Ministry of Education to launch monitoring of efficiency of higher education institutions

Russia’s Ministry of Education and Science will launch monitoring of the efficiency of higher education institutions, the ministry’s press service reported on Thursday. Statistic and analytical materials will help reveal inefficient higher education institutions and take a decision on their reorganisation, the report says. In order to get data the leadership of higher education institutions should register on the website of the Monitoring information and analytical system and file an electronic form till September 15, the report says. Earlier, Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov said: “This year considerable changes have been made in the procedures and the criteria of monitoring.” “The first one is that non-state higher education institutions and their branches were included in the monitoring system on equal grounds. The second innovation is that specifics of certain higher education institutions have been determined. A proposal has been put forth to select six groups of higher education institutions: military and law enforcement; medical; agricultural; creative; athletic; and transport. Monitoring signs were worked out for any group,” First Deputy Minister Alexander Klimov said. The sixth criterion has been introduced - “the ratio of graduates, who do not address employment bureaus within a year”, Klimov said, adding that every federal district would have its own threshold levels, which took into account the differentiation on the labour market. In the autumn of 2012 monitoring involves 541 higher education institutions and 994 branches. The monitoring proved that 30 universities and 262 branches were recognised inefficient.