HIERARCHICAL APPROACH TO RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES RANKING

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to the Russian system of higher education being organized as one of the components of the knowledge economy. This economic optics suggests that consumers of educational services and competing with each other universities should exchange information in the most effective way. Therefore, various universities rankings are considered to be such a source for critical information exchange in the market of educational services. The author gives an overview on the basic ranking systems and highlights the key aspects of their methodology. The purpose of the article is to propose an approach to constructing universities ranking, composed of three connected with each other levels, which are a university level, subject (specialty) level and an educational program level. Methods. The author uses modeling tools, a comparative analysis of existing educational ranking systems. The proposed approach is based on the methods of calculating indicators within the framework of official statistics forms (HPE-1, HPE-2), monitoring the higher education system. Scientific novelty of the study. The fundamental difference between the proposed methodological approach and the existing educational ranking systems is the hierarchical principle of constructing rankings, which ensures the connection of different ranking levels when the results of one level ranking affects another. This principle, in the author’s opinion, logically correlates with the task being solved by the consumer of the educational service, while choosing consistently the university, the specialty and the educational program to apply for. Moreover, the indicators in the ranking methodology were grouped according to the subject principle through actors interacting with the university (applicant, student, graduate, lecturer), instead of common principle usually implemented in the main ranking models when indicators are grouped according to universities’ spheres of governing (e.g. educational activity, scientific activity, international activity, etc.). Thus, the author presents the systematization of existing educational ranking models and proposes original approach with a multi-level methodology structured not only by indicators, but also by the target audience. The results. The author proposes the model of three levels hierarchically linked universities rankings. The three levels are as following: university, field of study and educational program. For all levels there are sets of indicators, combined into the same groups: “applicant”, “student”, “graduate”, “lecturer”, “complex group of ranking level indicators”, “penalties”. Each group of indicators in each of the levels has its weight. There are two formulas for ranking calculation given. The first one is used for calculating the ranking value at each of the ranking levels and the second one is used for calculating the value of each group of indicators at ranking level. The methodology also provides the list of indicators in each group at every ranking level, their weights and principles of calculation added to the sources of information for calculating or for verifying the data. Conclusions. The proposed ranking model could be trial on a group of universities or could be the logical basis for the development of existing domestic ranking systems. The implementation of hierarchical approach to Russian universities ranking will improve the efficiency of information exchange in the market of educational services. This will be provided because of the adaptation to the applicant’s experience in choosing from the university to the field of study and finally to the exact educational program.