Higher Education Reform in Russia: International Experience and Economics

The paper is aimed to analyze the current higher education reform in Russia in the context of international experience of higher education systems’ performance and economics’ statements. It is shown that changes put into practice are in discrepancy with Russian higher education system institutional environment. As a consequence the achievement of formal resemblance of Russian higher education system with other effective higher education systems will not result in real improvement of its efficiency and quality. Alternative directions for the Russian higher education system transformation are proposed.