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Higher Education. Some Problems of Self-Organization

Pugacheva E.G.,
Solov’enko K.N.

Higher Education
Some Problems of Self-Organization

ABSTRACT

The article is devoted to the results of investigation of Irkutsk higher educational institutions. The tendencies of their development are analized. The approach of transformation from spontaneous to constructive self-organization of education in Russia is proposed.

What is going on in higher education today? How well is it adapting to market relations? What new phenomena characterize the interaction between nonstate-run higher educational institutions and the state-run system of education? Judging from articles in this journal [Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia], these questions are now attracting more attention from educational sociologists.

The present article examines the findings of a survey carried out in Irkutsk in the spring through autumn of 1997. It was participated in representatives of the administrations of state-run and non-state-run institutions of higher learning (from rectors to heads of departments), executives of enterprises of various forms of ownership, and job placement personnel. The purpose of the survey was to explore to topical problems in the training of specialists and cooperation between higher educational institutions and enterprises? And to determine ways of solving them. Of course, the survey findings cannot pretend to comprehensiveness and may not reflect the entire spectrum of opinions concerning the examined issues.

From the surveys conducted among administrators of the two forms of higher education that are most prominent today – state-run and nonstate-run –it is obvious that the state-run and nonstate-run higher educational institutions functioning simultaneously in the market of educational services are not developing in identical ways. The state-run institutions are having a much harder time of it (see Table 1).

Further development of state-run higher education will depend on its abilities and possibilities of accommodating to market relations. The process of restructuring is proceeding with difficulty in this regard. To a considerable extent, institutions of higher learning are still counting on assistance from the state. State-budget financing, however, continues to diminish. Nonstate-run higher educational institutions, on the other hand, came into being as a result of the new economic relations, and that is why, as the answers indicate, they are adapting to the market conditions better and more quickly. They enjoy a comfortable financial position, and their personnel are more confident about future.

The commercialization of state-run institutions of higher learning has resulted in the stratification of specialties into “market-oriented” and “nonmarket-oriented”. With respect to many indicators, the “market” specialties are similar to analogous specialties acquired in nonstate-run formations. It is thus possible that it make sense not of state-run and nonstate-run forms of education but rather market-oriented and nonmarket-oriented forms. The polarization of these two forms of education is becoming increasingly rigid. Exacerbation of the differentiation between kinds of higher educational institutions, in terms of financial well-being, could lead to destabilizing chaos.

The rapid dynamics of the changes taking place in the society has confronted institutions of higher learning with the necessity of achieving self-organization of the educational process. This circumstance makes it essential that institutions of higher learning increase their openness to the world around them, an openness that can be examined in three directions: downwards (links with enterprises), upward (links with state), and horizontally (links with other institutions of higher learning).

Links with enterprises.
At the present time, industry is in the doldrums and is having a hard time keeping the specialists it has, let alone acquiring new ones. The state-run institutions of higher learning are preoccupied with their own problems of survival. They are doing practically nothing in the way of establishing marketing links with enterprises. Almost all the respondents answered that there are no marketing services provided in their institutions of higher learning, or they are strictly a formality or function on a “primitive” level. Also lacking are any services to provide assistance to graduates in finding a job, nor is there any liaison with graduates who are working in enterprises, which would help to improve the quality of the training. The surveys show that executives of enterprises would like to upgrade the qualifications of their personnel but do not believe that the higher educational institutions would be able to help them in this. Therefore, it would behoove the higher education institutions, for their part, to set up efforts to activate a variety of forms of collaboration with industry.

Links with state.
Almost all respondents answers that rectors and scholars are not able to have an influence on the reform of higher education. The authorities do not pay attention to their opinions. Even the planned miserly financing of state-run higher education continues to diminish steadily. In the words of one of the respondents, this sort of policy is undermining the foundations of education. In the opinion of several respondents, relations between institutions of higher learning and the state today are fraught with tension, which can provoke acts of protest by young people.

Links with other institutions of higher learning.
Horizontal links between institutions of higher learning, including those located in foreign countries, are being improved. However, these links are one-sided – the impetus tends to come from West, via the Internet, grants, foundations, and so forth. Within this country, instructors and higher educational institutions do not have the means to establish contacts. Travels abroad, participation in conferences and meetings are becoming an unheard-of luxury against the background of constant and pressing financial problems. It can be asserted, nevertheless, that the mechanism of the self-organization of education is already in motion. The answers of the respondents inspire confidence that, in spite of all the difficulties, the development of higher education is going to continue, and in great variety of forms.

At the present time, self-organization of the system of education has to be considered as basically “disorganized”, inasmuch as each of the components is operating independently, all on its own, in pursuit of its own aims. Hence, the development of market relations is resulting in both constructive and destructive, chaotic consequences. Things that can be counted as symptoms of destructive changes in the field of education include the drain of qualified educators, the diminished prestige of instructors in society, the dwindling of the volume of scientific research, deterioration of the quality of education, and the loss, in large part, of the old social norms and principles. At the same time, the system of education in this country is gaining flexibility, becoming more sensitive to changes, and more receptive to democratic tendencies. The spirit of creativity and enterprise is experiencing a rebirth. The constructive process can go further and create the conditions fostering self-development and qualitative changes in the system of education, on the basis of innovative processes and scientific research, while retaining everything that in the past made it one of the best in the world. However, education reform cannot be successful if efforts continue to lag with respect to solving financial, economic, legal, social, and many other interconnected problems, which can result in social collisions.

The paper was published in:

• Пугачева Е.Г., Соловьенко К.Н. Высшая школа: некоторые проблемы самоорганизации // Социс (Социологические исследования), 1999, №11, с.99-101.
• Pugacheva E.G., Solov’enko K.N. Higher Education. Some Problems of Self-Organization // Russian Education and Society, vol. 42, no. 10, October 2000, pp.5-9.
• Пугачева Е.Г., Соловьенко К.Н. Высшая школа: некоторые проблемы самоорганизации // Социология образования перед новыми проблемами. Москва-Омск: Журнал РАН "Социологические исследования", Ом.гос. ун-т, 2003, с.272-276.

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