OVER-BUREAUCRATIZATION OF RUSSIA HIGHER EDUCATION AS AN ANOMALY

The object of this research is the system of higher education in modern Russia. The subject of the study is anomaly over-bureaucratization of inter-institutional interactions in the sphere of higher education. The theoretical frame of the study includes the Max Weber classical theory of rational bureaucracy and the modern conceptions of higher education development.

The paper deals with one of the results of research barriers of higher education development in modern Russia. The author examines the bureaucratization of inter-institutional interactions in higher education as a serious obstacle to transferring to non-linear model. This model, which implementation is so important to the Russian society, is characterized by flexibility, openness, variability, and the ability to change. These qualities are largely provided by reducing the formalization of relations between educational groups, educational institutions and between higher education and other social institutions of society.

The research problem is the contradiction between the critical high level of bureaucracy inter-institutional interactions in Russia higher education and the need for flexible, organic changes and innovations in this area. Over-bureaucratization could be illustrated by using of the complex of bureaucratic instruments as the main or sometimes the only relations’ regulator within the universities, between universities and higher education governance structures. The bureaucratization is regarded as a social mechanism that compensates for the shortcomings of inefficient management in the system of Russian higher education. The bureaucratization «neutralizes» a lack of professional competence of education officials and the lack of productive technology of management control and management of changes in higher education.

The introduction of a huge number of regulations and codes of rules, reporting documents, a sophisticated system of formal indicators of universities and professors efficiency, the formalization of the grounds for the distribution of funds in the system of higher education leads to a number of anomalies:
1) inefficient use of time and human resources;
2) lack of motives for educational groups in daily activities and innovative behavior;
3) emergence of educational simulacra which is the simulation of various activities;
4) decreasing trust between academic and pedagogical community and management;
5) deformation of university partnerships with stakeholders;
6) open and latent resistance to any reform of educational structures, even those oriented towards positive outcome.

The study was conducted by the method of semi-formalized interviews with the representatives of the Russian universities. Among the informants were rectors and vice-rectors, directors of institutes, deans of faculties, heads of departments, and leading professors (total 50 interviews). Moreover, the method of secondary analysis of sociological research data, related to the issues mentioned in our study, was used.