In the United States, nearly all academic research is carried out in small sub- set of the more than three thousand institutions of higher education. About 25% of all federal funds for R&D go t o the top ten institutions and 40% go t o the top twenty. These percentages have remained virtually constant over the past two decades.
Annual R&D expenditure at higher education institutions in the United States was estimated t o be slightly over $10 billion in the mid-1980s, about 2.5% of gross national product. One of the important characteristics of American higher education is the diversity of sources from which colleges and universities derive their support. Government at all levels (federal, state and local) provide almost half the total.
While public institutions derived about 60 percent of their revenue from government sources (almost half from state governments) and less than one- fourth from payments for instruction from students, private institutions present a very different pattern. The latter received less than one-fifth of their support from governmental sources (only 2.5% from state and local governments), but almost half from students in the form of payment for in- struction. The federal government has been the major funder of research in colleges and universities. In the fiscal year 1986, over two-thirds of univer- sity R&D budgets came from the federal government. Higher educational
180 R&D Conditions in Higher Education Institutions schools spent only 12% of total R&D funds in the nation, but over half of the Federal funds for basic research.
The pattern of growth in expenditures has been inflated during this period. Between 1972 and 1975, R&D expenditure (in constant dollars) increased a t an average annual rate of about 1%. F'rom 1975 through 1980, the average rate was 5%. After 1980, it levelled off and in 1983 growth was only about 1% above the 1980 level (refer t o Table 1).
R&D expenditures a t higher education institutions in Russia, as noted earlier, have only two sources that are usually reflected in statistical reports:
financing from the state budget and non-state financing. Information about R&D expenditures a t individual Russian higher education institutions be- tween 1970 and 1985 is not available, but, as already noted, more than half of the higher education institutes in the former Soviet Union are now in Rus- sia. Thus, we can use the data previously collected by the State Committee for Statistics (Goskomstat) for an analysis of the main tendencies.
R&D expenditures a t higher education institutions in the USSR were es- timated t o be slightly over 1.5 billion rubles per year in the mid-1980s, about 0.2% of gross national product. At official exchange rates, this amounts t o about 2 billion dollars (official exchange rates in the mid-1980s: 1 US dollar
= 0.75 rubles). This is only one fifth of expenditures in the United States. 48 million a t the black market rate), twenty times and one-hundred-fifteen times less respectively than in the United States. The expenditures from non-state sources in the USSR and in the United States were approximately equal.
In the mid-1980s the Soviet higher education sector derived about 12%
of its R&D revenues from state sources. The share of these sources decreased from 21% in 1970 t o 12% in 1985, indicating that government was consis- tently economizing on higher education. The pattern of growth was not very strong during this period. Between 1970 and 1985, state R&D expenditures increased a t an average annual rate of only about 4% (Table 1).
Comparing R&D expenditures at the top sixteen higher education insti- tutions in the United States t o those in Russia as shown in Tables 2, and 3, the contrast between the level of financial support for R&D in these countries becomes even more obvious. Total R&D expenditures a t the fifteen selected
Nadezhda Makaroua 181 universities and colleges in the United States (i.e., without the expenditures a t MIT) were on average higher than a t the top sixteen higher education industry was 1.5 times and 10 times higher than in Russia respectively.
An example of a higher education institute not subordinate in Russia t o the All-Union Ministry of Higher Education was the Moscow Institute of Radio and Electronics, seventh on the list in Table 3 by volume of total ex- penditures. This institution received markedly less state financing compared t o Russian institutes under direct Ministry of Higher Education authority or compared t o an institution of equivalent rank and status in the USA. For 1986, Table 3 illustrates that state support for R&D in this institute was 242,600 dollars (when 1 $ US = 0.75 rbls.) or 36,400 dollars (when 1 $ US
= 5 rbls.).
For the sake of comparison, we draw the reader's attention t o Table 2 and the seventh ranked US institution selected in our sample by volume of expenditures: Mississippi State University. State support (federal, state, and local) was 156 times higher for this institute than for the Moscow Institute of Radio and Electronics (at the official exchange rate). The share of contribu- tions from Academy and industry in these institutions were approximately equal.
Thus, we draw the conclusion that, in the mid-1980s, the R&D a t uni- versities and colleges in the United States received an appreciably larger amount of the state financial support for R&D, than any higher education institutions in Russia.
Due t o the absence of information concerning R&D expenditures of Rus- sian or former Soviet higher education institutes after 1985, the following reasoning is based on research and observation by the author.
Today, the situation with R&D support has changed considerably: on the one hand, the expenditures from the State budget can not increase under present circumstances and the inflation effect will in fact cause the real value to decrease. On the other hand, financing through commercial contracts is increasing. This increase, however, is sometimes difficult t o recognize, be- cause the traditional methods of accounting elucidate the sources of expen- ditures not financed by the state. The new forms of financing are connected with a new commercial structure in Russia; namely, the so-called m a l m
182 R&D Conditions in Higher Education Institutions predprejatie (the small enterprise). Maloe predprejatie affiliated with higher education institutions are organizations that include only a limited number of members (most of them are instructional staff of the higher education in- stitutes, only few post-graduate students and students), are self-accounting and offer various forms of activities, including R&D. Usually, there are sev- eral enterprises associated with higher education institutes. For the latter, this has become a chief source of funds for research and development. Unfor- tunately, due to the novelty of this economic organization, little information concerning the activities of such enterprises, has been collected. Indeed, even the methods t o accurately compile this information are yet t o be developed and implemented.
Furthermore, financial support for R&D at scientific organizations (in- cluding higher education institutions) is t o some extent based on the char- acter of work (basic research, applied research, development), so we devote the next section t o review basic characteristics of R&D a t higher education institutes in the United States and Russia.