The McDonaldization of University’s Science in Contemporary Russia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of the McDonaldization of modern Russian university research. In contemporary sociology, “MacDonaldsization” is the process of restructuring social institutions on the principle of the fast food restaurant. Four components are fundamental in this process: efficiency, accessibility, monitorability, predictability. According to its creators, they provide businesses with high quality and market success. Thus, modern universities are gradual ly turning into corporations where a researchers’ effectiveness is assessed by the number of standard publications and citation indices. This corresponds to the interests of educational administrators and allows them to make use of funds and conserve financial resources in accordance with their conception of efficiency.
The McDonaldization of science and education is a global trend that came to Russia in the 2000s. In the Russian Federation, it is carried out through the introduction of “performance-based contracts”. This makes the remuneration of university instructors contingent on publication activity. Preference is given to publications in journals included in the databases of the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation, as well as the Web of Science and Scopus. Heads of educational departments of universities are convinced that the citation index is a reliable criterion for determining a scientists’ relevance in the research community. When financing universities, the Russian state gives preference to those with the highest citation indices.
However, the McDonaldization of research leads to the disappearance of science as a vocation and the product of creative activity. It is impossible to evaluate the content of scientific works using bibliometric methods. Thus, scientific activity is bureaucratized and commercialized. Science is turning into a state corporation that distributes state-allocated finances according to purely bureaucratic criteria.