Financial Resources Invested in Education: Global Trends and Russia’s Features

Semeko G.V.

Abstract

The article deals with the funding of education in Russia in the light of the objectives of the state program for development of education in 2018–2025. Comparative analysis of the financial resources invested in education in Russia and OECD countries shows that most of the global trends currently observed in the global educational system are inherent in the Russian education. Among them, the most significant are the reduction of costs on education (as a percentage of GDP), the state share in financing, the increase in the expenditure per student in educational institutions, the increase in consumer expenditure on tuition, etc. Comparative analysis also shows that the funding of education in Russia has a number of significant differences. Thus, there is a clear lag in the total expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP, which is largely due to the relatively low total government expenditure on education as a percentage of general government expenditure. The structure of financial resources invested in Russian education is more similar to the OECD average (in particular, the structure of expenditure on education by sources of funding and the allocation of expenses by level of education). However, indicators characterizing changes in the financial resources invested in education in the Russian Federation are poorly correlated with the OECD averages. Currently, the Russian education system faces a challenging task to become one of the leading competitive educational systems in the world. This involves updating approaches to its funding, i.e. major changes in the amount and forms of state financial support, which clearly do not meet the intended targets. Given the limited budgetary capacity that is unlikely to be overcome in the near future, it is important to focus on improving the efficiency of using the public funds. In addition, it is necessary to increase the mobilization of additional, extra-budgetary financial resources, in particular, investments of enterprises and organizations, as well as funds of the population. In comparison with world practice, these channels are currently used highly insufficiently.

Keywords

education system; education expenditures; sources of funds; educational policy; Russia; OECD.

DOI: 10.31249/rsm/2019.03.05

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