ISSN 0798 1015
ISSN 0798 1015
Vol. 39 (Number 12) Year 2018. Page 17
Irina V. BARANOVA 1
Received: 01/11/2017 • Approved: 30/11/2017
ABSTRACT: The purpose of the article is to study the perspectives of the educational services market development in the Russia’s regions in the conditions of knowledge economy formation. The methodology of the research includes the method of structural analysis, with the help of which the authors study the Russia’s position in the ranking of the countries as to knowledge economy development and the method of horizontal analysis that is applied for studying the dynamics of formation and development of knowledge economy in modern Russia. The information and analytical basis of the article is the materials of official statistics of the Federal State Statistics Service and the Knowledge Economy Index by the World Bank. The authors study the process of knowledge economy formation in Russia and determine that it has been going for the recent 25 years and, with preservation of the current tendency, will take 8 more years. The state’s efforts for managing this process are characterized by low effectiveness. The reason is insufficient consideration of regional peculiarities and needs during development of educational services markers in Russia’s regions. A serious problem of knowledge economy development in Russia is the weak connection between development of regional markets of educational services and the national course at formation of knowledge economy. In order to solve these problems, the authors use practical recommendations and develop a perspective model of development of the educational services market in Russia’s regions in the conditions of knowledge economy formation. |
RESUMEN: El propósito del artículo es estudiar las perspectivas del desarrollo del mercado de servicios educativos en las regiones de Rusia para la formación del Índice de la Economía del Conocimiento. La metodología de la investigación incluye el método de análisis estructural, con la ayuda de la cual los autores estudian la posición de Rusia en el ranking de países en cuanto al desarrollo del Índice de la Economía del Conocimiento y un método de su análisis horizontal que se aplica para estudiar dinámicas y desarrollos en la Rusia moderna. La información y la base analítica del artículo son los materiales de las estadísticas oficiales del Servicio Estatal de Estadísticas del Estado y el Índice de Economía del Conocimiento del Banco Mundial. Los autores estudian el proceso de formación de la economía del conocimiento en Rusia y determinan que ha estado yendo durante los últimos 25 años y, con la preservación de la tendencia actual, tomará 8 años más. Los esfuerzos del estado para gestionar este proceso se caracterizan por una baja efectividad. La razón es la insuficiente consideración de las peculiaridades y necesidades regionales durante el desarrollo de marcadores de servicios educativos en las regiones de Rusia. Un grave problema del desarrollo de la economía del conocimiento en Rusia es la conexión débil entre el desarrollo de los mercados regionales de servicios educativos y el curso nacional de formación de la economía del conocimiento. Para resolver estos problemas, los autores utilizan recomendaciones prácticas y desarrollan un modelo de perspectiva del desarrollo del mercado de servicios educativos en las regiones de Rusia en las condiciones de formación de la economía del conocimiento. |
The economic system’s setting on the path of economy development is a serious challenge for all spheres of national economy, as the entrepreneurial structures that work in them have to rebuild their business processes for increase of knowledge-intensity and shift of focus to human resources, as compared to other types of resources, and orientation at innovational development. The educational services market is subject to most serious transformations, as it is set with the main load for creation of knowledge economy.
In the conditions of formation of knowledge economy, the educational services market is not just an environment for preparation of necessary human resources but a source of knowledge – the latest technologies of production, organization, and management, innovational products (goods and services), etc. In the countries with large area and high level of differentiation of the level of socio-economic development of economic systems that are parts of the national economy, the conditions, intensity, and directions of the development of regional educational services markets differ, and the level of diversity could be rather high.
On the one hand, this hinders their unification and formation of the mono-structural national educational services market, which is easily predicted and managed, the structural elements of which are in close interconnection. On the other hand, the development of educational services markets according to the peculiarities of the regions of their location allows accelerating the process of formation of knowledge economy due to creation of the knowledge and human resources that are required by each specific region, this leveling the disproportions in development of the national economic system.
That’s why the regional models of development of educational services markets should take into account the peculiarities of regional economic systems. This explains the topicality of study of the regional aspect of development of educational services market in the context of the knowledge economy development. In this article, the focus is made on the modern Russian economy and the goal of studying the perspectives of development of educational services market in the Russia’s regions in the conditions of formation of knowledge economy is sought.
The peculiarities of functioning and development of regional economies in the national economic systems are viewed in the works by (Fleischmann et al., 2017), (Otoiu et al., 2017), (Ge and Zhao, 2017), (Guliak, 2017), and (Anukoonwattaka, 2016). The conceptual and applied issues of development of regional educational services markets of the countries of the world are reflected in the publications (Popkova et al., 2016a), (Ragulina et al., 2015), (Bogoviz et al., 2017), (Bogdanova et al., 2016), and (Popova, et al., 2016b). The essence of the process of formation of knowledge economy is studied in the works (Fathollahi et al., 2017), (Amavilah et al., 2017), and (Kuleshov et al., 2017).
The performed content analysis of the scientific works on the set issue determined insufficient elaboration of the influence of the processes related to creation of knowledge economy and development regional educational services markets, which leads to the necessity for further study of this issue.
The methodological basis of the research consists of the method of structural analysis, which is used by the authors to study the Russia’s position in the ranking of the countries of the world for knowledge economy, and the method of horizontal analysis, which is used for studying the dynamics of formation and development of knowledge economy in modern Russia.
The information and analytical basis of the article includes the materials of the Federal State Statistics Service of the RF and the Knowledge Economy Index of the World Bank, which is a basis of the annual rankings of 140 countries of the world.
The value of the knowledge economy index in Russia constituted 5.78 in 2016. It is ranked 55th, near Ukraine, Belarus, and Qatar. The key reason for the low position of Russian in the rankings is ineffective regional educational services market, the functioning of which leads to low innovative activities and low level of technologies’ development (World Bank, 2016).
The innovational system, which consists of the companies, R&D centers, universities, consulting agencies, and other organizations, is not yet formed in Russia. There is no connection between the sphere of science and education and the economy’s production sector. As a result, the created innovations do not reach their targeted consumers and stay at the level of dissertation studies.
Another important reason for insufficiently high level of development of science and innovations is the ineffective system of patenting of the right for scientific inventions and innovational technologies. Complexity of the procedure of patenting of new knowledge is a serious barrier for the Russian scholars. Also, the system of commercialization of innovations is not developed sufficiently.
Another reason is lack of financial resource due to absence of assets with the state and the low investment attractiveness of innovational projects for private investors. The scholars cannot conduct research with their own finances, as the research requires a lot of financial resources.
As a result, the research is not conducted, or is conducted in a shortened variant, which does not allow receiving the desired results and presenting effective conclusions. Due to the above reasons, the process of formation of knowledge economy in Russia is not yet completed and continues now. The structure of this process is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
The process of formation of knowledge economy in Russia.
Source: compiled by the authors with the use of materials (Federal State Statistics Service, 2016).
As is seen from Figure 1, the process of formation of knowledge economy in Russia took place in three stages. The beginning of the first stage was Russia’s transition to the market path of development in 1991. After that, starting from 1992 until 2002, the share of expenditures for innovations in the structure of GDP was growing from 0.03% to 0.60%. The growth was quick and constituted more than 250% per year. The volume of innovational goods, works, and services grew, reaching RUB 430 billion, and the share of companies that implement innovations reached 11%.
At the second stage (2002-2013), the share of innovations in the structure of GDP continues to grow, but with slower rates – around 13% per year - from 0.61% in 2000 to 0.83% in 2010. The volume of innovational goods, works, and services increases, constituting RUB 230 - 700 billion. The share of companies that implement innovations grows slowly, constituting 11% - 12%.
At the third stage, which started in 2014 and continued until 2016, the share of expenditures for innovations in the structure of GDP grows with quick rate – the growth constitutes 30% per year, from 0.84% in 2011 to 0.99% in 2014. The volume of innovational goods, works, and services grows, constituting RUB 1,690 – 3,070 billion. The share of companies that implement innovations also grows, constituting 12% - 15%.
At present, it is possible to suppose that the next stage of this process will start in 2017 and will continue until the full formation of knowledge economy in Russia. In view of orientation of the modern state policy at formation of innovational economy and announcing the strategy of innovational development of Russia until 2020, it is possible to suppose that this stage will cover the period 2017 - 2025.
At this stage, one can expect the increase of the share of expenditures for innovations in the structure of GDP up to 3%. The volume of innovational goods, works, and services can increase to RUB 5,000 billion. The share of companies that implement innovations can constitute 35-40%. This will bring Russia to the level of developed countries and will allow forming knowledge economy.
The most serious problems of regional educational services market in Russia are low quality of education and weak connection between educational market and labor market. In order to create conditions for successful formation of knowledge economy in modern Russia, it is necessary to solve these problems, which supposes the increase of quality of education and establishment of strong connection of labor market and educational services market. For this, the following recommendations are offered.
Firstly, it is necessary to lift the level of education quality. In addition to increase of the number of students, it is necessary to focus on improvement of quality and topicality of education and qualification development, in order to fight the problem of lack of convenient and popular skills with the graduates of higher educational establishments.
Secondly, it is necessary to increase diversity of authorities of the educational establishments and to increase the prestige of the technical and professional education. At present, there’s a critical necessity for diversification of the educational system, in order to reduce the excessive focus on theoretical knowledge and enrich the educational programs with certain applied studies that reflect the factual state of various spheres of national economy.
Thirdly, it is important to ensure flexibility and responsiveness of the educational system to the requirements of the regional labor market. The key attribute of development of the educational system is provision of necessary qualification and competence for specialists that are required at the labor market. For this, educational establishments require more flexibility and adaptability, in order to have time to adapt to quickly changing global economic environment and develop the required talents and skills with the students.
Fourthly, it is necessary to ensure correspondence of the Russian educational establishments to the world standards. Higher educational establishments of the world standards and the leading models of R&D centers and campuses are necessary for ensuring the development of talents in top-priority sectors of economy. Such models could be built from scratch, by modernizing the existing institutes, thanks to the partnership with the world-class universities.
Fifthly, it is expedient to create centers of leading experience in the sphere of scientific research. This requires investing large resources into educational centers of leading experience and into R&D centers. This will ensure the conduct of original and potentially innovational research and creation of the society of scholars, technologists, and specialists in various spheres of national economy.
Sixthly, it is necessary to implement the information and communication technologies into the sphere of education. At present, it is clear that there will be a transition to the next generation of solutions in the sphere of the information and communication technologies in education. Recently such technologies as platforms of E-education, tools for joint virtual work, Internet resources, digital access to libraries, video courses, and creation of virtual training programs have been tested in the Russian educational establishments with different levels of effectiveness.
Seventhly, it is necessary to stimulate implementation of the information and communication technologies as the main means of education, not additional. The information and communication technologies in education could be the most powerful tools for increase of quality of education, The people who grew up in the age of digital technologies, i.e., “digital natives” of the modern world, perceive the surrounding reality differently than past generations. That’s why successful education of new generation requires new approaches to education.
Based on the above recommendations, we developed a perspective model of development of educational services market in regions of Russia in the conditions of formation of knowledge economy, which is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2
The perspective model of development of educational services market
in Russia’s regions in the conditions of knowledge economy formation
Source: compiled by the authors.
As is seen from Figure 2, according to the offered model, development of educational services market in the region takes place in connection to the national strategy of development of educational services market and creation of knowledge economy and in view of peculiarities and needs of the regional socio-economic system, as well as specifics and the stage of formation of knowledge economy in the region. This allows achieving such results and accumulation and creation of new knowledge, necessary for development of the region, satisfaction of the region’s needs in human resources, creation of innovations that are ready for implementation in this region, and stimulating the optimization of business processes in the region in view of its strong and weak aspects.
Thus, modern Russia is in the process of knowledge economy formation which has been going on over the recent 25 years and will continue for 8 years with preservation of the current tendency. The state’s efforts for managing this process are peculiar for low effectiveness. The analysis showed that the probable reason for this is insufficient consideration of the regional peculiarities and needs during development of educational services markets in Russia’s regions.
A serious problem of creation of knowledge economy in Russia is weak connection between development of regional educational services market and the national course at formation of knowledge economy. The offered authors’ recommendations and the presented perspective model of development of the educational services market in the Russia’s regions in the conditions of formation of knowledge economy allow solving the determined problems, increasing effectiveness of management, and accelerating the process of formation of knowledge economy in modern Russia.
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1. Sports School of Olympic Reserve, Volgograd Oblast, Russia. e-mail: baranova_irina_v@mail.ru