Differentiation of universities by the level of teaching staff income: Correlation with the quality of education and research productivity

Abstract

A significant indicator for assessing the Russian universities' performance is the ratio of teaching staff income to the regional average. The study allows obtaining an objective picture of the diversity of Russian higher education institutions that determines the principles of their further cooperation and concentration of human resources (teachers, students) in those universities where salaries are above the regional average. The research problem is to identify the factors of differentiation of universities' differentiation that have a decisive effect on their type, taking into account the level of teaching staff income and the orientation of universities (focus on educational or research activity). The authors analyze the cases of 769 universities included in the 2017 database for monitoring the Russian Federation universities' performance. To process the obtained data, the methods of factor analysis, classification, and single-factor analysis of variance were used. A comparative analysis of university cases showed that 74% of universities teaching staff members are financially successful, and in 26% - unsuccessful. The universities that focus on research (factor significance = 0.696) and scientific (factor significance = 0.642) developments are both “smart” and “rich”. The institutions that focus on education can be “rich” in modern realities if they have a significant capacity in terms of publishing activity (factor significance = 0.322) without imposing strict requirements on participation in research for all teaching staff members. The results of the study have practical implications for improving the educational and research ecosystem benchmarks at the level of individual regions based on balancing university management tools taking into account their strengths (education, research), which will allow choosing strategies to enhance the economic growth of specific universities and to increase the human potential of the region as a whole.