Paul Ashwin - Professor of Higher Education, Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University. Address: Department of Educational Research, County South, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YL, UK. E-mail: p.ashwin@lancaster.ac.uk

In this paper, I examine the tensions between the transformational potential undergraduate degrees and ways we have of measuring and comparing the quality of those degrees nationally and internationally. I argue that what makes higher education a higher form of education is the relations that students develop to knowledge through the study of particular bodies of disciplinary and professional knowledge. Given, this I argue that this needs to be central to the ways in which we understand and measure the quality of an undergraduate education. I review current ways of measuring quality and argue that they do not capture these aspects of an undergraduate education and so are not fit for purpose. In conclusion I argue that higher education researchers have a responsibility to develop more valid ways of comparing the quality of undergraduate degrees.

Natalia Maloshonok - Candidate of Sciences in Sociology, Junior Researcher, Institute of Education, National Research University—Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: nmaloshonok@hse.ru

Academic dishonesty among university students is a major problem for higher education and has negative economic impacts in a lot of countries including Russia. While exploring why students choose dishonest ways of obtaining good grades instead of getting involved in the learning process and acquiring as much knowledge and experience at the university as possible, most researchers focus on academic dishonest practices, ignoring the reasons for and factors of honest learning behavior. We regard student engagement as the opposite of academic dishonesty and propose a conceptual model of how academic honesty at the university influences various aspects of student engagement in learning. We conduct an empirical study to test the hypothesis on the correlation between characteristics of honesty at the university and parameters of student engagement suggested as part of the conceptual model. We use the data collected by the Monitoring of Student Characteristics and Trajectories carried out in universities included in the Russian Association of Leading Universities in Economics and Management. Having analyzed the data on management and economics students in eight Russian universities, we conclude that the suggested hypothesis has been largely confirmed, and the proposed conceptual model may serve a productive basis for empirical research on the correlation between academic environment parameters and student learning behavior.

* в прикрепленном файле упоминается Levada Analytical Center (Левада-Центр), включённый Минюстом РФ в реестр некоммерческих организаций, выполняющих функции иностранного агента.

Elena Denisova-Schmidt - Candidate of Sciences in Pedagogy, Dr. Phil., Lecturer, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland); Research Fellow, Center for International Higher Education (CIHE), Boston College (USA). Address: University of St. Gallen (HSG), Gatterstr., 3, 9010 St. Gallen, witzerland. E-mail: elena.denisova-schmidt@unisg.ch

Martin Huber - PhD, Professor, University of Fribourg (Switzerland). Адрес: University of Fribourg, Bd. De Pérolles 90, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. E-mail: martin.huber@ unifr.ch

Elvira Leontyeva - Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Head of the Chair of Sociology, Politology and Areas Studies, Pacific National University. Address: 136, Tikhookeanskaya str., Khabarovsk, 680035, Russian Federation. E-mail: elvira.leontyeva@gmail.com

The authors investigate the effect of anti-corruption educational materials — an informational folder with materials designed by Transparency International — on students’ willingness to participate in an anti-corruption campaign and their general judgment about corruption in two cities in Russia and Ukraine by conducting experiments. During a survey of 350 students in Khavarovsk (Russia) and 600 students Lviv (Ukraine), young people were randomly exposed to either a folder with information about the negative effects of corruption in general and in the higher educational system in particular (treatment group), or a folder with corruption-irrelevant information (control group). The effects were statistically significant in the total sample in Khabarovsk and only in some social groups in Lviv. The results might be interesting not only for scholars,  but also for policy makers and practitioners.

Evgeniya Shmeleva - Research Assistant, Institute of Education, National Research University—Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: eshmeleva@hse.ru

The study aims to find out how plagiarism and cheating as dishonest practices correlate with personal characteristics of students (e. g. their involvement in learning and research activities) and specific features of the learning environment. The survey of university students and professors conducted as part of the 2014 Monitoring of Education Markets and Organizations provided the empirical basis for research. The impact of factors was assessed using two binary logistic regressions with response variables describing presence/absence of cheating and plagiarism experience. We show that these types of academic misconduct are not affected by whether or not the university applies formal or informal plagiarism checking techniques. Professor intolerance to cheating and willingness to take strict punitive measures appears to play a  more important role in preventing academic dishonesty. Probability of using dishonest practices is also decreased by such factors as intensive preparation for classes, confidence in working in one’s field of study in the future, orientation towards the quality of education instead of its accessibility when choosing university and major. 

Mikhail Balyasin - Analyst, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: MBalyasin@hse.ru
Luís Carvalho - Academic Analyst, University of Porto (Portugal). Address: Reitoria da U. Porto, Praça Gomes Teixeira Porto, 4099–002 Porto, Portugal. E-mail: luis.carvalho.s@gmail.com
Georgiana Mihut - Research Assistant, Boston College Center for International Higher Education (USA). Address: Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. E-mail: mihut@bc.edu

Student perspectives and quality assurance have been prominent policy topics in the European policy landscape. Student surveys conducted by tertiary education institutions, national agencies or independent student organizations have systematically provided feedback to stakeholders  about numerous aspects that need improvement. Adding to the existing literature, the Course Quality Advisory Board (CQAB) of the Erasmus Mundus Student and Alumni Association (EMA) has launched the Course Quality Student Services (CQSS) survey in the fall of 2013. Unlike existing data collection mechanisms, the CQSS survey focuses on capturing the comparative experience that students undergoing an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) are excellently positioned to provide. This paper reports on the methodology and aggregated descriptive results of the second wave of the CQSS survey, with data collected between the 1st of June and the 20th of July 2015. CQSS amassed 2131 responses from students of 193 programs and 128 countries. Seventy-one programs managed to obtain 10 or more respondents. Information produced with the CQSS survey can be used to improve students’ experiences and enhance quality of programmes in Erasmus Mundus umbrella. Lessons learned can be also used to enhance provision of educational services in other internationally focused programs.

Alexey Bessudnov - Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology, University of Exeter (UK). Address: Amory Building 318, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ UK. E-mail: a.bessudnov@exeter.ac.uk 
Valeriya Malik - Leading Expert, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: vmalik@hse.ru

Using longitudinal data from the study Trajectories in Education and Career (TrEC) we analyse the probabilities of entering 10th grade for boys and girls as well as for students with different socio-economic backgrounds. In 2012 59% of pupils chose the academic track and continued their education in 10th grade upon completion of 9th grade, while others moved to vocational education. Girls were more likely to enter the academic track than boys. The probability of entering the academic track was considerably higher for students from more educated and wealthier families. We analyse total inequality in the educational transition as a sum of primary and secondary effects where primary effects refer to the inequalities in performance and secondary effects refer to the inequalities in making the transition controlling for per formance. We find strong secondary effects of parental education and wealth on making a transition to the academic track. There is no evidence of secondary effects of gender. The paper discusses mechanisms of gender and socio-economic inequalities in the transition to 10th grade and makes policy ecommendations aimed at reducing social inequality in education.

Sergey Kosaretsky - Candidate of Sciences in Psychology, Director, Center of Social and Economic School Development, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics. E-mail: skosaretski@hse.ru

Boris Kupriyanov - Doctor of Sciences in Pedagogy, Analyst, Center of Social and Economic School Development, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics. E-mail: boriskuprianoff2012@yandex.ru

Daria Filippova - Analyst, Center of Social and Economic School Development, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics. E-mail: skosaretski@hse.ru

This paper presents research results on children involvement in supplementary education. This research was conducted by NRU HSE in partnership with Levada Center as part of the 2013 Education Markets and Organizations Monitoring. The survey covered over 2,000 parents of school students involved in supplementary education provided by various institutions. Correlations between some parameters of student involvement in supplementary education (the rate and continuity/discontinuity of services’ consumption; the choice of supplementary education programs’ and institutions’ types; the place of supplementary education in the structure of free time and holidays) and family characteristics (place of living, financial status, cultural and educational background) are analyzed. Some solutions are suggested on how to overcome difficulties produced by differences in policies and the real situation in the field of supplementary education. For instance, authors claim that national policies oriented at children from vulnerable socioeconomic backgrounds and those living in rural areas should be a combination of two instruments: informational (raising parental awareness of and motivation for their children supplementary education), and socially supportive to disadvantaged families (introducing certificates for supplementary education services; setting quotas for public-funded places in high-quality supplementary education programs; targeted financing of supplementar y education programs in rural schools and schools for difficult students).

Andrey Luchenkov - Deputy Prorector for Studies, Siberian Federal University; Employee, Center of Organizational and Methodological Support for Federal State Educational Standards. Address: 79/10 Svobodny pr., 660041 Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation. Email: aluchenkov@sfu-kras.ru

In the age-oriented model, the high school aims to provide conditions for students to identify themselves as capable of goal setting and achievement and to get prepared for self-determination in learning and life. The model was implemented in Univers Gymnasium of Krasnoyarsk. The experimental and control groups of students were surveyed twice — at the end of Grade 9 and at the  end of Grade 11—using a battery of diagnostic methods to evaluate how the model prepared high school students for self-determination. The experimental group included high school students from Univers, and the control one covered students of two neighboring schools. The study revealed significant differences between the groups in every component of preparedness for self-determination: motivation and needs, cognition, and application. Thus, development of self-determination, world outlooks and moral conscience among students is possible and shows better performance in institutions based on the age-oriented model.

Diana Koroleva - Analyst, Center for Leadership in Education, Institute of Education, National Research University — Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: dkoroleva@hse.ru 

16–18-year-old students of Moscow schools and other educational institutions were surveyed to assess how the Russian school uses modern methods of e-learning, mobiles technologies and social media in the learning process. The sample covered 3,194 respondents. The study describes three waves of Russian school informatization and the challenges the system has been facing over the last five years: the extensive use of mobile phone s and PDAs with high-speed access to the internet by students, the active use of social media services for communication, search and storage of information. The article demonstrates the obvious progress of the schooling system: present-day teachers communicate with their students by email and via social networks and occasionally give homework assignments to be done online or using internet services. Yet, school remains an extremely conservative institution. The education system is insensitive to the rapidly development of technologies, and the process of modernization is essentially inhibited by sticking to conventional teaching practices and ignoring the innovative ones.

Elza Dyachkova - Leading Expert, Center for International Competitiveness of Higher Education, Institute of Education, National Research University—Higher School of Economics; Graduate Student at NRU HSE. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: edyachkova@hse.ru

In this paper, we discuss the methods of endowment management existing in the world and their applicability to the Russian university system. The endowment spending research focuses on the following issues: reinvesting endowment income; identifying the size of expendable endowment income; using the endowment body, not only income; choosing endowment spending policy, rule and rate endowments, etc. We provide an overview of endowment fund financial indicators and endowment spending allocation in Russia. Based on the example of the HSE Endowment Fund, we analyze the use of endowment spending rules and model of financial indicators for 2008–2014. The University’s Endowment Fund endowment spending policies implement the preservation principle, which may be reasonable in a stable economy. However, the viability of the principle is questionable in the crisis, the more so since the endowment is mostly in rubles. Using net asset valuation methods, the HSE Endowment Fund could provide equity between generations with annual distribution of income in favor of the next and current generations.

Yury Zaretskiy - Doctor of Sciences in History, Professor, Faculty of Humanities, National Research University — Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: yzaretsky@hse.ru

Analyzing the most recent historical studies and sources dating back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the article reconstructs the fundamentals of degree awarding practices used in German universities of the Early Modern Period to understand whether they are comparable to present-day degree fraud practices. It examines into the academic degree concepts accepted in the pre-Modern Europe, analyses master’s and doctoral theses of the time, discusses the problem of their authorship, and traces back changes in the defense procedure as well as the historical and cultural factors which advanced the development of the modern doctoral degree. As long as social, cultural and intellectual transformations that prompted the emergence of the modern academic degree had only been completed by the beginning of the nineteenth century, the study considers it unreasonable to apply the currently existing academic and ethical criteria to the degree awarding practices of earlier historical periods. It does not mean fake degrees were a rare case or didn’t exist at all in the Early Modern Europe — it just means that academic fakeness was understood differently way back then.

Aleksey Lyubzhin - Doctor of Sciences in Philology, Research Fellow, The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Moscow State University Research Library. Address: 9 Mokhovaya str., 103073 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: vultur@mail.ru

We fully support the researcher’s conclusion that specific features of Eastern Asian mindset and learning attitudes should be taken into account when organizing schooling in a multinational community. Meanwhile, we believe the study actually answers a more specific question than stated in the title: namely, it compares the cultural foundations of learning not between the East and the West but between the traditional Confucian school and modern American school, being distracted from the content and course structure of education. In the decades to come, we will have a chance to see the results of the competition between these two schooling models and find out whether Jin Li was right with her underlying idea of advantages of the Confucian approach and her forecast that the creative potential of Europeans and Americans would reduce and their research capabilities shrink due to schools attempting to develop both.