International Laboratory for Evaluation of Practices and Innovations in Education

Higher Education in Federal Countries: A Comparative Study is a unique study of higher education in nine federal countries—the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, China and India. In this book, leading international scholars discuss the role of federalism and how it shapes higher education in major nation-state actors on the world stage. The editors develop an overarching comparative analysis of the dynamics of central and regional power in higher education, and the national case studies explain how each federal and federal-like higher education system has evolved and how it functions in what are highly varied contexts.  

The book makes a major contribution to higher education studies and defines a new field of comparative analysis. It also provides important insights into comparative governance and the study of federalism and federal arrangements, with their particular historical, political, legal and economic dimensions.

Previous studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on higher education systems and student learning globally. However, despite this, many countries experienced an increase in doctoral enrolment in 2020, which has raised concerns about the quality of admission and the motivation of doctoral candidates during the pandemic. This article aims to explore this context by delving into statistics about Russian doctoral programmes, which saw a decline in enrolment from 2010 to 2019. We use data from a web survey of 1,895 students enrolled in doctoral programmes at Russian universities in 2020. The results suggest that the increase in enrolment came in tandem with a decrease in the quality of doctoral admission. More students with non-academic motivation and a lack of academic skills and attainment were admitted. This situation is likely to prompt completion rates to lower over the course of the next three to five years.

Numerical information can be represented in three formats: two symbolic (visual (digits) and verbal (number words)) and one nonsymbolic (analog) format. Studies have shown that the precision of symbolic numerical representation is associated with math performance. The precision of symbolic representation is mostly discussed as the precision of representation in a visual format, whereas the precision of representation in verbal format and its relation with math performance is less studied. The current study examines the precision of symbolic numerical representation in visual and verbal formats and the relationship between such precision and math performance when controlling for prior math performance, nonsymbolic numerical representation, phonological processing, reading skills and working memory. We used data from 367 Russian first graders (mean age, 7.6 years; 53% girls). To assess the precision of symbolic numerical representation, magnitude comparison tasks with digits and number words were used. It was found that the precision of symbolic representation in verbal format did not have a direct effect on math performance, but has an indirect effect via visual format of symbolic representation, even when controlling for prior math performance and other cognitive abilities.