Belarus: Higher Education Dynamics and Institutional Landscape

Abstract

The higher education (HE) system in Belarus has undergone important changes since the beginning of the 1990s under the pressure of the different internal and external factors (demographic, political, socio-economic changes, international cooperation, etc.). The horizontal system differentiation increased with the creation of the new private and public higher education institutions (HEIs) and changes in the functioning of the former Soviet HEIs. Belarusian HE experienced an important and fast massification and many of HEIs used it as opportunity to step out from the narrow specialisation imposed during the Soviet period. Nevertheless, HEIs diversified their curricula principally in response to social demand that was not closely connected to existing transforming economy’s needs. The vertical system differentiation inherited from the Soviet period was slightly changed and strengthened especially at the beginning of 2010 as a result of government policies and of the introduction of national, regional and international rankings. As a result, the leading state HEIs at the beginning of 1990 reinforced their position and the new private or recently created public HEIs play a marginal role in the national HE system. The organisational interrelationship between HEIs has also changed from the logic of complementarity under the Soviet period to the logic of the competition for the students and for the resources. As the Belarusian HE system has attended the limits of its expansion at the end of 2000, in the nearest future the tendency of its reduction will reinforce and the decreasing number of national students will inevitably impact the number of the HEIs and increase the competition between remaining HEIs. This chapter analyses the system of HE inherited from the Soviet period and explores the main factors influencing the transformations in the Belarusian HE landscape during more than 20 years. It also presents the typology of existing Belarusian HEIs and draws some prospects for further evolution of the national higher education system.