Authors:

M.Yu. Sorokin1, L. Yu2,3

1 Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management, Novosibirsk, Russia

2 Xi’an University of Finance and Economics, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China

3 China Institute for Silk Road Research (CISRR), Xi’an, People’s Republic of China

Abstract:

Approaches to factor assessment of innovation environment at the stage of initiating projects and strategies to enhance competitiveness of higher education, under which regional governments and universities can cooperate to obtain additional federal resources, remain poorly investigated. The purpose of the article is to evaluate the development level of regional higher education systems using the case study of two constituent territories of the Russian Federation – the Novosibirsk and Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as to identify barriers hindering the transfer of innovations from universities to regional economy. The work draws upon the institutional provisions of public strategic planning. The research methods include SWOT and PESTEL analysis, correlation analysis, content analysis of regulatory acts, etc. The information base covers data from a survey of 477 respondents on the influence of macro-environment factors on administrative staff of universities, as well as reports of the Ministry of Education and Science of the RF, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), and the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent). Comparison of government regional programs for scientific and technological development in the two territories with the results of analysis of the innovation level and the state of higher education revealed imperfections in procedures for registration of intellectual activity results, as well as the lack of coordination between regional authorities’ formal approaches to selecting indicators for stimulating R&D and actual activities to improve competitiveness and innovation activity of universities. The screening of the development level and the innovation environment of the two regional higher education systems, reinforced by the dynamics of statistical data and processed in Python with weighted coefficients, helped identify and rank five key factors having a potentially negative impact on the competitiveness of regional universities: a decline in the number of universities in the region; failure to meet federal project targets; reorientation of universities towards the secondary vocational education sector; critical wear of infrastructure; insufficient integration of university project management as a channel of interaction with the state. The enhanced methodological framework for factor assessment of the innovation environment provides greater authority for managerial decisions in setting goals, defining project measures, and formulating development strategies for universities based on identification of key barriers.

Keywords: strategic planning; project management; educational management; competitiveness of universities; innovation.

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For citation: Sorokin M.Yu., Yu L. (2026). Project management frameworks in assessing factors and barriers to regional universities’ competitiveness. Upravlenets / The Manager, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 69–91. DOI: 10.29141/2218-5003-2026-17-2-5. EDN: JTFSBZ.