Investment Strategies and Tools of Foreign and Russian Universities

Abstract

In the context of the increasing competitiveness of the scientific and educational environment, the emergence of parallel educational systems, and the instability of budgetary spending on education and science, university administrators are faced with the task of finding a balance between the commercial and academic needs of universities. For Russian universities, the issues of diversifying financing and increasing investment activity are of particular relevance. This issue is crucial for entrepreneurial universities, which face the acute problem of resource provision for scientific and engineering problems. This encourages universities focused on applied problem-oriented research and commercialization of results to expand and diversify their funding sources, including through the implementation of new investment strategies.
This study aimed to analyze the volumes and models of foreign universities’ investment activities and assess the prospects for reproducing such investment practices in Russian universities.
It is shown that leading foreign universities successfully combines scientific, educational, and innovative activities with investment while using a wide range of tools and professional management companies. In the last decade (2011–2020), they have been seen as participants in mergers and acquisitions, the objects of which are most often university startups. As a result, universities have high incomes, new strategic partners, and the geography of investors is expanding.
It is noted that most domestic university endowment funds have insufficient funds for investment activities, which makes it expedient to create a University Fund Fund as a new financial instrument for the development of academic entrepreneurship in the country’s regions.