The Russian Excellence Invitation for Higher Education: an Econometric Evolution of Short-Term Results

Student: Shibanova Ekaterina

Educational Programme: Measurements in Psychology and Education (Master)

Year of Graduation: 2019

The main objective of this study is to estimate the changes in the activities of Project 5-100 universities. The key research question focuses on short-term excellence initiative effects on efficiency, productivity and publication activity of participating universities. The paper develops a quasi-experimental research strategy: using propensity score matching, the author selects a control group of universities, and the average treatment effect is calculated to trace the effect on publication activity. On the next stage data envelopment analysis is used in order to evaluate the dynamics of efficiency change. Later the Malmquist index and its decomposition are used to assess universities’ productivity change. A striking inadequacy among studies evaluating the effects of excellence initiative on university activities is the lack of evaluation of performance and efficiency score changes between the participant and non-participant groups, which would help solve the attribution challenge using PSM. HEIs that are comparable in terms of observable characteristics to excellence-driven universities a year before the start of the program are chosen to enter the control group. The main finding is that participation in excellence initiative has a positive effect on participating universities’ efficiency. However, the average efficiency of participants does not differ significantly from the control group’s efficiency scores. A significant effect on publication activity is also present, as well as positive effects in terms of productivity of participants. The paper contributes to the discussion on the institutional effects of excellence initiatives. Finalizing the paper, the author proposes to review the current way of assessing the Project 5to100 participants and points out that complex structural transformations can be more prolonged in time. The main concern, however, is whether the universities will consolidate the achieved results over a longer period

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