Russian universities benefit from private funding bonanza

By Eugene Gerden. Russian big business has significantly ramped up the amount of money it is putting into national universities in recent years, according to the presidents of Russia’s top universities. This chimes with a recent Times Higher Education analysis, which placed Russian universities in 11th place, in terms of money secured from industry per academic. That survey found that the Russian academics secured $36,400 (£22,300) per researcher, up from $25,000 in 2009. 
Private investment at the Moscow State University (MSU) has doubled since 2009 and now accounts for about 25% of the university’s RUB19 billion (£352 million) budget. The same trend can be seen at the Higher School of Economics, Russia's most prestigious economics university. Currently the School of Economics’ annual private donations are in the range of RUB1–1.5 billion – around 10% of total funding – and continuing to grow. More...