Today, a new struggle for control of Russia’s universities is underway between a “black”, private model and a centralized and seemingly more transparent state model. Yet the two are but different expressions of the same thing, writes Alexander Bikbov: spontaneous capitalist neoconservatism. What’s more, governments elsewhere in Europe are seeking to emulate the successful example of the Russian state in extracting profit from the public university.
Alexander Bikbov
is vice-director of the Centre for Modern Philosophy and Social Sciences, Moscow State University, and editor of the non-fiction book review Pushkin (Moscow). He runs a blog of his own on educational reforms in Russia and elsewhere. Blog