Assessment of the effectiveness of budget financing of innovative Russian universities

Abstract

The research is devoted to the study of the effectiveness of public funding of innovative universities of the Russian Federation that participated in the 5-100 project and have the status of national research universities. Analysis of the spending of taxpayers’ money has always been one of the important elements of federal accounting and control of any state. The 5-100 project itself was an important milestone in the development of Russian universities and in increasing their competitiveness in the international market. Of course, like any significant project with significant funding, “5-100” in all the years of its existence caused a variety of emotions, from complete delight to complete rejection. One of the elements of negative rhetoric was the investment of federal funds for the development of the scientific research of universities. However, during numerous inspections, no significant violations were identified, and the results of the project were found to be satisfactory. At the same time, the authors of this article were interested in exploring the deeper layers of the 5-100 project the relationship between the territorial components and a number of important indicators, such as, for example, publication activity, income from scientific research and a number of others. Based on the analysis of statistical data, the heterogeneity of the ratio of RD results and the volume of budget financing of universities was revealed, and the influence of the territorial factor on the studied indicators was shown. Based on the analysis of eight indicators characterizing the publication activity of university employees and the volume of RD funding, the universities considered in the study are divided into three clusters without considering the territorial feature. The analysis made it possible, among other things, to identify the uneven distribution of budgetary funding for RD. The authors explain this effect by the territorial features of universities, when regional universities receive less funding compared to universities in the Central Federal District and the North-West Federal District. At the same time, not all universities of the Central Federal District and the North-West Federal District are distinguished by a high number of publications in domestic and foreign information and analytical systems of scientific citation. Yet, even with the distribution of funds, which could be more efficient, the significance of the 5-100 project for the development of the higher education system is still great and the current most important projects of the Ministry of Education and Science, such as Priority 2030, continue the best that was in project “5-100”.