Importance The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation has conducted annual monitoring of the efficiency of higher schools' activities since 2012, to identify inefficient academic institutions coming under reorganization. The problem is that the methodology and the monitoring criteria are controversial; therefore, their perfection is crucial. Objectives The purpose of the work is to substantiate the applicability of multivariate statistical analysis to improve the methodology for assessing the effectiveness of higher schools on the case of four subjects of the Russian Federation. Methods The study employs statistical methods and multivariate statistical analysis, in particular, the cluster analysis. Results We divided into clusters the quality of all higher educational institutions and their branches located in the considered subjects of the Russian Federation. This enabled to have a consistent picture of the situation and identify qualitative characteristics and weaknesses. We believe the methodology for assessing the efficiency with the help of the cluster analysis needs elaboration. Conclusions and Relevance Assessing the formal fulfillment of the criteria underlying the monitoring is insufficient to consider a higher school's activity as efficient or inefficient.
Borisova E.I., Polishchuk L.I. Analiz effektivnosti v nekommercheskom sektore: problemy i resheniya [Analysis of efficiency in the non-commercial sector: problems and solutions]. Ekonomicheskii zhurnal VShE = HSE Economic Journal, 2009, no. 1, pp. 80–100.
Kim J.-O., Mueller C.W., Klecka W.R., Aldenderfer M.S., Blashfield R.K. Faktornyi, diskriminantnyi i klasternyi analiz [Factor, discriminant and cluster analysis]. Moscow, Finansy i statistika Publ., 1989, 215 p.
Kufel T. Ekonometrika: reshenie zadach s primeneniem paketa programm Gretl [Ekonometria: Rozwiazywanie problemow z wykorzystaniem programu GRETL]. Moscow, Goryachaya liniya-Telekom Publ., 2007, 188 p.
Levitskii M.L. Menedzhment v obrazovanii [Management in education]. Vestnik vysshei shkoly = Alma Mater (High School Herald), 2011, no. 5, pp. 50–57.
Levitskii M.L. Trudoustroistvo vypusknikov v sisteme otsenki kachestva vysshego professional'nogo obrazovaniya [Employment of graduates in the system of assessing the quality of higher professional education]. Vestnik vysshei shkoly = Alma Mater (High School Herald), 2012, no. 11, pp. 44–47.
Migunova D.Yu. [Rector’s weighty utterance. Assessing the higher school efficiency monitoring by heads of higher schools]. Akkreditatsiya v obrazovanii, 2014, no. 72, pp. 44–47. (In Russ.) Available at: Link.
Pereverzev V.Yu. Matematicheskaya model' ob"ektivnogo reitingovaniya obrazovatel'nykh uchrezhdenii na osnove kontseptsii informatsionnoi entropii [A mathematical model of unbiased ranking of educational institutions based on the information entropy concept]. Dvigatel' = Engine, 2012, no. 4, pp. 54–56.
Efron B. Netraditsionnye metody mnogomernogo statisticheskogo analiza [Computer-intensive methods in statistics]. Moscow, Finansy i statistika Publ., 1988, 263 p.
