Key Concepts and Definitions

Higher education: according to the International Standard Classification of Education higher education as a part of tertiary education is devoted to bachelors' (6), masters' (7) or doctoral degrees (8) and their equivalents levels

 

Higher education system: in most cases we consider a set of higher education institutions (public, private, for-profit) as a system

 

Differentiation: a process in which new entities (higher education institutions) emerge in a system (new may be a mixture/hybrid of characteristics of existing entities)

 

Horizontal differerentiation: a process in which new functional types emerge

 

Vertical differentiation: a process in which differences in status/prestige/quality emerge

 

Diversity: the variety of higher education institutions within a higher education system and or the dispersion of certain types across the system

 

Diversification: the process of increasing diversity in a higher education system

 

Landscape: a metaphor that depicts the overall composition of the higher education system

 

Organizational interrelationships in higher education: the static form of this relates to how higher education institutions are connected (either by free will or by purposive action of a key stakeholder). The dynamic form revolves around supporting cooperation, forming alliances andestablishing mergers

 

Educational and professional trajectory: educational tracks of particular student or student cohorts related to their academic achievements, social capital and meaningful individual life choices
 
Useful Terms[1]
 
Admission quotas: number of students whose fee is payed by government assigned to particular university
 
Fee-paying students: a general wording for all university students who pay for their education on their own as opposed to those ones whose tuition fees a payed by central goverment
 
Part-time higher education: form of distant learning based on fulfillment of written assignments by students who meet professors only once per semester
 
Assignment of graduates: distribution of university alumni to particular jobs fulfilled by educational administrators according to 5-year economic plans approved by central government of the USSR

 

Flagship university: relatively big specialized higher school (e.g. higher school of forestry or agriculture) controlling educational and research activities of a number of smaller regional higher schools or subordinated branches

 

Branch HEIs: a proxy of a bigger university located outside of Moscow and funded on the expense of its founding institution

 

 

Purposeful enrollment: admission quota allocated for the students from particular part of the country or from particular enterprise

 

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[1]specific for post-Soviet higher education systems