Institute of Education: From Extensive Growth to Quality Development

Photo: Institute of Education

The first meeting of IOE Expert Committee, which includes six international experts in education from five countries alongside three Russian experts, was held on October 19-20. The Committee gave an independent assessment of the Institute's activity and recommendations for finalizing its development strategy until 2024.

The creation of expert committees, which include external experts with  experience, is common practice among leading universities and university departments around the world. There are over 50 similar committees in Harvard, and Higher School of Economics has the International Advisory Committee chaired by Eric Maskin, a Nobel prize winner in economics.

The Institute of Education decided to create its own expert committee, which includes specialists in education development. ‘A constant view from the outside,  and interaction with invited experts will allow us to assess our plans and activity impartially and critically, and not to risk missing  world trends,’ says Isak Froumin, Academic Supervisor of the Institute of Education.

The committee members studied the research and educational activities of the institute in dynamics, met with the heads of HSE centres, doctoral students, and university administration. Following the meeting, the Expert Committee will prepare a report on the results achieved by the institute and the prospects for its development. These recommendations will be taken into account when developing the strategy of the Institute of Education.

Here are some preliminary considerations of the Committee members:

 ‘In six years, the Institute of Education has grown from three to sixteen research centres, says Andrew Brown, former Director of the Institute of Education at the University College London (leader in the world rankings on education). ‘Now the window of opportunity for consolidating research and realising the consulting potential of the Institute is open. This requires more large-scale interdisciplinary projects, and the creation of research clusters on an international level.’

 ‘The Institute of Education is obviously moving from rapid extensive growth to quality development, and thus requires a strategic management system that corresponds to the ambitions of the institute as a national and international education research centre,’ says Valery Katkalo, Dean of Sberbank Corporate University.

According to Eric Anderman, Chair and Professor at the Department of Educational Studies at Ohio State University, the success of the young academic staff of the institute in short term is impressive, and now it is important to provide them with maximum support to protect them from ‘burnout’. For Marijk van der Wende, Founding Dean of Amsterdam University College, it is important that the institute manages to create unique databases of empirical data on Russia available to international partners.

 ‘The Institute is becoming a ‘thought factory’ in education,’ says Dmitry Sanatov, Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic Research ‘North-West’ Foundation. ‘The institute conducts landmark longitudinal studies, participates in the development of government decisions, and consults other universities on education development. This is a strong position, and needs to be developed further — to expand the network of partner organizations, and to continue the implementation of advanced research standards.’