Methodology for assessing the accessibility of education infrastructure in the regions of the Russian Federation

Human development, striving to achieve decent living standards and quality of life give newfound relevance to social infrastructure designed to meet the population needs and develop human potential. Today, citizens are interested in a set of social services, their quality and accessibility, which can be provided by a competitive territory (country, region) rather than in basic social benefits. In this context, educational activity is very important. It can educate the entire population of the country, develop professional competencies that determine the growth of the economy, society, and improve the quality of people's lives. This prioritizes the development of education infrastructure and the need to ensure its accessibility to the population. The authors focused their attention on the analysis and evaluation of social infrastructure, put forward a broader view on examining accessibility of social infrastructure in the field of education, which was not limited to the traditional question of infrastructure facilities, but included digital and transport aspects (together with the facility). This determined the purpose of the study: to substantiate the need for a multi-criteria assessment of educational infrastructure accessibility and to propose a methodology for its assessment in the regions of the Russian Federation. The methodology developed by the authors evaluated a) facility accessibility, which determines the demand for the service provided by educational infrastructure facilities in the region; b) digital accessibility showing the ability to study remotely with digital technologies; c) transport accessibility as an opportunity to get to an educational infrastructure facility which is far away from the place of residence. Educational infrastructure accessibility was evaluated in the regions of the Ural and Volga Federal Districts with the proposed methodology. Sub-indices of the facility, digital and transport aspects of accessibility, as well as the consolidated accessibility index were identified. It was found that there are significant differences in social infrastructure accessibility among the regions of Ural Federal District and Volga Federal District, and there is a large gap among the constituents of these districts. The regions of Ural Federal District and Volga Federal District were ranked and grouped to identify priority areas for the development of education infrastructure with regard to differentiation of the regions in order to provide infrastructure accessibility to the population. The article outlines relevant research niches associated with better understanding of social services accessibility and highlights the areas where the methodology can be applied to assess social infrastructure for regional human development strategizing.