Strategies of heads of professional education institutions

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No. 5 (79), 2014 Author: Yaroslav Kouzminov, Dina Migunova The surveys of heads of professional education institutions is a component of the monitoring of education markets and organizations (MEMO). The purpose of the survey is determining the degree of compliance of the heads’ strategies with the interests of the state and realities of development of the society. The ideas of the heads of professional education institutions regarding the educational services market, their notion of the modern condition and perspectives of their institutions’ development are examined, they being both experts and persons who make decisions in the sphere of professional education.

Contents

          The surveys of heads of professional education institutions is a component of the monitoring of education markets and organizations (MEMO). The purpose of the survey is determining the degree of compliance of the heads’ strategies with the interests of the state and realities of development of the society. The ideas of the heads of professional education institutions regarding the educational services market, their notion of the modern condition and perspectives of their institutions’ development are examined, they being both experts and persons who make decisions in the sphere of professional education.

The strategies of heads of professional education institutions are considered in all directions of the institutions’ policy: first of all the educational policy (consistently presented are first the issues of entrants, then the directions of improving educational programmes and finally the strategies of providing the employment of graduates), pricing, financial and personnel policies. The assessments of conditions of the institutions’ activities which are important from the viewpoint of implementing the corresponding strategies are given for each direction.

The factors affecting the selection of either strategy are examined annually. Such factors include the notion of the heads regarding the position of an institution on the educational services market and on the labour markets. The status of an education institution (whether state or private), the type of a locality where it is functioning, the branch where it belongs are also taken into consideration.

The system of indicators is of a modular type in accordance with which the thematic units of the core indicators (their trend being traced annually) and additional indicators which illustrate the examined phenomena in more detail and are introduced only once or periodically are formed.

The specific feature of the 2013 survey is a profound examining of problems related with the implementation of the Federal Law “On education in the Russian Federation” adopted in 2012, as far as the professional education is concerned, particularly concerning the abolishment of the level of lower vocational education.

The outcomes of the survey show that only 7% of higher education institutions are planning to be amalgamated with other education institutions in the very near future (Tables 1a-b). This indicator is higher among secondary vocational education institutions[1] and lower vocational education institutions (20-26%). Given this 78% of technical secondary schools are planning to be amalgamated with institutions of their level (more often it is the regional secondary vocational education institutions that hope to implement those plans[2]). As to lower vocational education institutions, most of them (78%) are planning to amalgamate with secondary technical schools, still 15% – with general education institutions.

Table 1a. Reorganization plans: 2013  (as a  percentage of the number of respondents)

Question: Is it planned to reorganize your education institution in the next one to two years?

Table 1b. Amalgamation with institutions of different levels: 2013 (as a percentage of the number of respondents)

Question: With what level of education institutions is your education institution supposed to be joined (amalgamated)?

On the whole the heads of both secondary vocational education institutions and lower vocational education institutions assess the forthcoming changes positively. In their opinion in connection with the reorganization the prestige of an education institution and the number of entrants will increase most of all (61% in secondary vocational education and 70% in lower vocational education). While the quality of education, personnel and salaries[3] will remain at the former level. The heads of secondary technical schools also believe more often than those of lower vocational education institutions that the resource base of their institutions and R&D amounts will be improved.

The special features of the surveyed period are an insufficient provision of institutions with means for improving teachers’ qualification, options for motivating the teaching activity; in 2013 this list was added also by resources for inclusive education; in the higher education sphere an insufficient provision with research equipment and devices was also revealed; in secondary vocational and lower vocational education the shortage of those is still more appreciable. As to secondary technical schools and vocational technical schools, a shortage of their provision with research literature and periodicals, software programmes and databases was revealed as well. However judging by the trend in the latter indicator at secondary vocational education and lower vocational education institutions the lagging behind in the IT sphere is liquidated extremely quickly. But as far as the main indicators characterizing the resource provision is concerned, there still remains a wide gap between higher education institutions and secondary vocational and lower vocational education institutions in favor of the former ones.

A positive trend is notices in the assessments of entrants at education institutions (it is most evident at the level of secondary vocational education as the number of the heads who had indicated  the growth of entrants in the current wave was threefold against the previous year[4]). At the same time the level of entrants’ knowledge is increasing, this being noted by 37% of heads in the higher education system, 22% – in secondary vocational education and 135 – lower vocational education.  The professional education institutions are gradually approaching the 2003-2005 entrants’ level (excluding a sudden leap in 2013), however the situation is still rather complicated). In such conditions the education institutions are to increase their activity in attracting entrants, as well as to change the strategies in the direction of improving the quality of educational programmes.

In every wave of the monitoring of education markets and organizations questions about adjusting the structure of educational programmes are asked. In 2013 such questions were concerned with the implementation of programmes of different levels and they were asked to all respondents. About half of higher education and secondary vocational education institutions do not plan to launch any educational programmes in the near future. About a third of higher education institutions are targeted at opening Master’s and NFET (non-formal education/training) programmes. Approximately 15% of secondary vocational education institutions are intended to launch the programmes of preparing skilled workers, qualified employees and specialists of the medium level and additional professional refresher programmes.

As to lower vocational education institutions, most of them are planning to introduce programmes of preparing specialists of the medium level. Also a rather popular direction for development is opening basic professional education programmes and additional professional programmes (approximately every 6^th institution is planning to start training at such programmes).

Many professional education institutions use a network format and an international cooperation with various organizations to implement educational programmes. According to the outcomes of the survey of heads of professional education institutions, almost every other higher education and secondary vocational institutions apply a network format for implementing educational programmes and about 20% of them are planning to make contracts with some organizations in the future. The main proportion of professional education institutions interact with educational institutions of different levels, as well as with NFET institutions. 42% of higher education institutions, 29% of secondary vocational education institutions and 20% of lower vocational education institutions cooperate with organizations of the research, medical, cultural, athletics and sports and other profiles. This form of interaction is preferred by Moscow and state higher education and secondary vocational education institutions (as compared with private and regional ones). 4% of higher education institutions, 8% of secondary vocational education institutions and only 3% of lower vocational education institutions cooperate with employers’ organizations, manufacturing enterprises and various governing authorities. It is important to note that regional state institutions of all levels do it more often. Besides the network format of implementing educational programmes, the professional education institutions cooperate with various international organizations in the sphere of education, with foreign state authorities and with foreign non-government organizations both in the education and research spheres. Given this the higher education institutions display the highest activity in these directions.

The trend in the assessments of graduates’ perspectives to find a job according to their speciality by educational institutions’ heads shows that after the worsening of the perspectives caused by the crisis the situation has been gradually improving.

The salary level which the graduates may be seeking differs greatly between Moscow and other cities in Russia (estimates differing twice and more) and between levels of education. The ratings of specialities are also absolutely different in each case. Thus in higher education in Moscow the engineering specialities are in the lead (the salaries may reach 68 thousand roubles), followed by social and economic specialities (the salaries may reach 63 thousand roubles), healthcare (57 thousand roubles), services and specialities in the field of culture and arts (56 thousand roubles), humanities (55), natural sciences (54), pedagogics (45) and agricultural sciences[5] (34). But the rating is quite different in secondary vocational education: in the lead are specialities in the field of engineering sciences, pedagogics and culture and arts (40-43 thousand roubles), followed by agricultural sciences (38), social and economic specialities, humanities and natural sciences (36), services (35) and medicine (30).

In the ratings for other regions of Russia the leading specialities in higher education are engineering sciences (up to 40 thousand roubles) and socio-economic specialities (34), followed by the sphere of services (31) and medicine, natural sciences and specialities in the field of culture and arts (30). At about an equal level are humanities and agriculture (up to 28-29 thousand roubles) and right at the bottom – pedagogical specialities (24).

In secondary vocational education the engineering specialities are also in the lead (up to 27 thousand roubles), then go specialities of the services sphere (22). At an equal level are medicine and socio-economic specialities[6] (21)  and agriculture and natural sciences (20). In the end are specialities in the fields of arts and culture, humanities and pedagogics (17-18 thousand roubles).   

In lower vocational education not all fields of study and directions of education are presented for a profound assessment, however among the groups that are sufficiently complete one would notice that engineering specialities are leading (the salary may reach 25 thousand roubles) and services (22), while the graduates in the field of agriculture may expect to receive 17 thousand roubles per month.

Many heads of institutions note that the turnover among young teachers is decreasing and the competitiveness of teachers’ salaries at educational institutions is increasing on the labour market (it was indicated by heads of professional education institutions of all three levels). Nevertheless, this also being their assessment, an average salary of teachers is 1.5-2 times lower than the level that would allow them to concentrate on their main activity (i.e. to stop combining it with other work elsewhere) and the one that would allow the heads to attract the best teachers to their institutions.

[1] Particularly among the Moscow secondary technical schools and state secondary technical schools.

[2] A peculiar situation is noticed in Moscow: 50% of secondary technical schools are planning to amalgamate with institutions of their level and the same proportion – with higher education institutions.

[3] In the opinion of 46% of heads of the Moscow secondary vocational education institutions, following the reorganization the salaries of the personnel will increase; while heads of the regional institutions of this level are more pessimistic and in 59% of cases they believe that the salaries will not change. The situation is the same when estimating the R&D amounts (in Moscow 45% of respondents predict a growth of this indicator, in the regions 66% indicate that the R&D amounts will not change).

[4] … this being related with the abolishment of the level of lower vocational education as a result of adopting the new law “On education in the Russian Federation”.

[5] In 2010-2011 the salaries of graduates with agricultural specialities reached 40 thousand roubles according to assessments by rectors of higher education institutions.

[6] In 2010-2011 the salary of graduates in socio-economic specialities reached 30 thousand roubles according to assessments by heads of lower vocational education institutions.