Wrong road to Harvard

Despite making some of the right moves, says Tatiana Kastueva-Jean, Russia is unlikely to achieve its higher education goals.

Russia dreams of its own Harvard; or several, given the country’s size. It’s a matter of national prestige and economic importance. To have internationally recognised leaders can boost higher education and help improve human potential at a time of demographic decline.

But a May 2010 report from the National Bureau of Asian Research identified a Russian “education mirage”: that it was well-placed in terms of the number of higher degrees conferred and average years of schooling completed, but weak in international patents and number of articles cited, and prone to low labour productivity.