Higher Education: An Insurmountable Institutional Gap with the Labor Market

Abstract

The paper analyzes the interaction between higher education and the labor market in Russia. The general cultural and pragmatic functions of higher education are singled out and the predominance of the former in Russian history is shown. The author considers the discontinuity of education and the continuity of the labor market as processes and the possibility of their synchronization in a planned economy. Modern reforms of higher education are evaluated as unsuccessful attempts to bring higher education closer to the labor market, as a result of which the gap between them has only increased. The peculiar attitude of Russians to higher education is described. Conclusions are drawn about the necessity to preserve historically formed educational values, return to a specialty and training students in traditional scientific fields combined with the development of private educational centers and encouraging employers for the professional adaptation of university graduates.