¡°Absurd¡± and ¡°overzealous¡± regulation has been blamed for the decision to deny accreditation to one of Russia¡¯s most respected independent universities.

The Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, a not-for-profit postgraduate university with about 300 students, has been told by Rosobrnadzor, Russia¡¯s federal education regulator, that it had lost its accreditation?because of a number of alleged violations of education standards, the independent Russian news site has reported.

The Riga-based site described the move as a ¡°blow to Russian intellectual freedom¡±.

It added that the university¡¯s rector, Sergey Zuyev, had clarified that the institution will continue operating but?without the?accreditation?that allowed it to issue state-approved diplomas or to provide deferment from military service.

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The university is widely known as ¡°Shaninka¡±, after its founder Teodor Shanin, the University of Manchester sociologist who created the institution in 1995. It received assistance at the time from George Soros¡¯ Open Society Institute, the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Russian government, while many of its master¡¯s degrees are still validated by Manchester.

Writing in the Grigory Yudin, the academic director of the master¡¯s programme in political philosophy at MSSES, describes the regulator¡¯s decision as ¡°absurd¡±.

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One of the charges against the institution is that the ¡°academic director of the master¡¯s programme in law is accused of being insufficiently qualified for the position because he earned his master¡¯s degree in history¡±, despite having later obtained two academic degrees in Roman law, he explains.

Professor Yudin compares the watchdog¡¯s ruling to the decision to revoke the education licence of another institution with Western links, the European University at St Petersburg, two years ago.

In that case, the European University ¡°was initially accused of not having enough ¡®practitioners¡¯ among its faculty (whatever that means)¡± and was later charged with ¡°failing to provide special furniture needed to teach philosophy and history¡±, writes Professor Yudin.

He says the state regulator¡¯s heavy-handed approach meant that Russian universities?have to produce mountains of useless paperwork, with the average length of a course syllabus now standing at 30 to 40 pages.

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¡°For a year before an inspection, both faculty and?staff must prepare hundreds of boxes filled with the?documents,¡± explains Professor Yudin, who added that ¡°almost all are produced exclusively for?inspectors¡±.

The agency¡¯s criticisms of the European University and Shaninka were widely seen as ¡°self-discrediting by the academic community¡±?because both are ¡°role models¡± for the rest of the sector, having pioneered, for instance, the use of anti-plagiarism software, the use of English in education and a focus?on writing skills over the past 20 years.

¡°The damage done by Rosobrnadzor to the Russian education system is already unacceptable,¡± he says, adding that it was wrong that there is ¡°currently no way to prevent the agency or the powers standing behind it from doing more harm, like revoking Shaninka¡¯s licence and closing it down, as it did with the European University¡±.

He calls on Russia¡¯s president, Vladimir Putin, to back a call from the Association of Leading Russian Universities?that demanded that the power to accredit universities be transferred to the academic community.

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¡°The autonomy of Russian universities and their independence from Rosobrnadzor is the only way to ensure Russian science and education integrates into the international academy,¡± he says.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com