Institutional factors affecting the results of export activities of russian universities

The article presents results of the research aimed at analyzing the institutional level factors influence over the results of export activities of Russian universities. To accomplish the aim of the research, an econometric analysis of quantitative data on the performance indicators of Russian universities was conducted. The research pool includes 153 universities from all regions of the Russian Federation. Based on the analysis of academic publications on education export efficacy factors, the authors formed a list of institutional level factors supposedly positively influencing the results of university export activities. The data were taken from the reports of the university self-monitoring; from the Monitoring of higher education institution activities efficacy; and from the statistical collection «Export of Russian Educational Services». During the research, the author suggested and tested hypotheses on seven institutional factors positively influencing university export activities efficacy. Linear regression data analysis using the least square method was conducted to test these hypotheses. The research results demonstrated the fact that the growth of foreign students numbers at the university is related to implementation of international double diploma programs and teaching programs diversification. Income from export activities is influenced by network partnership with foreign universities, implementation of short-term incoming academic mobility programs and commercialization level of foreign students training. The popularity of a University brand in the Internet has a positive influence over both numbers of foreign students and income from their training. The hypothesis on positive influence of university activities in the field of transnational education program implementation on export activities results was not proven. This form of export is not sufficiently developed in Russian universities. The regression coefficient meanings for some institutional factors are significant, but not high. This means that in the mid-term perspective universities cannot achieve significant increase of export efficacy by means of only improved institutional performance indicators. Export activities of Russian universities are greatly influenced by external environment factors. Therefore, a positive result can be achieved only by complex approach combining state level measures for attracting foreign students to Russia and by actions of universities in this area. The results obtained are of interest for university executives, as the identified statistically significant dependencies demonstrate perspective university development directions that would facilitate export efficacy. The article observes a limited number of factors. This is stipulated by the fact that some institutional level factors can hardly be quantitatively evaluated and by the limited statistical data on international educational activities of Russian universities. Further research in this field will allow for broadening the number of analyzed institutional factors and studying the mechanism of dependence between factors and university export results in more detail.