The Hierarchy of Russian University Center Cities in the Mirror of Academic Migration

This study, using data on the migration of 18-year-olds, analyzes the scale of migration flows between 160 cities—university centers in Russia. Migration at this age is highly intense and is primarily associated with young people moving to pursue higher education (bachelor’s or specialist’s degrees). Part of this flow consists of people moving from communities without universities and therefore lacking the opportunity to pursue higher education locally. Another group—the subject of this study—has these opportunities but chooses to study in other cities, based on personal perceptions of their hometowns and the options for obtaining vocational training there and in other cities and universities, as well as other individual motivations. An analysis of the mutual migration flows between the country’s educational centers allows us to construct a hierarchy of migration flows, represented by seven levels. The basis for this analysis is the intercity migration growth (loss) and migration turnover indicators, calculated using a 160 × 160 migration matrix. The results showed that, along with Moscow and St. Petersburg, Tomsk is the largest educational center. Tomsk, not Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, or Vladivostok, accounts for the third largest number of positive migration links. Despite Moscow’s more than twofold population advantage over St. Petersburg, its lead in capturing educational migration flows from competing educational centers is not as overwhelming: it accounts for 44.3% of migration turnover, while St. Petersburg accounts for 40.3%. The hierarchy of cities is determined by the logic of the hierarchical administrative-territorial structure, the size of cities, and their (and the regions they lead) role in interregional migration in the Russian socioeconomic system.

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