Pricing in Russian universities: how do competing universities influence tuition fees?

The paper analyzes the pricing strategies of Russian state universities in the context of the competitors’ influence over the tuition-paying education market. The aim of the study is to find out how competition in local higher education markets affects the pricing strategies of Russian state universities. The empirical basis of the study is formed by the data of the Monitoring of Enrollment Quality at Russian Universities implemented by National Research University Higher School of Economics. With the help of pattern analysis methods (order-fixed and order-invariant pattern clustering), homogeneous groups of universities are identified taking into account indicators, which characterize the scale and quality of admission to bachelor and specialist programs. On the example of technical programs, the authors demonstrate the regression model for predicting the 2011-2019 education prices in universities of corresponding homogeneous groups. The results show that each homogeneous group of universities has one or several market leaders who serve as benchmarks for other universities in that group when setting tuition fees. At the same time, university pricing strategies involve orienting towards market leaders in their demand segments and specialty groups. The identified features confirm that competition among universities for students and funding leads to the appearance of market leaders in certain market niches. In some groups of universities, there are clear market leaders at the local and regional levels who have a significant lead over competitors due to the peculiarities of state policy and high heterogeneity of the Russian educational landscape.