ABSTRACT
THE MAIN ISSUE, TO BE CONSIDERED BOTH IN THIS AND THE NEXT chapter, is how higher education institutions in Russia should relate to the newly powerful regional/local governments. Should they ignore them and depend on Moscow, should they become subordinate to and dependent on the local government or what? For example, the new local governments were assigned responsibility for funding general schooling whereas the responsibility for higher education was ambiguous. Do the regional or local governments have decisionmaking authority regarding higher education? Is this authority supported by the financial capacity to implement these decisions? Are there legal competencies, administrative controls and delegated functions in place to develop and implement policies at the regional level?
