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The aim of the current article is to discuss the role of the Bologna process in enabling quality of educational change, internationalisation and greater mobility using an example case study of a Russian university. Some discussion is provided to offer insights and inform future research and practice.

The authors highlight some of the quality issues associated with the Bologna process and reflect on how the statements underpin quality of learning and mobility in a European higher education area (EHEA) context. They explore some of the issues raised from the documentation and examine some early experiences and challenges from a leading Russian university as part of a wider examination of higher education in a Russian context.

The Bologna Declaration was signed in 1999 by 29 European countries. The Declaration became the guiding document for the Bologna process which is now being implemented by 47 (inclusive) EU and non‐EU countries. In Russia, Bologna did not begin well and was originally resisted by employers and universities several years ago. It has recently been started again but it is still in its early stages, as Bologna is only now being implemented more fully. Nevertheless, there are issues around the two cycle system and diploma certificates. Recognition from some employers is also still an issue but less so than before. However, specialist auditing agencies can also be used in conjunction with the universities to assure quality and reassure employers going forward. There is also a strong recognition that Russian higher educational institutions have come a long way in a short space of time in terms of quality and process development.

Whilst the research is limited to one case and is essentially qualitative and exploratory, the integrated analysis and discussion still provides useful insight and reflection concerning key issues as a consequence of recently implementing the Bologna process within the Russian educational system.

Purpose – This empirical paper seeks to explore how the shift from traditional budgetary accounting toward accrual accounting declared by the Russian state has affected accounting practices of one public university.

Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data for this research are based on a case study conducted in one state-sponsored university of Russian tertiary education. Our approach is to look at the emergence and implementation of new accounting practices and technologies at the university within the context of broader public sector policy changes occurring in Russia.

Findings – The present study demonstrates that changes at state level have had their initial and most direct impact on formal rules at the university, but little or no impact on its everyday management activity. We claim that the intended changes have so far resulted in more rhetoric than reality, and the changes envisaged have yet to be implemented in university practice.

Research limitations/implications – Since the time frame devoted to this research does not allow the assessment of the final results of the declared reforms, this paper approaches new accounting techniques before they become an established practice at the university. It is also beyond the scope of this research to judge whether these results are applicable to other settings, such as other Russian higher educational establishments.

Practical implications – The paper raises concerns as to whether the old compliance mentality of the Russian state will bring about the desired reform outcome.

Originality/value – This paper provides insights into the nature of Russian public sector accounting change, both at central level and in a specific organizational setting.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse critically the Russian Academic Excellence Initiative (the Project 5-100), designed to propel five leading Russian universities into world university rankings (WURs) by 2020, and research it through the lens of neoliberalism. The paper seeks to reveal recurrent discourses and dominant orders of discourse constituting the overall concept of “excellence” in Russian higher education (HE) policy.

Since the Project 5-100 has been designed in line with a neoliberal model of academic excellence initiatives, emphasising “competition as a driver of excellence” (Hazelkorn, 2009), Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) has been adopted as a qualitative research method. There is no universally accepted definition of “excellence” in HE policy; therefore, this CDA also aims at revealing the Russian government’s vision of the concept and its voice in HE policy.

The paper concludes that the government reinforces neoliberal discourse on the HE agenda and transforms the 5-100 Universities’ identities through emphasising the role of WURs in modernising the HE system. Consequently, within the neoliberal paradigm, the Project 5-100 can be regarded as a manifestation of the commodification of “excellence” in Russian HE policy.

This research intends to broaden knowledge of excellence initiatives in HE policy and reveal their features and neoliberal natures. It also seeks to contribute in terms of showcasing a qualitative study of the Project 5-100 for future comparative analyses of similar HE policies.

The export of Russian educational services worldwide was not considered by the Russian Government as a full-fledged economic sector until recently. However, the situation has changed since the early 2000s, when in 2002, the Russian Government approved the national strategy for higher education promotion abroad and since then has been actively working on development of incentives and measures to support Russian universities to better market themselves in a global competitive market place of higher education. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors use a systematic approach to analyze different instruments for promoting higher education services abroad, consider the current state of this issue in Russia and look at what difficulties may arise at various levels when the state attempts to implement its strategy.

They are formulated as a set of marketing activities at different levels (national, regional and institutional), allowing a more advantage positioning of Russian universities in the global environment.

This paper focuses on the development of a marketing strategy for universities in a dynamic setting. The urgency of the problem is determined by the fact that today universities have to deal with a number of challenges: the reduced funding; increased competition at the regional, national and global markets; the growth of the importance of international and national rankings; and demographic and social challenges. Effective positioning in the global market place can be viewed as a source of new opportunities, as well as a challenge, not easy to master in some cases.

The paper scrutinizes strategies for the promotion of Russian universities to increase effectiveness of their positioning and create for them comfortable conditions for development in the world markets of educational services. The topic of marketing of educational services worldwide for a post-Soviet country is not an issue commonly addressed in the literature today.

This chapter focuses on a unique partnership made possible by Kazan Federal University, which has one of the largest teacher preparation programs in the Russian Republic. The partnership sponsors a scientific-practical conference known as the International Forum on Teacher Education (IFTE), arguably the most influential conference in the field of education in Eastern Europe and post-Soviet countries. Thousands of papers about different educational themes have been presented since 2015. Researchers share their views and their research results on the issues of modernization and development of the content of teacher education. Most recently, international guests have been playing a larger role. For example, ISATT partnered with IFTE and an ISATT regional conference flew under the IFTE banner in 2019. Many ISATT regional representatives attended. Since then, more researchers from the western world – including those from Europe and the United States – have been regularly attending IFTE, which is gaining an international reputation for being one of the most comprehensive teacher education conferences in the world.

The purpose of this paper is to specify the conceptual foundations of educational cooperation of universities and companies of Industry 4.0 for maximizing its efficiency.

For determining the efficiency of educational cooperation of universities and companies of Industry 4.0 in modern Russia, the authors use the information and analytical materials on the results of monitoring of effectiveness of the activities of educational organizations of higher education in 2018. They use the indicators of the number of cooperation agreements and efficiency of cooperation – employment of graduates and the share of non-budget assets in revenues from the educational activities. These indicators are studied with the help of the method of regression analysis. The objects of the research are the flagship universities of the Central and the Southern Federal District of the Russian Federation.

Low efficiency of the educational cooperation of universities and companies of Industry 4.0 in modern Russia is observed. The authors show by the example of the flagship universities of the Central and Southern Federal Districts of the Russian Federation in 2018 that multiple agreements on their cooperation with the companies of regions in which they are located do not ensure high values of the indicators of employment of their graduates and the share of non-budget assets in revenues from the educational activities.

An algorithm of developing the educational cooperation of universities and companies of Industry 4.0 and a model of educational cooperation of universities and companies of Industry 4.0 are offered. The authors’ recommendations specify the conceptual foundations of the educational cooperation of universities and companies of Industry 4.0, as they orient the participants of this cooperation at achievement of specific formalized results and show the mechanism of achieving them.

Higher education (HE) institutions worldwide are experiencing fundamental changes, moving from the traditional Humboldt-type model towards an entrepreneurial model. In the context of these global trends, the Russian university landscape is being prepared to undertake a great transformation towards international standards in HE. The Russian State is currently funding a large-scale reform package for universities. The purpose of this paper is to examine trends and institutional reforms in the Russian HE system including the perspectives of universities, governments and business.

Currently, much attention is focussed on increasing the global competitiveness of Russian universities by making Russia’s HE system more integrated in international activities. The Programme “5-100-2020” launched in 2013 provides funds from the federal budget in order to push selected universities to increase their international rankings. A central aspect of the analysis is the policymaking process based on Kingdon’s theory of agenda setting. Furthermore, it is necessary to explore how the reforms of HE are implemented in practice, presented with the help of a single representative case study demonstrating how the Programme “5-100-2020” is implemented in a large Russian polytechnic university.

The present research shows the ways in which international trends influence educational and research environments in Russia, which provides a better understanding of the evolution of the university landscape in the light of growing marketisation, identifies important policy issues associated with becoming top international universities. The study of the timeline of reforms and reconstruction of the Russian HE system revealed an ambivalent picture which presents contradictions.

The data were collected within one organisation only. This is a single representative case study. This means generalisation is only possible for similar organisations.

The study allows university managers to be more aware of the challenges and opportunities which arise with such organisational change.

The paper draws attention to HE system reforms in Russia. University is a very important organisation for society with numerous stakeholders. The findings of the study are important for better understanding what is happening in education now.

The research adds value to policymaking process in the field of HE, and gives example of transformation process in Russian universities.

For at least the last 10 years, the Russian authorities have been declaring the need to move to an innovative path of economic development. The government actively initiates and applies various instruments and measures to promote innovation. However, the effectiveness of the Russian innovation policy is still in question. The chapter examines the evolution of state policy to foster innovation growth in Russia since 2000 and describes some sets of achievements and problems for different stages of this policy. In addition to analysis of changes in the innovation sphere at the macro-level, we discuss the primary motivations and limitations at the micro-level (firm level). As a result, the critical institutional barriers to innovation-based growth are revealed. In the same time, certain successes have been achieved in some sectors, and we consider various opportunities to improve Russian technological and innovation policy.