Imperial selection

Economist Igor Lipsits on the Forbes YouTube channel says :

“Still, higher education is a certain product of the imperial structure of society. There was an emperor, he had to have an army, he was tired of having his own imperial culture, different from the cultures of other empires, he needed his own elite. And in this system there was a higher education. Take the history of Russian universities - these were imperial universities, and the professors were imperial employees with special status in society.

Empires in the 20th century collapsed, states came that live a short horizon. The electoral cycle is four years, four years later, another Minister of Education. And in this system, as it were, some customer of higher education disappeared, this is what happened. And until we see another customer. These are not families, this is not a state, and it is not a business. And when there is no customer, when there is no understanding why there is a higher education, it is not clear what it should be and what we want from professors. ”