A few months ago, a scandal broke out in one of the Russian cities related to the inspection of higher educational institutions by the Ministry of Education. The merger of universities in Samara shocked many students, teachers and parents, since they believed that all three institutions were 100% justified.
Where did it all start?
In February 2015, the authorities announced their intention to merge the three higher education institutions into one. They were not at all embarrassed by the fact that we're talking about about the three oldest institutions in the region, each of which has its own history, scientific school and tradition.
The authorities believe that the unification of the three will help all institutions get rid of the financial problems that have arisen and reach a self-sustaining level. The leadership of all opposed the unification and formed a response letter to the regional authorities, not forgetting to send a copy to the President of the Russian Federation - V.V. Putin.
Who will be united?
The merger of universities in Samara, the list of which includes SSAU (aerospace (state) and SamSTU (technical), could jeopardize education in the entire region, university leaders believe. The regional governor explained that SSAU is on this moment is one of the 15 leading universities in the country, and therefore has the right to apply for additional funding.
But the remaining two educational institutions receive less money, and if the merger is carried out, then SSAU will be able to improve its performance and receive more funding, part of which will be spent on maintaining the existence of the remaining universities. The governor also fears that SamSU will not be able to maintain its position as one of higher schools in Russia due to the reform that was announced by the Ministry of Education and Science in the summer of 2014. According to it, postgraduate and master's programs will remain only in the strongest universities in the country, and SamSU, due to its low indicators, is not one of them.
First reaction
Teachers, students and parents are outraged by the current situation. University leaders fully support them. Each university has its own foundations, habits and traditions, admissions officers note. According to them, even the contingent that enters the three universities is radically different from each other.
According to media publications, the initiator of the event called “Unification of three universities of Samara” is Merkushin, governor Samara region. There is a hypothesis that this is only a temporary measure, and as soon as the situation in the country returns to normal, the universities will disperse again, but no one believes this and has no plans to agree to the merger.
Development of the situation
In April 2015, it became known that SamSTU will continue to function as a separate university. But SSAU and SamSU will still be united, and on the basis of the first institution, the second will simply be abolished. This merger of universities in Samara, reviews of which were already unflattering, only fueled the discontent of citizens.
Representatives of SamSTU are not supporters of such a union, which they have repeatedly stated in the media mass media. To resolve this issue, a special working group, which, after a short consideration of the situation, approved the proposed scheme for optimizing universities.
Minister of education
The regional governor met with the Minister of Education and discussed this issue. The merger of universities in Samara, according to the minister, is possible, but without the participation of Samara State Technical University. However, it is planned that SamSTU will later become part of two merged universities, but when this will happen is unknown.
The management of educational institutions does not comment this situation, however, in the spring of 2015, the academic councils of Samara State University and Samara State Agrarian University supported the initiative to merge universities. Thus, the only university that officially does not agree with the merger is SamSTU; all the remaining ones will be merged one way or another.
Citizens' opinions
The merger of universities in Samara (the opinions of citizens and authorities are very contradictory) is a problem that has many fundamental nuances. Representatives of the employers' union note that through unification it will be possible to ensure that departments and universities interact with each other most closely, and there will be much more benefit from this. In their opinion, with the help of such a measure it will also be possible to establish interaction between universities, businesses and schools.
Some deputies note that combining even two universities is incorrect, let alone three. They believe that the split within one university will exist for many decades, and the united educational institution is unlikely to develop. SSAU, in their opinion, should not be considered a university at all, since it received this status only because of its prestige, but in fact remains the same institution as before.
Teachers' reaction
Some officials suggest that there are reasons for what happened, and, commenting on the merger of three universities in Samara (what this is connected with, in particular), they say that we may be talking about an order from other regions. In June, the governor visited Samara State University, where he spoke at length about the benefits of the unification.
As a result, a noisy scandal broke out due to the fact that one of the university teachers did not clap for the governor after the end of his speech, but directly stated that he had been working here for 45 years and did not expect anything good from the prospect of a merger. According to politician Mikhail Matveev, this only person, which is openly fighting against the merger of two universities, all the others have long resigned themselves to the inevitability.
Rally
The merger of universities in Samara even led to a rally that took place in early July. Samara Duma deputy Mikhail Matveev, who is actively fighting against the merger of universities, noted that more than 500 citizens were present at the rally, which lasted more than two hours. The press service of the regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs notes that no more than 150 people took part in the rally.
The protesters demanded that the authorities cancel the merger of SamSU into SSAU and asked to stop this optimization process until it was too late. Political slogans were also heard from the crowd, in particular, there were those who demanded the resignation of the regional governor, calling him incompetent in matters of education and governance.
Actions of activists
Teachers and students, even after explaining all the advantages, do not agree to the merger of universities in Samara. It was they who came up with the idea to collect signatures for the country's leadership with a request to preserve all three institutions as independent units. The creators of the petition noted in it that each university has its own unique story. In total, the petition collected more than 20 thousand signatures.
At the end of June, Dmitry Livanov, who holds the post of Minister of Science and Education, signed an order to merge SamSU and SSAU on the basis of the latter. It is still unknown whether the petition will influence this decision, but students and teachers are ready to go to the end and ensure that universities remain in their places.
Pros of merger
According to the region's leadership, an obvious advantage should be considered that through the merger it will be possible to achieve higher indicators and increase funding. Among other things, the prestige of SSAU diplomas is highly valued all over the world, thus, students of the merged university will have much more opportunities to find work not only in Russia, but also abroad.
Also highlighted as obvious advantages is the opportunity to save money using the same infrastructure. According to the authorities, if two universities are located in the same premises, this will help significantly save energy costs and building maintenance. The released funds can be spent on current needs.
Disadvantages of Merging
But university staff and students talk about the disadvantages more often than the government. In their opinion, the merger will inevitably entail a reduction in teaching staff. As a result, for small salaries, the remaining teachers will have to bear a double burden, and the quality of the education provided in this case will be very low.
Students also fear a similar situation, especially for those who receive education at budgetary basis. After the merger of universities, some budget places will be reduced, which means that education will only be available on a paid basis, which not everyone can afford.
On July 11, the President of the Russian Federation held a meeting on its implementation in the field social policy.
In his speech, the President expressed the opinion that the education system needs serious structural transformations and changes. “We have higher educational institutions, and we have also talked about this many times, which provide students with services that are absolutely undemanded in the labor market - low-quality education, simply put. Some of these pseudo-universities often fail to fill even budget places. It is necessary to identify ineffective workers by the end of this year state universities, a program for their restructuring, including through affiliation with stronger educational institutions, must be developed and approved before May 2013, no later, in any case. If it succeeds earlier, it will be even better." - stated V.V. Putin.
Let us recall that a day earlier, on July 10, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation held a meeting dedicated to monitoring state educational institutions. Based on the results of the monitoring, which should be completed by the end of August, an analysis of the activities of all educational institutions will be carried out.
Note that to the idea of restructuring Russian universities Representatives of the educational community have a positive attitude. So the rector of Moscow state university them. M.V. Lomonosov, President of the Russian Union of Rectors Victor Sadovnichy noted that “the rectors’ community fully supports the idea of reorganizing universities and improving the quality higher education", and the rector of St. Petersburg State University, chairman of the Association of Leading Universities Nikolay Kropachev reported that “criteria for evaluating the activities of universities have been in the works for quite some time, the corresponding commission of the Association of Leading Universities is preparing our proposals” and will submit the final proposals to the Ministry next week.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the process of consolidation, merger and consolidation of universities has begun long ago until the presidential decrees of May 7, 2012.
So for Lately A number of large universities have merged:
in September 2010, the Russian Academy was merged with the Academy of National Economy civil service and a number of regional universities. As a result of this, the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President was formed Russian Federation. Now RANEPA includes 22 faculties, postgraduate studies, doctoral studies, research institutes and centers, a multi-level college vocational education, library, publishing house, functional departments and departments, 68 branches.
at the end of December 2011, the process of annexing the Moscow region began state institute electronics and mathematics to the Higher School of Economics. The Institute will retain its autonomy within HSE under the name MIEM NRU HSE and will include 3 faculties and 15 departments.
in December 2011 to the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation as structural divisions The All-Russian Correspondence Institute of Finance and Economics and the Moscow State College of Informatics and Electronic Engineering were merged, and in May 2012, the State University and the All-Russian State Tax Academy, subordinate to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, were added to the FU. From now on, the Financial University will include 14 faculties, 55 departments, 5 institutes, 3 higher schools, 7 research institutes and centers, 3 educational and scientific laboratories, 11 branches in seven regions of Russia (not counting the branches of the VZFEI)
in 2012, the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys and the Moscow Mining State University, which were divided into two universities in 1930, returned to their historical status. That year, the Moscow Institute of Steel and the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold were separated from the Moscow Mining Academy. 76 years later, the State University of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold became part of the Siberian Federal University, and after another 6 years, MISiS and Moscow State University of Humanities merged.
It is especially worth noting that the process of creating, which began in 2006, federal universities. That year, two such universities were created - Siberian Federal University (SFU) and Southern federal university(SFU).
Siberian Federal University was created on the basis of Krasnoyarsk State University, to which 3 large universities of Krasnoyarsk were added - the Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering (KrasGASA), the State Technical University (KSTU) and the State University of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold (GUTSMIZ).
SFU was created from three universities in Rostov-on-Don (Rostov State University, Academy of Architecture and Art, State Pedagogical University) and Taganrog State Radio technical university.
May 7, 2008 President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev signed the decree "On Federal Universities", according to which the Government of the Russian Federation was instructed to develop and submit to the State Duma a draft federal law defining the procedure for the creation and operation of federal universities within two months. Less than a year later, on February 24, 2009, it came into force the federal law Russian Federation "On amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation on the activities of federal universities", according to which, "Federal universities are created by the Government of the Russian Federation on the basis of a decision of the President of the Russian Federation in the form of an autonomous institution, as a rule, on the basis of federal state universities and scientific organizations, state academies of sciences and their regional branches."
Over the next four years, 7 more federal universities were created in Russia: Baltic, Far Eastern, Kazan (Volga), Northern (Arctic), North-Eastern, North Caucasian and Ural. All nine federal universities united 30 higher and secondary educational institutions.
In addition to these large and significant reorganizations, Russia also underwent many others“less visible” acquisitions, mergers and consolidations of higher education institutions.
According to the President of the Russian Federation, such reorganizations (including through the merger of the “weak” with the “stronger”), the program of which should be approved before May 2013, will lead to the improvement of the higher education system and will allow increasing funding for strong universities, as well as increasing salaries teachers and professors.
That by the end of July the Government must submit to the State Duma a draft law on education, the adoption of which will certainly contribute to the further spread of the processes of associations of Russian educational institutions.
20 percent of Russian universities are subject to merger. Abolition of unpopular
Improving the quality of education in our country is one of the strategic goals public policy. These problems are given close attention. The topic of the day is questions about the prestige of higher education.
Back in 2008, former Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko announced the need to reduce the number of universities. At that time, one and a half thousand educational institutions received accreditation, of which, according to the minister, only fifty could be called competitive, and 150-200 could train students with high quality.
20 percent of Russian universities are subject to merger, that is, every fifth higher institution in the country will undergo or has already undergone reorganization. How are those “unpopular” universities and institutes calculated?
According to officials, monitoring of educational institutions has been carried out for quite a long time. And just 20 percent are those universities that have big claims regarding their teaching staff and material wealth (for example, many even work in rented offices in shopping centers!).
Recently, at a meeting with students of the St. Petersburg Technical University, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that it is necessary to reduce the number of unpopular universities. Those institutes whose diplomas are not listed can either be repurposed into secondary specialized educational institutions or merged with more successful universities. Dmitry Anatolyevich emphasized:
I am not a supporter of starting to “chicken” universities. It is not right. They have their own groups and students. The question is to streamline this system. I never said that instead of 1050 universities in our country there were 600, as in Soviet times. Life has changed, in the USSR only 30-40 percent of schoolchildren entered universities, and now almost 100. And there is nothing special about this, because the educational requirements are becoming higher and higher. The only thing that cannot be allowed is for admitted students to end up on the street. This will never happen.
How does this happen?
The current Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov told reporters that a so-called SWOT analysis should be carried out to identify all possible risks or benefits. This will help avoid future disasters. The point of this reform is that it is necessary to receive bonuses from partner functioning - access to new level, growth in the quality of education, and progress in scientific activity.
Four models of association are common.
The first is divisional management. Within the framework of this model, a voluntary takeover of a university occurs. There are many advantages for the acquired educational institution, because it receives additional image and financial benefits, and also retains most your capabilities.
The second is absorption. Unlike the first, the absorbed university has practically no advantages, having completely dissolved in the structure of the parent university.
The third is merger. Both universities have equal rights, but formally they seem to cease to exist. That is, instead of two or more old ones, one new one appears, with a new name, with the formation of a new legal entity.
The fourth is a takeover imposed by the founder with the support of regional authorities. Often such reorganization causes conflict. The unification takes place according to some strange principles. This is being talked about more and more. Below we will take a closer look at this situation using the example of universities in the city of Tambov.
Why is this necessary?
The merger of universities is not only a Russian initiative. Here we, as always, copy our more progressive brothers. For example, in the USA, in California, there are already united universities. Also in Finland and Japan. This is not an international fashion, but the need to concentrate all resources: intellectual, material and technical.
The process is extremely complex. After all, when universities unite, different corporate cultures. Different approaches to the implementation of the educational process, scientific. Dock like this different organisms- problem.
The whole process can be described in two words: “merger” and “acquisition” - these market terms can characterize metamorphoses like no other.
Now there are heated debates that the merger of universities will only bring a reduction in budget places, and mass layoffs of teachers will begin. However, as those in power assure, there is no need to panic. In practice, it has already been proven that all the rights of employees of reorganized educational institutions have been preserved, and moreover, their salaries have increased. The number of state employees also remained the same. But it is unlikely that it will be possible to avoid a reduction in administrative and managerial personnel. For example, Andrei Nikolaenko, rector of the University of Mechanical Engineering, shared on one of his TV shows that when MAMI and the Moscow State University of Environmental Engineering were merged, they left only 7 vice-rectors, although there should have been 15 of them for 2 universities. It turns out that the money saved in this way comes from The salary fund can be redistributed in favor of teachers.
The merged university becomes stronger, has a more extensive and modern infrastructure, can use it and receive rich resources. Optimization of the higher education network is needed in order to reduce the cost of training specialists, improve the quality of training, and change the very principle of selecting and forming the necessary personnel. That is, after such reorganizations, there will be fewer and fewer unnecessary graduates who, having received their diplomas, will be forced to work behind counters in markets.
The old ones were destroyed, but the new ones were not built
Deputy Oleg Smolin is a very respected person in the educational community. Blindness from birth did not prevent him from graduating with a gold medal from a secondary special school for the blind and visually impaired, studying with honors at the Omsk State Pedagogical Institute, defending his candidate's dissertation, and in 2001, his doctoral dissertation. Now he is a State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, first deputy chairman of the Education Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, corresponding member Russian Academy education, heads the All-Russian social movement"Education is for everyone."
A brief description of the biography of Oleg Nikolaevich allows us to understand how competent this person is in matters of education. At one of the meetings with journalists, Smolin commented on the problem of merging universities.
What does the state want to get by combining engineering and pedagogical departments? Or are officials thinking of getting engineers by doing so? human souls? Negative side visible immediately. The mere fact that students took to the streets is not a good sign. In education, as in life. Everything that is agreed upon is good, everything that is by administrative order is bad. The merger often occurs arbitrarily. For example, the city of Omsk. There is its own technical university, but the mechanical and technological college, which would be logical, if it were to be merged, then only to its own technical university, is being attached to the food institute. And there are as many such examples as you want: just anyone with anyone. Not on the principle of logic, but on whoever knows how to lobby for other people’s interests. If you tie for hind legs twenty rabbits – an elephant definitely won’t work. If you tie ten torpedo boats together with a rope, you definitely won’t get a battleship. Moreover, if rabbits bond with calves, as happens all the time in our country. I constantly hear from people from federal universities that several previous universities were destroyed, but a new one was not created. What is the point of this policy of forced unification (I agree with voluntary)? Today The State Duma At the request of the Government, he is preparing two projects. The first is that by 2020 we will have 700 thousand fewer students, and the second is that by the fifteenth year, taking into account inflation, real funding for education will come from federal budget will be reduced by a quarter. This marks the end of modernization.
What doesn't Tambov want?
And yet, if everything is so good and promising, then why did students and teachers of the two largest Tambov universities, TSTU and TSU named after Derzhavin, protest against the unification?
Such mass protests have never been held in Tambov before. This is a precedent. More than a thousand people simultaneously picketed to demand that the merger of the two largest regional universities be cancelled.
According to students, there were several reasons for the outrage. Firstly, a program for reorganizing universities was not prepared. Secondly, the decree was issued from above, that is, the academic council, teachers, and students learned about it only after the fact. Thirdly, no one gave written guarantees that employees would not be laid off or training costs would not increase. But the main thing is the diversity of the two universities (the former pedagogical institute was added to the technical university). At the same time, the university that was joined is lower in rating than the one that joined, which is extremely illogical. The students were outraged that everything was done without their consent. They sought the cancellation of the order and demanded respect for themselves.
Oleg Sergeev, an expert of the All-Russian Education Foundation, spoke about such a reorganization of state regional universities.
Our officials consider themselves to be right, but at the same time they violate the laws of nature and society. In Russia, the development of any system, including education, proceeds not through unification, but through division. And because of this very unification, we are getting “deregionalization” of universities, which is hitting our economy. In particular, in Verkhnyaya Salda - Titanium Valley, thanks to associations with both the Ural Federal University and Moscow, there are no local specialists. We have to look for them all over the world. What is happening in the vast expanses of our country is reminiscent of the unification of collective farms. In 2007, the US passed the Science, Technology and Innovation Competitiveness Act, which stated that emphasis should be placed on regions. According to statistics, 80 percent of applicants target set do not work in their specialty. And, naturally, if they do not study at regional universities, which are now, roughly speaking, “collapsing,” then very soon we will not only not have a Titanium Valley, but in general there will be no schools or any other schools left in the provinces production
But it must be said that the indignation of Tambov students and teachers did not go unnoticed by the authorities. The order to merge Tambov State Technical University with Tambov State University was canceled, and the rector of the newly formed university was fired. And everything returned to its place. At least for a while.
The Ministry of Education and Science is stopping the process of merging universities, head of the department Olga Vasilyeva said on Monday. In fact, this decision cancels the process of reorganization of higher educational institutions launched by the former minister Dmitry Livanov. As a result of the reorganization, over two years the number of universities and branches in Russia decreased from 2,486 to 1,450. According to experts, the minister’s statement confirms that “previous mergers were not voluntary, as stated.” Previously, the merged universities have already appealed to the new minister with a request to cancel the reorganization orders and return the institutions to autonomy.
On Monday, at a meeting of the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture, Olga Vasilyeva partially revealed immediate plans for upcoming changes in educational policy. It turned out that one of the main innovations is the suspension of the reorganization of higher educational institutions: “For now, we are stopping all associations, pending each specific trial.” The process of reorganizing universities by merging weak universities with stronger ones was started under the former head of the Ministry of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov: “There are universities that, for one reason or another, turned out to be uninteresting for applicants. In fact, this means a slow death: a reduction in the number of teachers, the closure of departments, and so on. In this case, we propose unification to universities,” explained Mr. Livanov.
He emphasized that all associations take place on a voluntary basis when scientific councils contact the Ministry of Education and Science. Nevertheless, scandals regularly erupted around the merger of universities. Thus, in 2015, the Moscow Aviation Technological Institute (MATI) was recognized as ineffective and merged with the Moscow aviation institute(MAI).
The united university was headed by the rector of MATI, Alexander Rozhdestvensky, who was accused of mass layoffs of MAI employees. The petition for his resignation received 10.5 thousand signatures. In April 2016, a petition from students of Moscow State Law Academy named after. Almost 2 thousand people supported O. E. Kutafin against the merger with the State University of Management, but despite this, the merger took place. A petition against the merger of RKhTU with MISiS collected 20 thousand signatures - as a result, the Ministry of Education and Science reported that “the academic councils of universities did not contact the ministry with such a proposal” and denied information about the impending merger. In 2016, among others, the Russian State Geological Prospecting University named after. Ordzhonikidze (MGRI-RGGRU) and Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after. Gubkin, Moscow State Forestry University (MGUL) and MSTU named after. Bauman, Moscow State University of Printing Arts. Fedorov and Moscow Polytechnic University. The Ministry of Education and Science annually monitors effectiveness; failure to meet its criteria threatens universities with deprivation of their license or suspension of accreditation. In total, from 2014 to March 2016, the number of universities and branches in Russia decreased from 2486 to 1450.
Olga Vasilyeva’s statement contains an “obvious contradiction” to the ministry’s previous statements, emphasizes an expert familiar with the unification processes. “In fact, it confirms that the previous mergers were not voluntary, as stated, but took place on the initiative of the ministry,” Kommersant’s interlocutor said. The Ministry of Education and Science was unable to promptly explain to Kommersant the minister’s statement.
The decision of the Ministry of Education and Science to suspend mergers may not affect all universities: at a meeting of the Federation Council committee, Olga Vasilyeva noted that “core universities should play a central role in the region.” Thus, the department will continue to support the project to create a network of regional flagship universities. Let us recall that in January 2016, 11 universities were identified, which, having united with other higher education institutions in their regions, will become supporting ones and receive a subsidy of up to 200 million rubles. in year.
“Now, it really makes sense to pause, study the experience that has emerged, see how existing associations, including flagship universities, work,” Kommersant said. scientific adviser Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics Isak Frumin. “The structure of higher education, 90% formed in the late 1930s, requires updating,” says Mr. Frumin, but this process, in his opinion, requires time and the maximum involvement of students and professors.
Even before Olga Vasilyeva’s statement, previously reorganized universities began to contact the department with a request to cancel the decisions of the previous leadership. Thus, the chairman of the commission for the merger of MGRI-RGGRU (merged with Gubkin Russian State University. - Kommersant) Evgeny Kozlovsky sent a letter on September 20, 2016 to the head of the Ministry of Education and Science, in which he asks to cancel or suspend the order on the reorganization of the university “as inappropriate goal and caused indignation among the team and geological organizations.” The appeal states that the transformations had a negative impact on the training of personnel for geological exploration, and the university, which became part of the Russian State University, is ready to continue working autonomously.
On Monday, Ms. Vasilyeva also announced her intention to strengthen control over the expenses of universities participating in the state program to increase international competitiveness: “We now have a project “5-100”. These are universities in which a lot of money has been invested, but the question arises as to what the return will be. The budget should be spent very sparingly.” The program created by the Ministry of Education and Science to implement the May presidential decrees to include at least five Russian universities in the top 100 world rankings by 2020 involves 21 universities. From 2013 to 2015, 54 billion rubles were allocated from the budget for the project, and another 14.5 billion rubles are planned for 2016–2017. In January 2016, the Accounts Chamber questioned the implementation of presidential decrees, accusing the Ministry of Education and Science of inefficient spending of funds.
The process of merging universities, begun under Dmitry Livanov, will be suspended, said Minister of Education and Science Olga Vasilyeva at a recent meeting in the Federation Council. the site recalls how the university merger project was implemented and what results were obtained.
What happened?
The new Minister of Education and Science did not say why the decision was made to terminate the unification process, but immediately followed the statement by adding that the department will continue to ensure that budget funds in universities are spent rationally. In general, the termination of the merger of educational institutions looks like the cancellation of another initiative former minister education and science of Dmitry Livanov, because it was at his suggestion that the program of unification and reorganization of universities was partially implemented. According to the draft, unpopular educational institutions are subject to merger, for example, those whose diplomas are less valued by employers, or which, according to monitoring, do not have the finances necessary for efficient work. According to the reformers, approximately 20% of Russian universities were to be reorganized. According to the results of monitoring in 2012, 136 universities and 450 branches needed reorganization. To date, due to the reorganization, 96 universities have actually ceased their activities, six of which are located in St. Petersburg and 22 in Moscow.
Unite and conquer
Until now, there have been four models of combining institutes and universities in Russia. In the first model, the takeover of a university occurs on a voluntary basis, which allows it to retain part of its capabilities and increase funding. It is curious that, according to the Ministry, associations were possible only on a voluntary basis, while in most cases the reorganization was accompanied by protests from the teaching staff and the students themselves. The second model of reorganization is the absorption of a smaller university by the parent institute. The third model is practically no different from the previous one, except that the unification took place primarily with the support of regional authorities. This often led to conflicts. The fourth model of reorganization is a merger, when two institutions actually form one new institution with a new name.
The very idea of uniting educational institutions, oddly enough, came from the West: the University of California is a union of 10 universities, which, in particular, includes the University of Berkeley, which gave the world 61 laureates Nobel Prize. But how effective was the unification of universities in Russia? controversial issue. One of the first Russian universities to emerge as a result of the merger was the Southern Federal University in Rostov-on-Don, which included Rostov State University, Taganrog State Radio Engineering University, Rostov State Pedagogical University and Rostov state academy architecture and arts. A similar transformation took place in Krasnoyarsk, where the Siberian Federal University operates on the basis of six universities.
One for all and all for one
Not all universities that were on the hit list were happy with the state of affairs. Thus, in 2012, students and teachers of Tambov State Technical University (TSTU) and Tambov State University named after G.R. Derzhavin carried out a large-scale protest action against the merger of educational institutions. The desire of regional authorities to optimize costs and increase the rating of the university could lead to the merger of a technical university with a humanities university, with the complete deprivation of the material and technical base and independent status of TSTU. In addition, students and teachers were simply presented with a fait accompli about the unification program. However, the authorities paid attention to the protesters' dissatisfaction, and Tambov universities avoided reorganization.
Students of Moscow higher schools also carried out strikes: at the end of 2012, students of the Russian State Trade and Economic University protested against their joining the Russian Economic University named after G.V. Plekhanov, but, unlike Tambov, the university could not avoid the fate of reorganization. In 2015, the Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI) also joined REU. Protest events accompanied the merger of the Moscow State Mining University (MSGU) with the National Research Technological University "Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys" (MISiS). Students and teachers of Moscow State University for the Humanities, speaking out against integration, called it similar to “ raider takeover”, recalling the vocabulary of the 1990s. Another problem was related to the fact that students from Moscow State University for the Humanities and MISiS studied different systems education with different periods of study - MISiS trained bachelors, while Moscow State University for the Humanities trained specialists.
Controversy also accompanied the merger of the Moscow State Law Academy named after O.E. Kutafin (MSAL) and State University of Management (SUM). Both sides were against it: the “lawyers” were afraid of losing prestige, and the “managers” were afraid of losing their autonomy. Educational institution it would have to receive a new name, which could be chosen by the universities themselves. Students sadly joked that as a result of the merger, the “United State Law University (OGPU) named after Comrade. Livanov." The Moscow State Law Academy does not comment on how the academy views the accession of the State University of Medicine.
Chemistry and tin
At the beginning of 2016, media reports appeared about possible merger Russian Chemical-Technological University named after D.I. Mendeleev (RKhTU) and MISiS. Teachers and students of RKhTU began to protest even before official confirmation by the Ministry of Education, collecting signatures in a petition against the annexation. “Mendeleevka” was afraid that after joining MISiS it would lose its own scientific school, remembering the situation with the merger of the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts chemical technology named after M.V. Lomonosov (MITHT) and the “non-core” Moscow State University information technologies, radio engineering and electronics (MSTU MIREA). Later, the Ministry denied the message about the merger of universities. However, “a sediment remains.” the site turned to Mendeleevka with a request to comment on the looming prospect of a merger with MISiS: “Nobody told us anything. Everything remained at that level. Now everything depends on the minister, what policy she will pursue. As soon as Livanova was replaced, there wasn’t even any talk about it.”
Consolidation of universities in Russia
Rosstat http://www.gks.ru/bgd/regl/b15_13/Main.htm
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