The Cost of Higher Education to Students and Parents in Russia: Tuition Policy Issues

Abstract

The years of political and economic transformation in post-Soviet Russia brought enormous changes in all spheres of life. Since the Russian Federation Law on Education (1992) established the legal basis for the reform of higher education (HEd), this sector has experienced tremendous changes. New disciplines of study have been introduced; a whole new sector of private HEd has emerged; and universities and colleges have committed themselves to developing democratic forms of self-government and to assuming more autonomy in their decision making, including staffing and managing their own budgets. At the same time, financial pressures continued to influence most of the developments in HEd, especially in public higher education institutions (HEIs), for which the full state support that was characteristic of the past was no longer available. The level of state support sharply declined in 1992 and continued to diminish through 1998. State expenditures for Russian HEd as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted to inflation decreased threefold in 1998, as compared to 1992 (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [EBRD], 1998), whereas the amount of GDP itself steadily diminished. Deteriorating conditions for scholarship and research during the past decade pushed many talented