"Optimizing" Higher Education in Russia: University Teachers and their Union Universitetskaya solidarnost'

by David Mandel, Andreas Umland (Editor)

Overview

In 2012, soon after his election to a third presidential term as president, following a four-year stint as prime minister (to avoid modifying the constitution), and in the wake of an unprecedented wave of popular protests, Vladimir Putin issued his “May Decrees.” Notable among them was the government’s commitment to increase the salaries of doctors, scientific researchers and university teachers to double the average in their respective regions by 2018. But then on December 30 of that year, the government issued a “road map” for education, revealing that the salary increases in higher education would be paid for, not by significant new government funding, but by “optimization,” which would eliminate 44% of the current teaching positions in higher education. This was justified in part by a forecasted drop in student enrollment. Thus opened a new, accelerated period of reform of higher education. David Mandel examines the impact of these reforms on the condition of Russia’s university teachers and the collective efforts of some teachers, a small minority, to organize themselves in an independent trade union to defend their professional interests and their vision of higher education. Apart from the subject’s intrinsic interest, an in-depth examination of this specific aspect of social policy provides valuable insight into the nature of the Russian state as well as into the condition of “civil society,” in particular the popular classes, to which Russian university teachers belong according to their socio-economic situation, if not necessarily their self-image.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783838275192
Publisher:	ibidem
Publication date:	03/16/2021
Series:	Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society , #225
Sold by:	Libreka GmbH
Format:	eBook
Pages:	170
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

David Mandel is Professor of political science at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He studied sociology and Russian studies at the Columbia University in New York. He has also taught at the Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies, Birmingham, U.K. Previous books include The Petrograd Workers and the Russian Revolution (Feb. 1917-June 1918), Chicago Haymarket, 2018. Democracy, Plan, and Market: Yakov Kronrod’s Political Economy of Socialism, ibidem-Verlag Stuttgart, 2017.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 7

2 Overview of State Policy 11

a The Soviet Period 11

b The "Wild Nineties" 14

c 2000-2012: Return of the State 19

d 2012-18: The May Decrees and the "Road Map" 25

3 The Condition of University Teachers Following the "Optimizing" Reforms of 2012-18 31

a Employment 31

1 Massive Job Cuts 31

2 Permanent Probation 34

b Remuneration 38

1 Salary Levels 38

2 "Efficient Contracts" 41

c Workloads 45

d Power and Academic Freedom 52

1 Exclusion from Governance 52

2 Restrictions on Freedom to Teach and Conduct Research 59

3 Repression of Union Activists and Other "Troublemakers" 65

4 Restriction of Freedom Outside of Professional Duties 73

e Corruption in the University Milieu 78

1 Bribe-taking from Students 78

2 The Publications Business 79

3 "False Dissertations" 81

4 Raspil 86

5 Morale 88

4 "Universitetskaya solidarnost'" 91

a Origins 91

b Founding Positions and Strategic Orientations 96

c Inauspicious Circumstances 101

5 UniSol at MFTI 107

a Origins 107

b The Initiative Group 109

c Formation of the Union and Its First Steps 112

d Open Letters 117

e Partial Victories 123

f The High Point 126

g The Administration's Counter-Attacks 130

6 Rethinking Strategy: By Way of Conclusion 141

Bibliography 153

Scholarly Publications 153

Union and Related Internet Sources 155

Mass Media 155

Government Documents 157

Statistics 157

Others 158

Editorial Reviews

This book is full of unique insights into higher education in Russia: the day-to-day realities for lecturers, the workplace relationships, the extent of academic freedom and both the successes and shortcomings of trade union activity. No-one is better placed to understand these dynamics than David Mandel, who has not only researched trade unions, but also actively supported and cooperated with trade union militants in Russia, for decades. His account is sympathetic to, but realistic about, these militants: this is not a view through rose-tinted spectacles.

Simon Pirani

This book is full of unique insights into higher education in Russia: the day-to-day realities for lecturers, the workplace relationships, the extent of academic freedom and both the successes and shortcomings of trade union activity. No-one is better placed to understand these dynamics than David Mandel, who has not only researched trade unions, but also actively supported and cooperated with trade union militants in Russia, for decades. His account is sympathetic to, but realistic about, these militants: this is not a view through rose-tinted spectacles.

From the Publisher