Many governments attempt to improve national higher education through the competitive support of universities. These policy approaches raise questions about the impact on the entire system—both in research and educational—of targeted support for a small number of universities. Addressing challenges in the measurement of university excellence initiatives are among the most vital topics in research evaluation due to the central roles they often play in national research and university policy efforts. Using data from the Russian University Excellence Initiative (RUEI), we measure the spillover effects of such focused support and demonstrate that a broader impact does exist. In particular, we examine the performance of higher education institutions that were not part of RUEI and were not directly supported by it. We compare the university performance in regions both with and without RUEI universities. In doing so, we measure the indirect impact of RUEI on the higher education sector at the regional level. We show a positive effect on the level of publication activity that has recently become apparent. However, there has been no effect on the share of young faculty, international collaboration in publications, or the quality of enrollment. Judging from the broader research policy\research evaluation perspective, our study sheds light on the systemic effects of excellence initiatives, which are often neglected. Besides, excellence initiatives could trigger a change in the approach to evaluating research. So government should develop measure properly, taking into account various consequences, some of which are considered in our article.

Universities and non-university research institutes have been recognised as two key sectors producing research globally. The Soviet model of research organisation included a large network of research institutes, affiliated with the USSR Academy of Sciences and republican academies, as well as industry research institutes, affiliated with sectoral ministries. Universities played a minor role in research. Post-Soviet higher education and research systems went through reforms in the last three decades which led to changes in the patterns of knowledge production. This study offers an overview of the reforms and a bibliometric analysis of 319410 publications in journals indexed in the Web of Science database to examine how selected post-Soviet countries have overcome the Soviet legacy of organisational separation of higher education and research. While universities now produce the bulk of research output in selected countries, in the majority of national contexts, Academies of Sciences continue to be important players in research.

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Many governments attempt to improve the national higher education through competitive support of universities. This approach raises questions about the impact of targeted support for a small number of universities on the entire system − both in educational and research aspects. Using data from Russian University Excellence Initiative (RUEI) that gives as an example, we estimate spillover effects of such focused support and demonstrate that broader impact may indeed exist. In particular, we examine the performance of higher education institutions that were not part of the RUEI in the last five years and were not directly supported by it. We compare the universities’ performance in regions both with and without universities from the RUEI. In doing so, we estimate the indirect impact of the RUEI on the higher education sector at the regional level. We show a positive effect on the level of publication activity that has recently become apparent. However, there has been no effect on the share of young faculty, international collaboration in publications, quality of enrollment.