A New Higher Education Policy In Russia : Enhancing Meaning-Centered Education via its Realization

Social and economic changes in the world, along withchanges in the culture of government and structural changesin the relationship between the state, the market and highereducation institutions, have resulted in new approaches pursuedby states towards higher education (Konstantinov &Philonovich, 2007; Peterka, 2011). Higher education institutions,in its turn, enjoy more freedom in choosing to focuson various tasks and goals to their academic activities. Thiscontributes to the diversity of expectations when it comes tothe various roles modern academic institutions take on withregard to their development. Among many existing conceptsin the current academic environment, the concept of “entrepreneurialuniversity” is becoming a critically importantconcept in Russia. In this article, we consider the concept of the EntrepreneurialUniversity as developed in Clark and Etzkowitz’s theories,and the ways the concept is being adjusted in the highereducation system in Russia. We analyze comparatively bothcontemporary and prior historical [1990s-mid2000s] statepolicies pertaining to higher-education institutions in Russiain order to provide an insight into how the national marketof knowledge intensive production is being established in thecountry. As a consequence of these analyses, we present anew model of how universities can take a more systemic andmeaningful approach to creating research-based innovation entrepreneurial activities. This approach is also viewed asmaking universities’ innovation activities more sustainableand thus less dependent on the state support.