Strategic academic leadership programs in Russia: Past and future

The article discusses the projects aimed to develop the national higher education system: “5-100” supporting regional flagship universities and the “Priority 2030” program, as well as the problems of their implementation and opportunities for participating universities to improve their results in terms of ensuring the constitutional right of the citizens for affordable and quality education. It has become evident that although the concentration of resources in the group of leading universities contributes to their entry into prestigious international academic rankings, it widens the gap between them and the bulk of other universities as regards the infrastructure, procurement and human resourcing that deteriorates the development of the educational system as a whole. The authors emphasize the necessity to consider the experience of implementing the “5-100” project in the future, in particular, when carrying out the “Priority 2030” project launched in 2021. The authors outline positive aspects of this project which can facilitate the development mechanisms for the regions in the Russian Federation as a result of the government funding and the creation of consortia with leading universities. The article also covers the key points during the tendering procedures of the Priority 2030 project, which in the future can play a significant role in the process of implementation of development programs for individual universities. The authors conclude that the use of the “5-100” project experience can improve the performance of the entire system of the national higher education.