What defines prices for higher education at russian universities?

The aim of the article is the research in the field of university characteristics influencing the price of educational services and enrollment selectivity in terms of minimal entrance scores. We use statistics on 9600 bachelor programs collected by «Russian education» portal in order to define which charateristics of the region, city, specialization and university define entrance scores and the price of education. Using general linear model we can conclude that a) majority of variations in terms of prices is defined rather by the university characteristics (localization, age, size), than specialization; b) variation is largely defined by the difference of price levels in the region, and the regions with higher salaries (e. g. Moscow) prices are much higher than in poorer regions as it is, but in poorer regions the price for education is much higher in terms of average income; c) large cities have significant advantages as compared to smaller ones; d) university size and number of students of the program are important in determining prices; e) age of a university and academic potential in terms of lecturers with academic degrees which are used as the main variables determining the university status in American literature are practically insignificant. To support that we analyze the spread of minimal entrance OSE in the same programs. OSE are more varied in terms of specialization than in terms of university characteristics, though university characteristics are important too with two major differences: 1) in terms of city size good economic position of the region leads to lower entrance scores; 2) academic strength becomes statistically important. We believe it happens because outcoming educational migration is more pronounced in the regions with a relatively high level of life and academically successful students are oriented towards academic achievements of the university. Limitations of this research are related to the fact that it uses data only about state universities, excluding remote branches. In general results demonstrate that successful competition for income and talents at the educational service market is largely defined by characteristics beyond the control of university administration. Main practical conclusions are related to university efficacy evaluation: majority of indicators directly or indirectly depending on student demands are strongly and not always evidently influenced by contextual factors.