Statistical Assessment of the Development of the Regional Higher Education System

The radical restructuring of the higher education system that began in the Russian Federation, which began after the proposal of Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw from the Bologna system, requires a detailed analysis of the current state of the domestic system of highly qualified personnel training. This article presents the results of a study aimed at assessing the state of the higher education system of the Republic of Mordovia. The analysis was carried out for 2010-2022. During this period, the main characteristics of the higher education system in this region, following the all-Russian trend, decreased, which is mainly due to the course of demographic processes (the Republic of Mordovia occupies the penultimate place in the country in terms of fertility). Mordovia traditionally belongs to the number of subjects of the Russian Federation characterized by a large number of university students, correlated with the population of the region (in 2022, the region ranked 11th in the Russian Federation). And this indicator has been increasing over the years. The material and technical base of regional universities is constantly being strengthened. The equipment of Mordovian universities with computer technology is higher than in many Russian regions and even world-class Russian scientific and educational centers. The level of education of residents of the Republic of Mordovia is traditionally higher than that of the Russian population as a whole, and with the years the proportion of the population with higher education increases. However, this cannot be said about the citizens employed in the regional economy – the structural share of highly qualified personnel in the number of people employed in the economy of the Republic of Mordovia is not only lower than in the Russian economy as a whole, but also significantly decreased in 2010-2022. This indicates the reproduction of the archaic structure of the regional economy, the insufficient number of modern jobs requiring higher education from the performer. Improving the quality of specialist training by increasing the duration of training, which is planned to be undertaken after the abandonment of the Bologna system, may further intensify the flow of young people and highly qualified personnel from this region, which will become a threat to its sustainable development. To solve this problem, it is proposed to introduce a planned distribution of university graduates who have received education at the expense of the state budget.