Conducting a comparison of two sums, many Internet users draw disappointing conclusions about the financing of Russian universities and schools. We checked how correct it is.

The story became especially popular in 2015, when several large publics on VKontakte posted posts with the same text: “The budget of one Harvard University is more than the federal budget of the Russian Federation for education almost twice in 2011 and almost three times in 2014. This is, in principle, all that you need to know about education in the Russian Federation. ” Among them were public millionaires: World of History, "Why didn't I know this?", "Secrets of history", "Zen", "Leprosy" and others. This statement gained a new round of popularity in the spring of 2021, when in several public criticized the statement of Senator Alexander Pushkov, Made They are on the air of the program “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov”: “Trillion six hundred billion for science! What state can afford to allocate such funds if it is clamped if it is isolated if it feels internally uncertainly? ” Sadly for Russian education, users of other social networks also lead to comparison, for example Twitter, Facebook, "Yandex.Zen" And Livejournal.

Some publications on this subject, published in 2015, were more detailed than messages on VKontakte. For example, one of Livejournal users Conducted The following statistics: in 2011, the budget of Harvard University amounted to $ 32 billion, the expenses for the formation of the Russian federal budget - about $ 18.5 billion; In 2014 - $ 36.4 billion and about $ 13 billion, respectively. In 2021, the budget of one of the most prestigious universities in the world, according to Internet users, grew up to $ 40 billion And even $ 42 billion.

At the same time, the official documents of Harvard University gives completely different amounts. So, according to the financial report for 2011, the expenditure part of its budget composed $ 3.9 billion in 2014 this indicator Equal $ 4.4 billion, and by 2020 grew up up to $ 5.4 billion in the Russian federal budget for 2022 Provided Education costs in the amount of 1.24 trillion rubles. (about $ 17 billion).

However, in the same financial reports there are numbers used in a popular comparison. But this is not the budget of the university, that is, the costs of its activities, but the target capital fund (it is also called the Endaum, from the English Endowment Fund). How Explained On the website of Harvard University, this fund is “a specialized and constant source of financing, which ensures the educational and research activities of the university”.

At the same time, there is a significant difference between the budget and the target capital fund. The enduum consists in many ways of donations that individuals (for example, its graduates) or organization make at the university. These funds are collected in a single fund, it is engaged in the management company. Every year, part of the income that the Fund brings is sent to the specific needs of the university - together with the training fee and subsidies for research, it draws up the budget. In the case of Harvard University, about a third of its budget expenditures ($ 2 billion in 2021) Cover From the enduum. “The enduum is an extremely necessary strategic asset for us, but this is not a bank account for $ 31 billion, no matter how I wanted it,” - She said In the fall of 2013, President of the University of Drew Faust.

The creation of university enduums is not a purely American practice, since the mid-2000s such funds have appeared in Russia. Many Russian universities have their own target capital funds - as state (for example, in MGIMO, Higher School of Economics (HSE), Novosibirsk State And Far Eastern Federal universities), and private (for example, in European University In St. Petersburg). However, in terms of volume they are significantly inferior to the Harvard enduation - so, HSE expenses in 2020 Compiled About 26.7 billion rubles, while the size of the university enduum is only about 1.2 billion rubles.