Higher education system in the Asian part of Russia

Managerial decision - making in higher education in Russia and some of its regions requires complete, precise and relevant information about the current state of higher education system. An important and the most precise source of information on Russian higher educational institutions activities at the present moment is the database of Higher education organization efficacy monitoring. The aim of this research article is to give a qualitative description of higher education system in the Asian part of Russia according to the set of characteristics on the basis of efficacy monitoring results for 2014. The result of the research allow for subdividing higher educational organizations in the region under analysis into groups on the basis of such characteristics as status, legal form, type of activity, student number and branch affiliation. The authors conduct the analysis of territorial positioning of higher educational institutions and spread of students among different types of organizations and specializations. Authors use descriptive methods of quantitative data analysis. According to the results of the research state higher educational institutions in the Asian part of Russia are usually situated in major cities and teach the majority of students. Smaller towns usually host private higher educational institutions or remote branches. More than a half of higher educational institutions in the region are remote branches (58 %) that teach only 11.2 % of the total number of students. Majority of educational institutions fall under the control of Russian Federation Ministry for Education and Science (42 %). They teach 69 % of the total number of students. There is a considerable number of private higher educational institutions (27 %) but they teach only 4% of the total student number. Higher education institutions in the region train students in 28 specializations. Economics and management is the most popular with 23.2 % of the total number of students. This specialization is taught at 84 % of all the higher educational institutions. About 90 % of private educational institutions offer only two specializations: Economics and management and Humanities. Educational institutions affiliated with different branches of economy usually conduct training in the relevant specializations. For example higher educational institutions related to the Russian Federation Ministry of agriculture train 92 % of all the students in the region studying specialization "Agriculture and fish resources". Russian Federation Ministry for Health care and social development educational institutions train 91 % of students studying medicine. The region rich in mineral and natural resources has developed branches related to mining and processing. At the same time specializations related to these field are studied by about 3 % of the total number of students in the region. There is a noticeable excess of specialists in humanities and economics. This article is one of the first attempts to describe the higher education system state in this major geographical region on the basis of efficacy monitoring data. Earlier researches had a more general description of monitoring results, gave detailed analysis of its data for one particular region or were devoted to discussion and criticism of the procedure. Materials presented in the article can be of interest for researchers and analytics working in the educational sphere as well as university heads and representatives of executive bodies of the Russian Federation territories dealing with education.