurship development at the university and test it on the sample of universities participating in the «5–100» program, which occupy leading positions in the international rankings of Russian higher education institutions. The study provides a valuable basis for supplementing the methodological tools used to assess the development of youth entrepreneurship at the universities. The results will be useful for decision-making both within the practice of university management and at the federal and regional levels of its administration.

In modern economic conditions, the study of issues of stimulating the country’s innovative development at the macroeconomic level is a top priority task for scientists around the world. The article presents the results of studying the influence of mass character, internationalization and state financing of higher education over the parameters of the country’s innovative development. The correlation analysis allowed us to scientifically prove that today these characteristics of the higher education system determine the innovative development of countries in general. The first part of the article, after an analytical review of the literature, distinguishes the characteristics of the higher education system, which, according to the authors’ suggestion, have a significant impact on the innovative development of the country (mass character, internationalization, state funding). The second part describes the research methodology and formulates working hypotheses. The third and the fourth parts present the results of the study and its conclusion, correspondingly. The study comes to be theoretically essential, as it identifies the influence of certain characteristics of the higher education system (mass character, internationalization and the financing model) over some parameters of innovative development, in particular, over the share of a high-tech export in total industrial exports and over the share of research and development costs in GDP. The results can provide a basis for scientists in organizing and conducting further research on identifying resources for innovative development at the macroeconomic level. Practically this study gives a possibility of using the results obtained in developing strategic plans and development programs both at the university level and at the level of regions, and even countries.

As a rule, flagship universities consider forming the core of the regional innovation ecosystem to be one of their main strategic goals. Achieving this goal involves not only creating an innovative infrastructure, attracting partners, but also developing social capital and innovative culture (the «soft» component of the ecosystem). The article studies flagship universities’ activities on the latter problem. The theoretical basis of the study is D. Douglas’s concept of flagship universities. The research methodology is a qualitative analysis of strategic planning documents and flagship universities’ official sites. The study showed that almost all the flagship universities aim at becoming the core of the regional innovation ecosystem. Insufficient attention is paid, however, to developing innovative culture and social capital. A number of universities do not set this task; nor do they target culture change in favour of ecosystem-friendly values. In almost all the universities studied, there is a shortage of specific managerial actions on influencing cultural values. The social capital is also underdeveloped, which can significantly impede the implementation of joint projects. The research might have certain limitations due to using only open access materials from the first-wave flagship universities. At the next stage of their development (after 2020), they should specify the goals and activities for developing innovative culture and social capital, as well as their benchmarks. Otherwise, the «hard» component of the ecosystem would not function. The results of the work may be of use for university leaders and their partners who are interested in the balanced development of flagship universities as ecosystem nuclei.

The article aims at studying the key features of the universities subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation on the basis of monitoring their pro-rectors. The study is methodologically based on the the functional, bureaucratic, and structural approaches to the organization management. The main research method is the analysis of documents and materials from the official websites of Russian universities in order to obtain analytical data on their pro-rectors’ gender, age, academic degree and rank, work experience, and activity profile. The sample totals 239 universities, which are departmentally subordinated to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. The study was conducted in 2018–2019, the results of the 2006, 2008, 2012 analysis having been taken for comparison. The results of the research presented in the article include a generalized sociological portrait of a Russian university pro-rector and an analysis of changes in the pro-rectors’ structure according to the functional areas of their activities in universities. The study has certain limitations and possible consequences concerning a number of changes, which require a systematic search and justification of ways to increase the role of university pro-rectors in building a university’s reputation. These changes might be a basis for further special studies. In accordance with the latest changes in the management system of higher education, considering the features identified in the pro-rectors’ structure according to the functional areas of their activities in universities will allow university management to focus on the most significant areas of responsibility in the university management system, and on this basis to increase the reputation and competitiveness of Russian universities. Here, this research comes to be essential, as it shows a Russian university pro-rector’s sociological portrait and today’s features of the functional areas distribution of pro-rectors’ responsibility. It is proved that a prerequisite for forming a university’s sustainable competitiveness and maintaining its reputation at a high level is pro-rectors’ more active participation in managing the functional areas of a higher educational institution’s activity.

The article presents the results of the research conducted in one of the top-ranked universities in Russia. The paper aims at identifying the relationship between the levels of identification and of students’ adherence to the university and their perception of organizational culture. The study reveals the peculiarities of students’ perception of culture and differences from their own ideas about it. There is measured the degree of the respondents’ identification with the organization and, as a result, the degree of their adherence to the university. The survey demanded three methods to be applied and 150 people to participate. The data have been processed with the help of various statistical methods (dispersion, correlation, factor, and regression analysis). The results show the discrepancies in students’ ideas of the prevailing culture, but at the same time a general tendency to their positive relationships with the university. The interest in the discussed questions of the research is related to the role of an educational institution’s image in the aspects of management and attractiveness for its students. Modern universities are considered to be a type of organizations, which provide educational services and therefore are forced to compete with others at the market. As a result, they are required to find optimal solutions and to create competitive advantages according to the expectations of potential «customers». The paper describes a case of undergraduate students, which allows us to draw conclusions about the peculiarities of the organizational culture and the image of the university as influencing students’ loyalty. The fact of a loyal attitude is considered to be an advantage necessary for a modern university to save and strengthen its own positions at the educational services market, as well as to form a development strategy based on analyzing the current situation.