Article
Institutional diversity in Russian higher education: revolutions and evolution
This paper is devoted to changes in the structure of the higher education system in Russia, analysing both historical context and current institutional diversity. The review starts from the Soviet quasi-corporate system when the state combined demand-side and supply-side roles in higher education. The post-Soviet transformation brings new forces that shaped institutional diversity. Following that, the historical typology of institutions is investigated with regard to the major forces influencing these universities' development. Taking into account both the historical legacy and the crucial post-Soviet period (1990s–2000s), a typology of new types of higher education institutions is set forth. It represents an extreme case of state-authorized higher education facing market forces. The state abandons its monopoly on demand in higher education and cannot fully control the supply side. And the system itself is under pressure from the influence of different sides.
In the chapter from comparative economics textbook reality and virtuality are compared; common features and distinctions between old and new comparative science are demonstrated; the main features of comparative method are characterized. The workbook is attached.
The book addresses judicial reforms in a number of post-socialist countries, including Poland, Bulgaria, Baltic states, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and several other former Sovier republics. The focal point is the impact of the Soviet past (Soviet attitude towards law, specifics of early Soviet criminal law, the role of Soviet courts and the phenomenon of the Soviet judicial mentality) on judicial and police reforms.
The main approaches of bank corporate business to strategy of a choice of the target markets of sale and forming of the offer of bank products for prospective and current enterprise customers are analysed. On the basis of the characteristic of the existing phenomena interpretation of "current state" is given and modern approaches to strengthening of a role of banks in development of corporate sector of economy are offered.
The article deals with the problems of education system reform. The author considers the factors of education market development. The US education system's features are characterized. The approaches to research of the structure of the education services market are justified. The problems in content and forms of educational services in logistics are considered.
Chapter presents a balance sheet of the effects of Russia's trajectory on the state property rights and the rule of law in light of international comparisons. It draws certain parallels between Russia and its post-Soviet neighbors, as well as authoritarian states of the Middle East, and reaches rather gloomy conclusions. There are copious evidence for the argument that during 2000's and especially the 2010's Russia experienced major institutional decay with regard to its legal and economic environment, which coincided with the decline of political freedoms due to increasing authoritarian trends. The chapter observes that the recent rise of the predatory state in Russia is deeply founded in its past in a path-dependent manner, and is reflected in the attitude and perceptions of many Russian citizens.
The authors estimate contribution of different factors in reading skills of 15?year-olds by using four models of multilevel regression analysis. It turned out that the most significant factor is family background — not only at the individual level, but at the school level as well (average school socio-economic status of schoolchildren families effects average reading skills). At the school level the aggregated family characteristics of students affect individual achievements, and this effect surpasses an effect of school resources and localization of schools — those school factors that show a significant contribution to achievement. Attitudes toward reading and learning are significant at the individual level, but at the school level children’s attitudes toward reading and school don’t make an independent contribution to the individual results.
In response to a growing demand for highly proficient speakers of foreign languages, both from private and government sectors, an added emphasis has been placed on developing communicative skills in the foreign language classroom. While time in a target language culture certainly plays a valuable and needed role, this research demonstrates that innovative curricular design and development in the university foreign language classroom can equal if not exceed uptake that occurs in extended immersion environments. A thorough description of the research design is provided, including the application of lexical items (connectors), listening, reading, written exercises, and videoconference debates involving students from National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia and Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Assessment instruments used to measure language uptake among students included pre- and post-written proficiency testing and oral proficiency interviews in one’s respective target language as administered by certified American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) raters. In addition, students completed a background language questionnaire designed to elicit data relative to individual learner motivation.
The book is to be used as a supplement to an Upper Intermediate course in General English aiming to develop academic skills of reading and writing around the topics and vocabulary of 5 Units in the course book «Upstream Upper Intermediate» by Bob Obee –Virginia Evans (1, 2, 3, 6 and 9). Each section of the book includes instructions on developing basic reading and writing skills and several tasks to practise the skills.
Institutions affect investment decisions, including investments in human capital. Hence institutions are relevant for the allocation of talent. Good market-supporting institutions attract talent to productive value-creating activities, whereas poor ones raise the appeal of rent-seeking. We propose a theoretical model that predicts that more talented individuals are particularly sensitive in their career choices to the quality of institutions, and test these predictions on a sample of around 95 countries of the world. We find a strong positive association between the quality of institutions and graduation of college and university students in science, and an even stronger negative correlation with graduation in law. Our findings are robust to various specifications of empirical models, including smaller samples of former colonies and transition countries. The quality of human capital makes the distinction between educational choices under strong and weak institutions particularly sharp. We show that the allocation of talent is an important link between institutions and growth.