“In the aspect of the study of value orientations, special attention is paid to the value of “education”.

Speaking about education, it should be noted that today there are several specific promising trends in the development of a modern university:

1. The attitude of students and their parents towards university education is becoming more and more consumerist. Of great importance are such components of choosing a university as a well-known brand, a beautiful and convincing catalog, good advertising, a modern website, and so on. In addition, and perhaps in the first place, the principle of "price-quality" turns into a leading one in determining a higher educational institution for future students and their parents. The university should be a mega market for knowledge consumption, with all the ensuing consequences.

2. For the majority of students, university education has lost the characteristic of "fatefulness". Education at the university is just an episode in their life, unfolding along with other equally important episodes: parallel work, personal life, and so on.

3. The university should be at the forefront of the technical and technological process, offering students the latest achievements in the organization of the educational process and student life.

4. Gradual university education is included in the process of virtualization, i.e. distance education programs, teleconferences, education via the Internet - sites and so on are gaining more and more weight. For any student, the university and the teacher should be promptly available.”

At the same time, over the past 15-20 years, many problems have accumulated in the Russian education system that threaten the preservation of the high educational potential of the nation.

One of the serious negative trends in the Russian education system has been the strengthening of social differentiation in terms of the degree of accessibility of different levels of education, as well as the level and quality of the education received. Interregional differentiation continues to grow, between urban and rural areas, as well as the differentiation of opportunities for obtaining high-quality education for children from families with different income levels.

“There is a problem of accessibility of higher education for people with disabilities, associated with the reform of the education system and social policy in relation to people with disabilities.

Despite the current federal legislation that guarantees benefits for applicants with disabilities, a number of factors make it difficult for people with disabilities to enter a university. Most universities in Russia are not provided with even the minimum conditions necessary for teaching disabled people in them. Higher education institutions do not have the opportunity to reconstruct their premises according to the principles of universal design from their own budgetary funds.

Currently, applicants with disabilities have two alternatives. The first is to enroll in a higher education institution at the place of residence, where there is hardly an adapted barrier environment, where teachers are hardly prepared to work with people with disabilities. And the second is to go to another region where such an environment exists. But then another problem arises related to the fact that a disabled person who comes from another region must “bring with him” the financing of his rehabilitation program, which is difficult due to the mismatch between departments.”

Within the boundaries of the common European educational space, students and teachers will be able to freely move from university to university, and the received document on education will be recognized throughout Europe, which will significantly expand the labor market for everyone.

In this regard, complex organizational transformations are ahead in the field of Russian higher education: the transition to a multi-level system of personnel training; the introduction of credit units, the required number of which a student must collect to obtain a qualification; practical implementation of the mobility of students, teachers, researchers, etc.

Any education is a humanitarian problem. Education, of course, means awareness and professional competence, and characterizes the personal qualities of a person as a subject of the historical process and individual life.

At present, there is a trend towards the commercialization of higher education, towards the transformation of universities into commercial enterprises. Relations between a teacher and a student are becoming increasingly market-oriented: the teacher sells his services - the student buys them or orders new ones if the proposed ones do not satisfy him. The disciplines taught are reoriented to the immediate needs of the market, as a result of which there is a “decrease” in the importance of systemic fundamentality. There is a reduction in the proportion of courses in fundamental sciences, which give way to the so-called "useful knowledge", that is, applied knowledge, primarily to numerous special courses, sometimes esoteric.

As a legacy from the Soviet era, Rossi inherited free higher professional education, one of the main principles of which was the competitive selection of university applicants. But there was and especially reveals itself in modern conditions, along with the official, a completely different practice of selecting applicants for higher education. It is based, on the one hand, on the social ties of the families of applicants, on social capital, on the other hand, on the basis of monetary relations, in other words, on the purchase of the necessary results of competitive selection, regardless of the actual level of preparation of applicants and their intellectual development. Not those who are better prepared and think better, but those for whom the parents were able to pay the necessary amount of money, go to school.

The university is both an intellectual and information center for local civil society institutions, as well as a forge of leadership skills for them. Higher education, primarily universities, can play a key role in the deep evolutionary transformation of regions, the country as a whole, in the formation and development of civil society in it. This requires the formation of interest both in university structures and in the student environment.

“The first paid places in state universities appeared in 1992. The demand for paid higher education services began to form precisely from that time, i.e. even before the opening of the first non-state universities (1995) In 2001-2002. 65% of the respondents considered paid education more prestigious, and among the group of "payers" this opinion was expressed by 75% of respondents. In 2006-2007 the total number of students who deny the greater prestige of commercial education compared to education at state universities increased to 87%, and the share of those who hold the same opinion among the "payers" was 90%. Among the reasons why one or another system of education is chosen, the main ones are still the ease of admission and the desire to reduce the risk of failing exams to zero (more than 90% both in 2001-2002 and in 2006-2007) . Other reasons - the level of training of teachers, the best technical equipment of universities - do not have a significant impact on the selection process. When studying the attitude of students towards paid education, it is important to consider what their ability to pay for education is.

Also, based on the study of Tyuryukanov E.V. and Ledeneva L.I., it can be noted that now the prestige of higher education is high both in general among the population of migrants surveyed by them, and in each individual region. At the same time, in general, migrant families are distinguished by limited adaptation resources: both material, and information, communication and social. They are torn out of their usual life context and have limited access to social services and cultural values. The successful integration of migrants into Russian society, their transformation into an organic part of the Russian population will, in particular, contribute to the implementation of the educational orientations of their children

L..V. Latypova

Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor of the Department of Management

Surgut State Pedagogical University

The problem of accessibility of higher professional education

Consider the state guarantee of higher professional education for Russian citizens. To do this, consider the following documents:

the Constitution of the Russian Federation;

Law of the Russian Federation "On Education";

Federal Law of the Russian Federation "On Higher and Postgraduate Professional Education";

National Doctrine of Education in the Russian Federation until 2025;

The concept of modernization of Russian education for the period up to 2020.

After analyzing these documents, it follows that in all of the above documents, the state does not guarantee the availability of higher professional education. Lack of State Guarantees for the Accessibility of Higher Education V.I. Sukhochev, rector of the Kumertau Institute of Economics and Law, explains the following reasons, with which it is difficult to disagree: firstly, either the state cannot or does not want to give such guarantees; secondly, either the state artificially restricts citizens' access to higher professional education; thirdly, either the state does not have sufficient funds to finance educational institutions of higher professional education. In V. I. Sukhochev's opinion, it is precisely the third reason - the state's lack of sufficient financial resources for financing - that does not yet make it possible to guarantee the accessibility of higher education. At the same time, he does not exclude the second reason from among the main reasons, that is, the artificial restriction of citizens' access to higher education, since, in his opinion, the state proceeds from the need to observe the proportionality of the level of professional qualifications of the able-bodied population of Russia to the degree of complexity of the work performed in various industries. economic complex of Russia. This is directly stated in the Federal Program for the Development of Education for 2000-2005 in the subsection of the expected results of implementation: “... ensuring a dynamic and optimal (highlighted - V.S.) ratio of the number of specialists with secondary vocational and higher vocational education in the economy and social sphere."

The availability of higher education is influenced by the following factors: economic - the ability of the family to pay for the courses required for admission to the university and the entire learning process itself; territorial - the place of residence of the family; status - the desire of parents to preserve for children the level of social status of its members achieved by the family.

Higher vocational education is difficult to access for the following groups: students in rural schools; returned from the army; students from migrant families; disabled people; students from vocational schools, secondary schools, students from poor, handicapped, unemployed families, as well as for street children and graduates of orphanages.

For a more detailed study of the issue raised, consider the availability of higher education for some groups.

To begin with, let's consider the benefits provided for the population upon admission to a university and benefits for paying for tuition.

When entering a university out of competition, the following are accepted:

orphans and children left without parental care, as well as persons under the age of 23 from among orphans and children left without parental care;

citizens exposed to radiation as a result of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant;

citizens under the age of 20 who have only one parent - a disabled person of group I, if the average per capita income of the family is below the subsistence level established in the corresponding subject of the Russian Federation

citizens who have completed military service under a contract in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for at least three years

children with disabilities, disabled people of groups I and II, who, according to the conclusion of the federal institution of medical and social expertise, are not contraindicated in studying at the relevant higher educational institutions

Preferential right to enter universities are:

citizens discharged from military service;

children of servicemen who died in the line of military service;

children of persons who died or died as a result of military trauma;

The following categories of students enjoy a 20% discount when paying for tuition for the first semester of study:

Demobilized or transferred to the reserve from the ranks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the year of admission or in the previous calendar year;

Participants in hostilities in "hot spots" (in accordance with the Federal Law of January 12, 1995 No. 5-FZ "On Veterans")

Winners of regional specialized Olympiads of the Ministry of General and Vocational Education of the Sverdlovsk Region, the Department of Education of Yekaterinburg, as well as other regional Olympiads;

Persons who graduated from institutions of secondary (complete) general education, primary and secondary vocational education with a medal or a diploma with honors.

A 20% discount when paying for a semester in the absence of academic debts in the previous semester, upon their application, is provided to students who have lost one of their parents during the period of study, orphans or left without parental care, students with disabilities, students whose parents (parent) are disabled ( disabled), large families (3 or more children). Students - members of the same family are given a 10% discount, students - members of the same family who have a dependent minor child - 15%, the birth of a child during the period of study - a 30% discount to the student-parent in the current semester, in the next - 20%.

If there are documented reasons (illness, salary delay, other reasons), individual students, upon their application, may be allowed:

Payment delay;

Monthly payment.

Higher education is difficult to access, primarily, in my opinion, for the disabled. According to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the number of universities is steadily growing in the country. During the period from 1990 to 2005, their number increased from 514 to 1,068. Moreover, the number of non-state universities is growing to a greater extent, of which there were not a single one in the country in 1990, and by 2005 there were already 413 commercial higher educational institutions registered. The significant growth of universities increases the chances of getting a higher education, but not all universities are adapted to the fact that they teach a disabled person. Few institutions of higher education are sufficiently equipped to accommodate people with disabilities. These universities are: St. Petersburg University. Herzen, Moscow State Pedagogical University (former Lenin Moscow State Pedagogical Institute), Chelyabinsk State University, Ural State Pedagogical University, Krasnoyarsk State Trade and Economic Institute, Novosibirsk State Technical University, Kuban State University. Of course, the problem is obvious, there are few universities. But in addition to the traditional type of training, there is a distance type. It allows people with disabilities, and not only them, to get a higher professional education using the Internet. There are many positive aspects that distance learning gives citizens, among them: learning at an individual pace, freedom, flexibility, accessibility, technological effectiveness of education, social equality, as well as distance learning is cheaper than traditional. It should not be forgotten that there are also disadvantages of distance learning. Distance learning may not be available for a number of reasons such as failure to pay tuition or poor technical facilities. Distance learning increases the accessibility of education, especially for people with disabilities, for whom travel is rather difficult.

Consider the availability of higher education for students in rural schools.

In many ways, for students in rural schools, the territorial factor is of the greatest importance. It is difficult for students to adapt to a new environment, there is a difficulty in obtaining a place of residence with a lack of places in the hostel provided by the university where the applicant will study. Also, students in rural schools are given an insufficient amount of knowledge necessary for entering the university, therefore, this leads to spending on tutoring, paying for additional courses, etc., which requires additional resources from the student's parents. Basically, the parents of a student are simply not able to pay for tuition at a university, since in the villages the average per capita income is very low, and there is also difficulty in getting a job. It is difficult for students of rural schools to enter a university, especially for prestigious specialties, the competition for them is very high, there is a high probability that they will not enter state-funded places. Although of course it depends on the passing of the exam, the number of points scored by them as a result of testing. In the case of good performance, students in rural schools can pass the competition and enter the budget. Thus, students of rural schools can enter the university for non-prestigious specialties.

Having touched upon the topic of the influence of the USE on the accessibility of education, I consider it necessary to consider it. All 11th grade students take the unified state exam. There are compulsory subjects for testing, as well as items to choose from. The test program is divided into three parts, which allows you to assess the real knowledge of students, it is also easy for students to navigate when solving this test. Having confidently solved the first part of the exam, they will know for sure that they already have a satisfactory grade in their certificate, the second part assumes, accordingly, the grade is good, the third part is excellent. In schools, before the exam, thorough preparation and trial testing are carried out. The exam gives you a great chance of getting into a university. In my opinion, a very good program that gives talented children the opportunity to receive a higher professional education.

Many social services, including education, are not available to migrants. The availability of education is influenced by such factors as:

knowledge of the language. This factor plays the most important role in obtaining higher education. For almost everyone, the Russian language is the second most studied, if not the third, but the first in importance. Poor knowledge of the Russian language reduces the opportunities for obtaining higher professional education, since the Unified State Examination in the Russian language is mandatory for all school students. Due to the lack of knowledge of the Russian language, a large gap in knowledge between students of the local population and visitors, it can be difficult for teachers at school to give a sufficient amount of knowledge to students from migrant families. All this leads to a low level of quality of secondary education, and therefore access to higher education will be difficult.

financial situation. Basically, migrants who lived in their own country occupied a good social and economic position, but after moving to Russia, their situation worsened in many respects. What is it connected with? Migrants are provided with low-skilled jobs, which are claimed by the local population. It often happens that former urban families, who have been engaged in intellectual labor for several generations, are forced to settle in Russian villages and "retrain" for manual agricultural labor.

place of residence. The nature of the settlement in which the child lived, both at the time of departure from the former place of residence, and at the present time, has a strong influence on the formation of attitudes towards receiving higher education. It will be quite difficult for students of rural schools, as mentioned above, and even more so for migrants, to get into a university than for residents of large cities.

passport and legal status. It is sometimes difficult for some families to obtain Russian passports, it happens that families have only passports from the country where they previously lived. Basically, migrants from the CIS and Baltic countries do not have passports. Lack of legal status limits migrants' access to higher education.

The number of students from the CIS countries who studied full-time in the state. universities in Russia has increased markedly, since 1999-2001. it was 18.3 thousand people, in 2006-2007. - 25.3 thousand people The number of foreign students studying at state universities in Russia (the Baltic States, Europe, Asia, the USA, Latin America, Canada, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand) increased slightly in 2001 and amounted to 59.9, in 2005 - 60.9 thousand people. The growth of migration, and, consequently, migrant students, overcoming obstacles to higher education, such as changing their financial situation, place of residence, developing additional courses to increase the level of knowledge should be actively considered and addressed.

In conclusion, I would like to say that, in my opinion, higher education is available in different ways, for different segments of the population. This is not to say that it is not available. The state seeks to expand opportunities for higher education. Of course, I do not deny the fact that the Unified State Examination and GIFO, various educational loans issued to students and graduates are not enough to make higher education accessible to any citizen. The state needs to solve many problems, changes and certain clear legal acts are needed, which will clearly indicate the benefits given by the state to the population, and the education that will be available to every citizen of the country.

Bibliography

State guarantees of accessibility of education. IN AND. Sukhochev

Orientation of children of migrants to higher education. E.V. Tyuryukanova, L.I. Ledeneva / Sociological research - №4 - 2005 - P.94-100

Y. Yutkina. Distance education: pros and cons. Web: http://www.distance-learning.ru/db/el/0DD78502474DC002C3256F5C002C1C68/doc.html

Higher education: rules and reality / Ed. team: A.S. Zaborovskaya, T.L. Klyacho, I.B. Korolev, V.A. Chernets, A.E. Chirikova, L.S. Shilova, S.V. Shishkin (responsible editor) - M .: Independent Institute of Social Policy, 2004.

I.V. Rassadnikov. Problems of Accessibility of Higher Professional Education for Persons with Disabilities

Introduction

Education is the process of mastering the Images of the world and oneself in it, i.e. education should also include an educational function. Upbringing contributes to the formation of personality, and education - to the development of personality. Today, upbringing and education are given in different places.

The unemployed in our country are mostly women and men with a fairly high level of education. Often these are former employees of scientific and design institutions, office workers, engineers and designers of enterprises of the military-industrial complex. During the Soviet period, city organizations accumulated an excess of workers of this profile.

The discrepancy between the acquired professions and the demands of the labor market, the need to subsequently change the profile of specialization (about 1/2 of all types of professions for which training is carried out in educational institutions are not required in the labor market; in this regard, up to 50% of young specialists are retrained without starting work according to the profession mastered in an educational institution) and, as a result, low interest in the quality of the education received.

Object: students receiving (received) education in educational institutions

Subject: factors affecting students' education

Purpose: to analyze the dynamics of the level of education of students.

Objectives: First, to identify problems of higher education accessibility. Secondly, to determine the percentage of people with higher education in specific situations. Thirdly, to determine the growth dynamics of students receiving higher education.

Defining problems of higher education accessibility

“In the aspect of the study of value orientations, special attention is paid to the value of “education”.

Speaking about education, it should be noted that today there are several specific promising trends in the development of a modern university:

1. The attitude of students and their parents towards university education is becoming more and more consumerist. Of great importance are such components of choosing a university as a well-known brand, a beautiful and convincing catalog, good advertising, a modern website, and so on. In addition, and perhaps in the first place, the principle of "price-quality" turns into a leading one in determining a higher educational institution for future students and their parents. The university should be a mega market for knowledge consumption, with all the ensuing consequences.

2. For the majority of students, university education has lost the characteristic of "fatefulness". Education at the university is just an episode in their life, unfolding along with other equally important episodes: parallel work, personal life, and so on.

3. The university should be at the forefront of the technical and technological process, offering students the latest achievements in the organization of the educational process and student life.

4. Gradual university education is included in the process of virtualization, i.e. distance education programs, teleconferences, education through the Internet - sites and so on are gaining more and more weight. For any student, a university and a teacher should be promptly available” Pokrovsky, N. E. A by-product of globalization: universities in the face of radical changes [Text] / N. E. Pokrovsky // ONS - 2005. - No. 4. - S. 148-154 ..

At the same time, over the past 15-20 years, many problems have accumulated in the Russian education system that threaten the preservation of the high educational potential of the nation.

One of the serious negative trends in the Russian education system has been the strengthening of social differentiation in terms of the degree of accessibility of different levels of education, as well as the level and quality of the education received. Interregional differentiation continues to grow, between urban and rural areas, as well as the differentiation of opportunities for obtaining high-quality education for children from families with different income levels.

“There is a problem of accessibility of higher education for people with disabilities, associated with the reform of the education system and social policy in relation to people with disabilities.

Despite the current federal legislation that guarantees benefits for applicants with disabilities, a number of factors make it difficult for people with disabilities to enter a university. Most universities in Russia are not provided with even the minimum conditions necessary for teaching disabled people in them. Higher education institutions do not have the opportunity to reconstruct their premises according to the principles of universal design from their own budgetary funds.

Currently, applicants with disabilities have two alternatives. The first is to enroll in a higher education institution at the place of residence, where there is hardly an adapted barrier environment, where teachers are hardly prepared to work with disabled people. And the second is to go to another region where such an environment exists. But then another problem arises related to the fact that a disabled person who came from another region must “bring with him” the financing of his rehabilitation program, which is difficult due to the mismatch of departments” Yarskaya-Smirnova, E. R. The problem of accessibility of higher education for disabled people [Text] / E. R. Yarskaya-Smirnova, P. V. Romanov // Sotsis. - 2005. - No. 10. - S. 48-55 ..

Within the boundaries of the common European educational space, students and teachers will be able to freely move from university to university, and the received document on education will be recognized throughout Europe, which will significantly expand the labor market for everyone.

In this regard, complex organizational transformations are ahead in the field of Russian higher education: the transition to a multi-level system of personnel training; the introduction of credit units, the required number of which a student must collect to obtain a qualification; practical implementation of the mobility of students, teachers, researchers, etc.

Any education is a humanitarian problem. Education, of course, means awareness and professional competence, and characterizes the personal qualities of a person as a subject of the historical process and individual life.

At present, there is a trend towards the commercialization of higher education, towards the transformation of universities into commercial enterprises. Relations between a teacher and a student are becoming more and more of a market nature: the teacher sells his services - the student buys them or orders new ones if the proposed ones do not satisfy him. The disciplines taught are reoriented to the immediate needs of the market, as a result of which there is a “decrease” in the importance of systemic fundamentality. There is a reduction in the proportion of courses in fundamental sciences, which give way to the so-called "useful knowledge", that is, applied knowledge, primarily to numerous special courses, sometimes esoteric.

As a legacy from the Soviet era, Rossi inherited free higher professional education, one of the main principles of which was the competitive selection of university applicants. But there was and especially reveals itself in modern conditions, along with the official, a completely different practice of selecting applicants for higher education. It is based, on the one hand, on the social ties of applicants' families, on social capital, on the other hand, on the basis of monetary relations, in other words, on the purchase of the necessary results of competitive selection, regardless of the actual level of preparation of applicants and their intellectual development. Not those who are better prepared and think better, but those for whom the parents were able to pay the necessary amount of money, go to school.

The university is both an intellectual and information center for local civil society institutions, as well as a forge of leadership qualities for them. Higher education, primarily universities, can play a key role in the deep evolutionary transformation of regions, the country as a whole, in the formation and development of civil society in it. This requires the formation of interest both in university structures and in the student environment.

“The first paid places in state universities appeared in 1992. The demand for paid higher education services began to form precisely from that time, i.e. even before the opening of the first non-state universities (1995) In 2001 - 2002. 65% of the respondents considered paid education more prestigious, and among the group of “payers” this opinion was expressed by 75% of respondents” Ivakhnenko, G. A. Dynamics of students’ opinions on the modernization of higher education [Text] / G. A. Ivakhnenko // Sotsis. - 2007. - No. 11. - S. 99 .. In 2006-2007. the total number of students who deny the greater prestige of commercial education compared to education at state universities increased to 87%, and the share of those who hold the same opinion among the "payers" was 90%. Among the reasons why one or another system of education is chosen, the main ones are still the ease of admission and the desire to reduce the risk of failing exams to zero (more than 90% both in 2001-2002 and in 2006-2007) . Other reasons - the level of training of teachers, the best technical equipment of universities - do not have a significant impact on the selection process. When studying the attitude of students towards paid education, it is important to consider what their ability to pay for education is.

Also, based on the study of Tyuryukanov E.V. and Ledeneva L.I., it can be noted that now the prestige of higher education is high both in general among the population of migrants surveyed by them, and in each individual region. At the same time, in general, migrant families are distinguished by limited adaptation resources: both material, and information, communication and social. They are torn out of their usual life context and have limited access to social services and cultural values. The successful integration of migrants into Russian society, their transformation into an organic part of the Russian population will, in particular, contribute to the implementation of the educational orientations of their children

The problems of access to education are of concern to almost all Russian society. These problems are discussed not only by scientists and officials from the education system, but also by teachers and parents. The reason is that education is increasingly regarded by both the population and the governments of most countries of the world as an important economic resource that ensures successful self-realization, social mobility and material well-being of the individual in the modern world. At the same time, the requirements that were and are being made to those who want to get an education are not always the same, which creates the problem of inequality, primarily related to the accessibility of education and its quality for people of different socio-economic status, nationality, gender, physical abilities, etc. The principle of equal opportunity in education is to give everyone, regardless of background, the opportunity to reach the level that best suits their potential. The lack of equal access to education actually means the perpetuation of economic, social and cultural inequality, blocking the way for children from the lower layers to the upper ones. There are several concepts of unequal access to education. This is a legal inequality, which is seen as an inequality of rights enshrined in law and socio-economic inequality, due to the socio-economic characteristics of different groups of the population.

For Russia, experts note discrepancies between the proclaimed goals and real facts, indicating the inability of the education system to meet these goals. The formation of the economy of the new Russia was accompanied by a sharp and significant reduction in public spending on education. This led to the degradation of institutions at all levels of education. The deterioration of the material and technical base and human resources had a negative impact on the accessibility and quality of education.

The Russian education system does not ensure social mobility of the population, there are no “equal start” conditions, quality education today is virtually inaccessible without connections and / or money, there is no system of social (grant) support for students from low-income families. The introduction of market relations into the sphere of education causes a growing degree of inequality among educational institutions, primarily higher education. Political and social changes, the development of democracy create favorable conditions for reforms, including in the field of education, but these same changes cause an increase in corruption, crime and other negative consequences.

The development of the non-state sector in the field of education and the official provision of paid educational services (including the use of paid forms of education in state educational institutions) in the context of ensuring equality and accessibility is ambiguous. Paid educational services in 2006 were provided to the population for 189.6 billion rubles, or 10.4% more than in 2005. On the one hand, the development of a system of paid educational services expands access to vocational education through the introduction of paid vocational education, which has brought Russia to one of the leading places in the world in terms of the relative number of students in higher educational institutions. But on the other hand, paid education reduces its accessibility to the poor.

In the context of the constant underfunding of the education system and the growth of its payment, the incomes and disposable resources of parents are a significant factor affecting the accessibility of education for children from different social strata of the population. The subjective side of the problem of accessibility is that almost all social groups are sure that education has become paid.

Introduction to the problem

1. The role of educational career planning

2. The problem of paid higher education

3. The role of the USE in the accessibility of higher education

Summary

Literature

Introduction to the problem

The issues of developing education in our country are hot issues, they now affect the interests of almost every Russian family. One of these issues is the accessibility of higher education.

Since 2000, the number of students admitted to universities has exceeded the number of those who successfully completed 11 classes and received a matriculation certificate. In 2006, this gap reached 270 thousand people. University enrollment has exceeded 1.6 million in recent years.

But a sharp decline in the number of applicants due to demographic reasons is not far off. For another year or two, the number of school graduates will exceed 1 million people, and then it will decrease to about 850-870 thousand. Judging by the situation in recent years, there should be a huge surplus of places in universities, and the problem of affordability will cease to exist. So is it or isn't it?

Now having a higher education has become prestigious. Will this situation change in the near future? To a large extent, the prevailing attitude towards the problems of higher education is formed under the influence of the trends that we observe - and it is rather inertial. In 2005, it is hard to believe that in the early 90s of the last century, young people thought whether to go to university or not. Many then preferred to make a choice in favor of the “real business”, and now they are “gaining” education in order to consolidate the social status that they received by postponing their studies to a later date.

But a significant part of those entering universities in recent years go there only because it becomes simply indecent not to have a higher education. Moreover, since higher education is becoming a social norm, the employer prefers to hire those who have received it.

So, everyone learns - sooner or later, but they learn, albeit in different ways. And it is difficult for us, in the conditions of an educational boom, to imagine that in a year or two the situation in the higher education system can change and, accordingly, our perception of many problems associated with entering higher education will change.

1. The role of educational career planning

On June 30, 2007, the Independent Institute for Social Policy (IISP) held an international conference dedicated to the results of the large-scale project “Accessibility of Higher Education for Socially Vulnerable Groups”. Speaking about the accessibility of higher education, we will largely rely on these studies, which are unique for Russia. At the same time, we will dwell on the results of another very interesting project “Monitoring the Economics of Education”, which has been conducted by the HSE for the third year already.

As the results of both studies show, the desire to get a higher education and the willingness to pay for tuition is characteristic of almost all Russian families: both families with high incomes and families with very modest incomes. Both parents with a high level of education and those with a low one are ready to pay. However, different family resources lead children to different outcomes. This determines not only which university the child will eventually enter, but also what job he will be able to apply for after receiving higher education. But different financial possibilities of families begin to influence the education of a child much earlier than it comes to entering universities.

These opportunities are already determined by the school in which the child went to study. If even 20 years ago you could simply send your son or daughter to a school next to your home, now you have to choose the “right” school. True, both 20 and 30 years ago, the quality of a school was largely assessed by how its graduates entered universities: everyone or almost everyone entered a good school. No matter how many eminent figures in education now say that the school should not train for a university, that the orientation towards admission deforms the educational process, cripple the child's psyche and creates in him the wrong attitudes in life - the school continues to prepare for a university. But if earlier it was possible to say that everyone gets good from a good teacher, and this supplemented the characteristics of the school, now a good school is a necessary, but, as a rule, far from sufficient condition for admission to the university in which the child wants to enter or in which wants to identify his family. And now almost no one remembers the teacher. At the same time, in recent years, the formation of educational networks of universities has been underway, and depending on whether the school belongs to the near or far circle of such a network, the chances of a child getting into the chosen university increase or decrease.

However, a child's real educational career begins even before school. Parents now have to think about it literally from his birth: which kindergarten he will go to, how to get into a prestigious school, which one to finish. It can be said that now from early childhood there is an accumulation of the "credit" educational history of the child. It is important not only how he studied, but also where. Admission or non-admission to a particular university is a logical continuation of an educational career, although it does not end with a university.

Consequently, a lot now depends on how early a family thinks about the prospects for the education of their child. And it is access to a good kindergarten and a good school that largely determines access to a good university. When we talk about the problems of rural schools, we primarily focus on the fact that the quality of education in rural schools is lower than in urban ones. This is generally true, but it is far from the whole truth. In the village, a child goes to the kindergarten that is available: his family has no choice. He goes to the only school, he again has no choice. Therefore, his parents do not think about his educational career; more precisely, they can think about it quite late, when the question of whether to go to study at a university and, if so, which one, will already rise to its full height.

A similar problem exists for children from small and even medium-sized towns. The possibilities of choice are small for them from the very beginning, and the limited choice of the university only reinforces and confirms this.

If we talk about the possibilities of choosing a school for children in the capitals (Moscow and St. Petersburg), then they are higher here. The role is played not only by higher incomes of the population, but also by the presence of a developed transport network that allows a schoolchild, especially a high school student, to get to school on the other side of the city.

At the same time, it must be emphasized that the educational opportunities provided by Moscow are significantly higher than in other regions of the country. This, in particular, is evidenced by the volume of paid services provided to the population of the city in education compared to other Russian regions.

So, the presence or absence of a choice either pushes parents to plan an educational career, or puts this problem on the back burner. And a separate question is the price of such a choice.

Is this situation exclusively Russian? Generally speaking, no. In developed countries, parents start planning their children's educational careers very early. Naturally, the quality of this planning depends on the educational and material level of the family. One thing is important - a modern university begins with a kindergarten.

2. The problem of paid higher education

In a study under the IISP project, E.M. Avraamova showed that children from families with a low resource potential are now enrolling en masse in universities, but this enrollment has ceased to fulfill its traditional role for higher education - the role of a social elevator. As a rule, after graduating from a higher educational institution, they find that higher education does not give them either income or social status.

Table 1

Relationship between the resource endowment of households and the possibility of obtaining a promising profession

Disappointment sets in. This is especially difficult for low-income families, since they, having sent their child to a university, as a rule, have already exhausted all the possibilities for a social breakthrough. Wealthier families, having discovered that the education received does not meet their expectations, rely on obtaining a second (other) higher education or some other prestigious educational program (for example, an MBA program).

A.G. Levinson, in his research within the framework of the IISP project, revealed that in Russian society, obtaining two higher educations is becoming a new social norm. 20% of persons aged 13-15 years old declare a desire to receive two higher educations, including 25% of young people in the capitals and 28% in the families of specialists.

Thus, educational careers are becoming increasingly complex, involving constant choices. Accordingly, the problem of the accessibility of higher education is changing, being built into a new social and economic context.

It is also important to take into account that entering a university does not solve all problems - this is only the beginning of the journey. You have to graduate from a prestigious university. And this has become an independent problem in recent years.

The availability of higher education also depends on how the state will finance it. Currently, spears are also breaking here. The majority of the population (according to the results of a study by A.G. Levinson) continues to believe that education, including higher education, should be free. But in fact, more than 46% of the total number of students in state universities pays. Today, 57% of students study at state universities on a paid basis in their first year. If we take into account the contingent of non-state universities, it turns out that in Russia at present every second student pays for higher education (in fact, 56% of Russian students are already studying on a paid basis). At the same time, the cost of education, both in the public and non-public sectors of higher education, is constantly growing.

As early as 2003, tuition fees at state universities exceeded tuition fees at non-state ones. At prestigious higher education institutions, tuition fees can be 2-10 times higher than the average, depending on the type of institution and specialty, as well as the location of the institution.

Significant funds are spent by families not only on education at the university, but also on admission to higher education. According to sociological research, families spend about 80 billion rubles on the transition from school to university. This is a lot of money, so changing the rules for admission to universities (for example, the introduction of a unified state exam - the Unified State Examination) will inevitably affect someone's material interests. Tutoring accounts for the largest share of the above amount (approximately 60%). It is unlikely that tutoring in itself can be considered an absolute evil. Firstly, it was, for example, back in Tsarist Russia, was practiced in the Soviet era, and has flourished at the present time. Secondly, with mass production - and modern education is mass production - the need for an individual fit of a product or service to the needs of the consumer is inevitable. This is the normal role of the tutor.

But in recent years, for many tutors (although by no means for all), this role has changed significantly: it began to consist in the fact that the tutor had not so much to teach something within the framework of the school curriculum, and not so much to give knowledge in accordance with the requirements are no longer universities, but a specific university, how much to ensure admission to the chosen university. This meant that payment was taken not for giving knowledge and skills, but for certain information (about the features of examination problems, for example, or how to solve a specific problem) or even for informal services (to poke around, follow up, etc.). Therefore, it became necessary to take a tutor only and exclusively from the educational institution to which the child was going to enter (this applies both to the provision of some exclusive information, and to the provision of informal services). This does not mean that admission to all universities was necessarily associated with tutors or with informal relationships, but it became more and more difficult to enter prestigious universities or prestigious specialties without appropriate “support”. In general, the idea began to take shape that a good education at school was no longer enough to enter the university that allowed one to hope for a successful professional career in the future.

Sociological studies have shown that parents are still inclined to believe that "you can study at a well-known university for free, but it is no longer possible to enter it without money." Connections are an alternative to money. In a "regular" university, there may still be enough knowledge itself, but the knowledge itself is already differentiated into just knowledge, and knowledge, taking into account the requirements of a "specific university". And this knowledge is given only either by courses at the university, or again by tutors.

38.4% of applicants are guided only by knowledge. At the same time, the orientation only to knowledge when entering in this context means that the applicant and his family are not inclined to enter into informal relations for the sake of entering a university. But this does not at all indicate that such applicants will not use the services of tutors, it’s just that the perception of a tutor in this case is different - this is a person (a teacher or a university lecturer, just a certain specialist) who transfers knowledge, and does not “help with admission” .

Orientation to knowledge and money or/and connections among 51.2% of applicants indicates that the applicant (his family) believes that knowledge alone may not be enough, and it is necessary to insure either money or connections. In this case, the tutor performs a dual role - he must both teach and provide support to his client upon admission. The forms of this support can be different - from withdrawing to the right people to transferring money. Sometimes, however, a tutor can only teach, and intermediaries for transferring money are sought independently of him. And, finally, the third category of applicants openly counts only on money or connections. At the same time, a tutor can also be taken, but his payment is actually the mechanism for paying for admission: this is the person who pushes into the university - we are no longer talking about the transfer of knowledge.

The extremely high proportion of those who consider it necessary to use money and connections when entering a university (more than 2/3) indicates that persistent clichés arise in public opinion, which university can be entered “without money”, and which “only with money or connections. Accordingly, entry strategies are built, the choice of a university is made, and ideas are formed about the availability or inaccessibility of higher education among various groups of the population. It is characteristic that the concept of accessibility is increasingly supplemented by the words "quality education". In this context, it is no longer significant that higher education has become accessible at all, but that certain segments of it have become even more inaccessible.

3. The role of the USE in the accessibility of higher education

Because of this, the unified state exam should and will be perceived extremely ambiguously in society. The idea of ​​the USE as a tool to fight corruption in entrance examinations or tutoring (which is far from the same thing) does not exhaust even a small fraction of the understanding (or misunderstanding) of this tool. When they say that the USE increases the accessibility of higher education, then in a situation where it has already become accessible, this statement is of little worth. The answer to the question of who exactly and what kind of education will become available as a result of the introduction of the USE becomes the most important. Obviously, a prestigious education will never be enough for everyone - that's why it is prestigious (which includes a certain restriction of access). It will also not be possible to create a mass good higher education in a short time (and in Russia the contingent of university students has grown 2.4 times over 15 years). The process of massization of higher education in the country is proceeding at an unprecedented pace (similar processes in the republics of the former USSR, as well as other countries with economies in transition, have not acquired such a scale), and the quality of education in its traditional sense will inevitably fall in these conditions. Therefore, if earlier it was possible to talk about fixing a certain quality and expanding accessibility, now the achieved level of accessibility must be provided with at least some acceptable quality. At the same time, given the limited budget funds and effective demand of the population, this task cannot be solved simultaneously for the entire system of higher education. It would be more practical and honest to legitimize the differentiation of universities, especially since at the moment everyone knows that they differ in the quality of education. It is the explicit fixation of differences in the quality of the educational program that could become the basis for posing the problem of accessibility, since the question would no longer be raised about the accessibility of higher education in general, but in relation to a specific category of higher education institutions. But to legitimize the differentiation of universities in terms of prestige or the quality of the educational program (which, generally speaking, does not always coincide) means at the same time to legitimize the differences in their budgetary financing. They - these differences - exist at the present time, but they are informal (exclusive). Making them formal and clearly defined means, on the one hand, fixing some rules of the game, and, on the other hand, explicitly prescribing the responsibilities of those universities that are at the top. In other words, formalization will also affect the rights and responsibilities of the parties, and whether the parties are ready for this is a big question. The idea of ​​GIFO - state nominal financial obligations - no matter how controversial it was in itself, this problem made it possible to fix this problem very clearly: many prestigious universities, to which all applicants would come, even with the highest GIFO category - the 1st category, would not receive those the budget they currently receive. And, besides, it could have happened that they would have come with lower categories of GIFO, which would have jeopardized the financial well-being of these universities.

At the same time, the lack of formalization of differences in the position of universities leads to the fact that teachers of even very prestigious educational institutions receive very small salaries, and tutoring becomes an almost obligatory means for them to stay teaching at a university. Our calculations show that, on average, a tutor receives about 100-150 thousand rubles a year. or about 8-12 thousand rubles. per month. Considering that the budgetary salary of even a professor is on average 5.5 thousand rubles, we find that the tutoring “appendage” provides an income for a university teacher somewhat higher than the average salary in industry or the average salary in such an industry as non-ferrous metallurgy. Naturally, prices and incomes are highly differentiated in this sector.

If we look at the problem of the USE from these positions, then it will come out in a slightly different perspective. Already at the present time, in the course of the experiment on a single exam, an active redistribution of tutoring income towards the teaching corps has begun. In general, the rates for tutoring in those regions where the USE is held are starting to fall. At the same time, it can be expected that at the same time the prices for paid education in universities will begin to rise, otherwise, the problem of the staffing of universities, which is already quite acute, will become even more aggravated. It should be noted that tuition fees in state and municipal universities of the country are growing by 15-25% annually, while in non-state universities the rate of growth in tuition fees has begun to noticeably lag behind state ones.

The USE experiment revealed another regularity - the results of the unified exam depend quite strongly on the size of the school: the more students in the school, the higher, all other things being equal, the average score obtained by its graduates when passing the USE. In the Samara region, only for schools with more than 500 students, the score obtained by graduates exceeds the average score for the USE. This situation is easy to explain - a large school has both the best staff and the best educational base. It follows that with a full-scale transition to the Unified State Examination, first of all, graduates of large schools will have access to prestigious higher education. Since such schools are mainly concentrated in the city, the path to prestigious higher educational institutions will be less accessible for children from the village. The children of small and medium-sized towns again find themselves in an unenviable position. At the same time, it is extremely difficult to predict the impact on the quality of school education and the accessibility of high-quality higher education that the policy of school consolidation may have. However, without such a policy, in the current demographic situation, the number of schools will be reduced, and the learning outcomes may be very low. True, a decrease in the average USE score will again change the situation with access to higher education that will be considered high-quality.

Summary

In general, we can conclude that the problem of access to higher education in recent years has acquired new perspectives. On average, higher education has become much more accessible. But for a particular school graduate, this “on average” is not very important. For him, the accessibility of the university where he wants to enter is important. And it may well turn out that this university has not become more accessible to him. Therefore, the time has come not only to look for tools to increase the accessibility of higher education as such, but, finally, to move on to particulars and evaluate how many graduates, although they entered higher educational institutions, did not achieve their goal. In other words, we are talking not so much about the volume of higher education as about its structure, and if the volume is consistent, the structure, which is very noticeable, does not meet the needs and expectations of the population. It also does not meet the needs of the labor market, the employer. However, this is a topic for another conversation.

Literature

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Krasnozhenova G.F. The current state and prospects for the development of scientific and teaching staff of higher education. M., MGAPI, 2006.

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