Reference Universities: Sociological Support of Educational Innovation in Russian Regions

Abstract

The article discusses measures taken at the government level to develop Russian regions and reduce socio-economic disparities between them. As one of the directions of political and managerial practices to mitigate the heterogeneity of the development of Russian regions, the sphere of higher education is cited as the main branch of personnel reproduction of the economy. Transformations in higher education, often used as tools of “shock therapy” to revive the education system itself, are simultaneously projected on the economy, being a kind of impulse for positive changes in the regions. The program “supporting universities”is an example of solving the problems of uneven socio-economic development of regions, the outflow of population from them to megacities and large cities, and the reduction of human and social potential. The analysis of the program for creating reference universities in 2015–2017 in the regions of Russia, its goals, objectives and main stages of implementation revealed a number of shortcomings of the project.

Keywords

• higher education
• core universities
• regions of russia
• socio-economic development
• sociocultural development
• spatial development