In the last investigation, Rucriminal.info tried to figure out and find out what RUDN University funds are spent on as part of the communication strategy to promote the image of RUDN University and asked the question: “If advertising campaigns and image promotion are carried out by hired organizations and ordinary employees of RUDN University, then what do the employees of the service of Vice-Rector Elena Apasova, and does the university need extra staff if other people do the work for them?
Or maybe the employees of the service of the vice-rector Elena Apasova and ordinary employees of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia do the work for the organization that won the competitions? Elena Apasova herself does not deny the fact that RUDN University researchers are doing content creation work: “At the first stage, the PR team of RUDN University had a conversation between a deaf and a dumb person with the scientific unit: up to 90% of the materials had to be sent to the trash, and each time we received a claim that you will not please us. Each time we started from the beginning: we explained what news value is, decomposed a scientific topic into a million detailed questions, determined the composition of the data, compiled a brief for obtaining content, and conducted many hours of interviews.
And what does Elena Apasova herself do, besides revolutions at the University? As follows from her words, she organizes fishing for chemists: “We organized a RUDN FISHING outdoor event for them under the slogan “Chemistry Helps in Creating the World, Fishing Gives Some Time to Perceive It”. Not everyone at the university accepted this idea, but it justified itself. For many, fishing turned out to be exotic, someone picked up a fishing rod for the first time, and beginners are always lucky - carp, sturgeon, grass carp, pike. The fish were released into their element: as fishermen scientists said, in chemistry, the process is much more interesting than the result. Good weather, a beautiful place in nature, the site was branded, each participant received a branded vest and hat. And the result was obvious: firstly, they all got to know each other, secondly, we recorded many interviews in a relaxed atmosphere, thirdly, they received bright positive emotions, and, most importantly, they expressed interest in joint research and further cooperation".
In our opinion, fishing is a rather dubious option for promoting science at PFUR. But nevertheless, something else is interesting - after fishing, joint scientific research was carried out and, as a result, scientific papers and articles were published? Or did fishing turn out to be a great recreation at the expense of the University's funds?
Returning to the question of why the mysterious service of Vice-Rector Elena Apasova was created with a whole staff of employees: the Public Relations Department, the Department of Advertising and Branding, the Department of Internet Communications, the Department of Internal and External Communications, the Publishing and Printing Complex, the Department of Monitoring, Analysis and Forecasting , photo department, RUDN TV and the editorial office of the Druzhba newspaper? We also found the answer to this question in an interview with Elena Apasova.
But again, another question arises - why announce competitions and conclude contracts for promotion, content creation, etc., if a huge service of Vice-Rector Elena Apasova was created, the absence of which she had previously complained about? A very strange method of improving the efficiency of managing and spending the University's funds by Oleg Yastrebov and his team. I wonder what the Ministry of Science and Higher Education thinks about this? After all, all movable and immovable property is the property of the Russian Federation and transferred to the RUDN University for operational management. State-owned property is assigned to state institutions for possession, use and disposal in accordance with Article 296 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. According to the provisions of Article 296 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the institution to which the property is assigned on the basis of the right of operational management, owns, uses this property within the limits established by law, in accordance with the objectives of its activities, the purpose of this property, and, unless otherwise provided by law, disposes of the property with the consent of the owner of the property.
Of course, the revolutionary Elena Apasova loves to praise herself and talk about her "outstanding" achievements and ratings.
In the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities (also known as the Ranking Web of Universities), RUDN University ranks 842. For example, in the same ranking, the National Autonomous University of Mexico is in 143rd place, and the University of São Paulo USP is in 72nd place. In principle, many universities in Latin America, as well as a number of universities in Africa and Asia, are higher than RUDN University in the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.
But in the QS World University Rankings on the website www.TopUniversities.com, RUDN University is already in 295th place. But there is a nuance. RUDN concluded contracts for the amount of 12,960.00 without a tender from a single supplier (registry numbers of notices in the public procurement system No. 32009764208 and 31603694038) $10,000.00 for the provision of services to provide access to an advanced profile on the website www.topuniversities.com. As follows from the agreement, QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd, registration address: 1 Tranley Muse, Fleet Road, London NW3 2DG, United Kingdom, represented by Mr. Jason Newman, Vice President, acting on the basis of the Charter, concluded an agreement with PFUR. As part of the provision of the Service, the Contractor undertakes to provide the University with a login and password to access the University profile on the topuniversities.com website and ensure the constant presence of updated information about the University on the website during the entire term of the contract. QS Quacquarelli Symonds on its website invites organizations to promote their brand and advertise them. In general, as they say - pay money, and we will provide you with ratings.
After all, the most important thing is “Professionalism lies in the details, and the result depends on the level of motivation and responsibility,” Elena Apasova, PFUR Vice-Rector for Strategic Communications.
As follows from the article on the site https://news.myseldon.com/ru/news/index/246493873: rebranding, first communication strategy, new website, leading positions in social networks, branding spaces, support and assistance in organizing more than 1000 events - the fruits of the work of the RUDN Public Relations Department. By the way, by the way, is this article-interview with Elena Apasova included in the content statistics for which contests were announced and money was paid?
In 2018, RUDN University announced a competition and signed a contract in the amount of 3,250,000.00 rubles. to perform work on the creation, maintenance and promotion of the RUDN University website (registry number of notices in the public procurement system No. 31806623214). Developed the site and performed other work under this contract, Touch One LLC. In 2020, the RUDN website was launched.
But the history of the site did not end there, and, therefore, the spending of money did not end there. Of course, the site was developed, provided support, operation and promotion of the site. But, apparently, with the start of a special military operation for demilitarization and denazification in Ukraine and the introduction of a number of sanctions against Russia, it will be difficult to explain to the inspection and regulatory authorities the spending of money on the promotion of RUDN University in Europe, the USA and other NATO countries. Therefore, since 2022, spending money on the site has actively increased.
No. Registration number of the notice Date of placement of the notice Initial (maximum) price of the contract Procurement object
1. No. 31907875508 05/16/2019 1,000,000.00 Implementation of a set of works to adapt the functionality and structure of the English version of the RUDN official website to the Arabic version. No. 227-19
2. No. 31908052921 07/01/2019 800,000.00 ₽ Work on the development and implementation of the site "RUDN 6.0". No. 341-19
3. No. 32009549527 02.10.2020 1,000,000.00 Implementation of a set of works to adapt the functionality and structure of the English version of the RUDN official website to the Chinese version. No. 426-20
4. No. 32211132364 14.02.2022 11,000,000.00 Work on the development of new modules, updating the php version, refactoring, optimization of the program code and database, technical support of the RUDN official website and development of a standard website for RUDN educational units. No. 032-22
5. No. 32211355530 28.02.2022 7,162,869.60 Execution of work on the creation of the site "Virtual Museum of the History of RUDN University". No. 092-22
6. No. 32211397649 May 19, 2022 15,741,600.00 Modification and maintenance of the module "Admission of applicants of the Russian Federation" based on the solution "BIT.VUZ", Personal account of the RUDN University applicant based on the solution "BIT.Personal account of the applicant" and web RUDN University Admissions Committee website. No. 131-22
7. No. 32211432726 05/31/2022 2,000,000.00 Work on the development of a website for the election of the teaching staff of the RUDN University. No. 116-22
And again, Elena Apasova proposes to involve Touch One LLC in the development of the RUDN website, which had previously developed this site since 2018, which was launched in 2020. Why develop a website again and spend money again after 1.5 years? At the same time, the conclusion of a contract without competitive procedures from a single supplier. Other than Touch One LLC, other organizations in Russia cannot do this?
From the above, it follows that RUDN University loves constancy in such matters. In the last article, we wrote that in 2020 and 2021 RUDN University announced competitions to promote the RUDNUniversityPlanet channel on YouTube.com video hosting. (registry numbers of notices in the public procurement system No. 32110615930 and No. 32009549401) in the amount of 2,170,000.00 rubles and concluded contracts in the amount of 1,475,900.00 rubles. And miraculously, every year the winner in the competitions is LLC "GILMARK CONTEXT". The essence of each contract is to create 10 videos that will be viewed by at least 1,200,000 people every month, repost at least 470 per month and increase the number of subscribers. At the same time, the key performance indicators are: an increase in the total number of views of at least 1,200,000 for each month of the advertising campaign; increase in reposts of content posted on the channel at least 470 per ka one month of the advertising campaign; increase in the number of subscribers on the channel by at least 440 for each month of the advertising campaign.
According to site statistics, the channel was created on February 22. 2017 The total number of views from February 2, 2017 to the current date is 17,111,388 views. Of these 17 million views, 10,691,974 views accounted for only in 2017 - Elena Apasova herself claims this in her interview. The remaining 6,419,414 views were from 2018 to the present. That is, according to our calculations, the total number of views on the current date should be at least 31 million. As YouTube statistics show, almost 2 thousand people watched one video in 6 months, 139 people watched another video in 3 weeks, 73 people watched another video in 2 months, etc. And where are these monthly views in the amount of 1,200,000? That is, the university pays money, but in fact the result, which is stated in the terms of reference of the competitive documentation and in the contract, is not. And for what then the university pays money? Why hire organizations and pay money if they can't make quality content? For whom is the terms of reference drawn up if the organization does not fulfill it? Well, as Francis Bacon wrote: “Constancy does not consist in always doing the same thing, but in that our deeds tend to the same goal.”
Of all the problems at the University, the problem of the website is the most important. Vladimir Filippov, who served as Minister of Education from 1998 to 2004 and was at the origins of the introduction of the Bologna Process and the modernization of education, which is now being canceled, draws the attention of his colleagues to the fact that the work of the site and the quality of information are important for promoting the University and increasing income. But isn't the quality of the educational process, research and development important for any university?
Elena Apasova spends the university's money on promotion on the Internet, but the effectiveness is declining.
For comparison, the Yandex IQS (site quality index) of Rospotrebnadzor and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, which do not spend millions from the federal budget to promote a site on the Internet to make money like RUDN University. Rospotrebnadzor has IKS 17,300, the Prosecutor General's Office has 8,700, and RUDN University has 8,100.
And the cost of the RUDN program website based on a complex of various algorithms and indicators (website category, link mass cost, traffic cost, domain cost, presence in the Yandex Catalog, etc.), excluding the human factor, is determined in the amount of 422,961 rubles.
Well, what can programs, algorithms, Google, Yandex and others know in comparison with what Mrs. Elena Apasova knows? She probably knows the exact cost of developing and promoting the site and it costs many millions of rubles. Moreover, the chief designer and ideological inspirer of RUDN University, Elena Apasova, chooses the furniture for the University not from Russian production, but from Italian for 12 million rubles. But we will talk about this and much more separately. Expect more phenomenal and interesting continuations of our investigations. As the saying goes, flowers come first, then berries
To be continued
Denis Zhirnov
Source: www.rucriminal.info
