Research Information System
in: People, Power, and Politics in Post-Pandemic World Order, Ahmet Gökbel,Erman Akıllı,Burak Güneş, Editor, Cambridge Scholars Publishing Ltd, Newcastle Upon Tyne, pp.124-143, 2023
According to the findings, post-Soviet countries have improved their position in global university rankings in recent years, but they still remain at the bottom of these rankings. The same is true for Azerbaijan, which currently lacks a single university ranked among the top 1,000 in the world university rankings. The methodology of these rankings evaluates indicators primarily covering universities' teaching, research, and economic impact activities. This means that, in comparison to the rest of the world, Azerbaijan currently lacks a single university that can make a significant contribution to economic development. In the last decade, Azerbaijan has taken a number of significant steps to increase access to higher education, improve educational quality, strengthen research activities, and expand universityindustry collaboration at both the government and higher education institution levels (World Bank, 2018; UNECE, 2021; Taylor et al., 2021). However, comparing the results obtained around the world reveals that there is still a long way to go.
Other international comparisons in the preceding section show that, while Azerbaijani higher education institutions lag far behind in all indicators, teaching indicators are relatively better than research indicators. However, some of the results in higher education institutions' economic impact indicators appear to be primarily through the teaching channel, while the impact of research and innovation activities is limited and not multifaceted. This is largely due to Azerbaijan's current higher education sector structure. This structure was passed down from the Soviet era, when specialized higher education institutions with no significant research obligations continued to operate relatively unchanged. As a result, the lack of serious research commitment and encouragement of academic staff in higher education institutions, as described by Androushchak and Yudkevich (2012) as a feature of post-Soviet countries, as well as the fact that they are primarily engaged in teaching, remains a key reality in Azerbaijan.
Despite the fact that Azerbaijan's higher education institutions are primarily teaching institutionsfirst generation universitiesinternational comparisons show that they are unable to fulfill these missions adequately. As a result, the main evidence is Azerbaijan's current low international position on tertiary school enrollment as a key indicator of access to higher education, as well as on the quality of higher education and its suitability for labor market students.
In Azerbaijan, which remains a factor-driven economy, very low R&D spending, primarily by the state, with a very small share from the private sector, is a major factor limiting overall research and innovation. The transfer of state funding primarily to research centers under the individual ministries and the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) continues to limit access to already scarce research funds for higher education institutions. As a result, an innovation ecosystem is emerging in a country where science, education, and industry are widely separated.
One of the primary reasons for Azerbaijani higher education institutions low potential for teaching, science, and innovation is a lack of professionalism among academic staff. With a few exceptions, the longstanding low salaries and material security levels of higher education institutions have prevented the formation of professional academic staff. Academic job requirements in higher education institutions, as well as promotion, are mostly opaque, have low quality standards, and are frequently of poor quality. The Higher Attestation Commission, which was established by Stalin and is in charge of issuing academic degrees and titles, also played a significant role in creating such a situation in the country. Although it has undergone many reforms to date, the activities of this institution still raise many questions among the academic community.
In view of the above, we believe that effective policy measures to be implemented in the country in the following areas will be useful in order to change the current situation for the better:
- Unequivocal acceptance of higher education institutions in the country as one of the main tools of economic development policy;
- Establishment of third-generation universities;
- Radical reorganization of academic career entry and promotion standards to meet quality requirements;
- Creation of systems that significantly improve academic staff's status and well-being and promote their quality teaching, research, and innovation activities;
- Increased access to higher education, including tuition fees, student loans, and effective distance education reforms;
- Continuously raise R&D costs and ensure that these costs are borne primarily by universities;
- Consolidation of higher education institutions to allow more efficient use of resources;
- Internationalization of the higher education sector and strengthening its integration into international systems.
The purpose of the research, as well as the methods and materials used, allow for a comparative assessment of higher education institutions' contributions to Azerbaijan's economic development. In the future, quantitative assessments of higher education institutions' contributions to economic development in Azerbaijan on individual parameters may be more important in order to make specific policy decisions.