The engine of progress. As higher education inhibits the growth of the Russian economy
A lack of human capital may well be one of the most important factors that hinder long-term economic growth.
In recent years, in Russia, there were 950 institutions of higher education, with an enrollment of 5.2 million students. A similar scale of higher education output of the Russian economy in the group of world leaders to reach a young generation of higher education. With the increase in the share of young people who are students, and increases the average number of years of education is the main indicator by which the world is measured by the stock of human capital.
If you believe that the number of universities, students, and years of education per capita reflects the amount of knowledge, the search for the causes of stagnation, which today is the Russian economy, should not be in education, as in other areas, for example, poor protection of property rights.
It is, however, to draw attention to the fact that Russian students are massively involved in the work during training (in academic literature this phenomenon is called earning while learning).
In accordance with the data of the Russian monitoring of economic situation and population health at the HSE, about 2/3 of Russian students that responded to the relevant question in the questionnaire, combining education with partial-or full-time. The latter result can serve as a serious argument, questioning formed on the basis of quantitative indicators, a favorable impression of the state of Affairs in the field of tertiary education in Russia.
Study and work
Working while learning is not necessarily alarming. In a difficult economy, exporting electronics, high-speed trains and MRI machines, students should have a fairly long and hard to learn, to be able to occupy the ordinary position in the companies developing and producing technologically advanced goods and services. Hardly in this case, students will be able to replace the training work.
Having a job full time, they will not have time to understand the training material, without which it is impossible to master any current subject or part of the following related courses.
In their training, as well as interesting tech work will likely have to put a cross. Therefore, it is more likely that the students will mainly devote his time to training, supplementing it with related work. For example, passing an internship as an assistant engineer or a Junior analyst and getting an idea about how to use the University knowledge.
However, if we are talking about a less complex economy, dominated by the not-too-tech sectors such as trade, commodities, simple banking services, etc., in such a country for success in the labour market a long and hard training usually is not required. Of course, employers often need workers with higher education. Separate studies suggest that in Russia, workers on average receive a higher income if you finish high school.