Olga Magomedova, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute's International Best Practices Analysis Department, explained in a commentary for Izvestia that the current crisis in the Western higher education system is a consequence of changes in the labor market, rather than a sign of the decline of the system itself.
"The higher education system is indeed going through a period of crisis and transformation in order to better meet the needs of the market. Against the backdrop of a trend toward increased labor specialization (when the division of labor deepens and the path to mastering certain skills becomes more complicated), companies are undoubtedly seeing an increase in demand for ready-made professional skills, hence the natural decline in interest in higher education qualifications, which provide students with fundamental knowledge in the disciplines they study. It is important to understand that the demand for applied skills does not diminish the socio-economic significance of higher education: the search for practical solutions is impossible without a systematic understanding of the field in which they are developed. This is especially sensitive for the exact and natural sciences," said the expert.
“For example, the development of the digital economy is unthinkable without specialists in engineering, technology, and technical sciences—from 2020 to 2025, the number of graduates in these specialties increased by 15.6% (in the specialty ”Computer Science"—by 17.9%). The number of graduates in the healthcare sector also increased by 15.8%. Therefore, the widespread observation that the mere fact of obtaining a higher education no longer provides the previously expected socio-economic advantages is evidence of a qualitative transformation in the relationship between the education services market and the labor market. This, in turn, is combined with a trend toward a more conscious approach to choosing a person's professional track at earlier stages of education—at the school level. The demand for intermediate professional qualifications is increasing the popularity of vocational training programs—between 2021 and 2024, the number of graduates in vocational specialties grew by 27.7%. However, this situation does not worsen the state of the higher education system but rather stimulates structural and substantive changes. For example, in Moscow universities, the top three specialties are traditionally led by economics and management, but from 2020 to 2024, the number of graduates in this field decreased by 7.9% against the backdrop of an overheated labor market with a surplus of white-collar (office worker) vacancies: those motivated to study for a long time and gain systematic knowledge simply choose other, more sought-after fields. The total number of university students has grown by 9.6% over four years," explained Olga Magomedova.