Higher Education as a Resource for Regional Development: The Case of Krasnodar

One of the main intangible resources, along with regional and local identity, is human capital. Multiplying human capital is one of the main functions of the education system, including higher education. The theoretical framework of the study is defined by the concept of responsible development (I.S. Semenenko), the theories of “triple helix”, “preceding events” (path dependence) of P. David and “track of dependence”. The empirical base is represented by the results of a sociological study, held among students of Krasnodar universities in June 2022. As part of comprehensive analysis, documents of regional authorities and administration, and data from federal and regional statistics were used. The Krasnodar Krai was initially formed and integrated as an agricultural region; thus, the system of higher education focused largely on training specialists for agriculture and related industries. Structural transformations that began in the 1990s changed the region’s vector of development. The rapid progress of the resort and recreational industry, and enterprises of the tertiary sector influenced both intra-regional and inter-regional migration. The universities of the Krasnodar Krai are attractive to educational migrants from other regions of the country - from both the neighbouring Southern Russia regions and the north-eastern regions. At the same time, from the point of view of global competitiveness, the region has systemic problems in the development of human capital, innovation, and space. The authors focus on the educational trajectories of students, the reasons for their choice of Krasnodar as education destination, satisfaction with the quality of educational services, the degree and forms of social activities, as well as further life and professional plans. The authors identified three contradictions in the current state of the region’s higher education system, without the resolution of which it will be impossible to convert human capital into a real factor of regional development. These are the contradictions between the significantly growing population of the region and the reduction in the number of students, between the needs of the labour market of the “knowledge economy” and the structure of specialists’ training, and between the governmental trend for the development of rural areas and the lack of motivation among university graduates to work in rural municipalities. The article formulates several proposals for resolving these contradictions.