The "Higher Education Development" Forum - Personalities and Quotes

Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of Russia

We all want our education to be world's best or, at least, among the world's best, we want people to be proud of having got their higher education in Russia. That's why it was interesting for me to hear your opinions on what stage of reforming the higher education system we are now, what experience possess, it's positive and negative sides, - so as to implement it in the future work.

We believe it's right to continue it in the frame of the government resolutions that have been mentioned by our colleagues during the forum: key universities and the 5-100 project. I don't want to exaggerate the results we've achieved so far, but that's some energetic movement forward, so we shouldn't stop, we have to continue working in this area.

Olga Vasilieva, Minister of Education and Science of Russian Federation

This year, the popularity of pedagogical universities amongst applicants has grown for the first time. In comparison with 2015, 4,000 more graduates enrolled in them. The amount of students with a perfect Common Exam score who chose pedagogical universities has increased as well - 60 people this year. This is a great tendency.

So, what's the role of school? When answering this question, I want to quote Einstein who, as it's widely known, had a really complex relationship with his secondary school. He said that school forms a personality, not a single-discipline specialist.

I want to say that both the Ministry of Education and I are open for meeting. I believe that we have to watch over our academic staff, care for it, and do everything we can. That much is essential for our academic research and our universities to really prosper.

Zhores Alferov, vice-president of Russian Academy of Sciences

From my point of view, our country's most important task is the restoration of the high-technology economic sector, high-technological industry. We've lost a great lot during the last 25 years. It must be restored - and brought to a whole new level; education is to play an essential role in this process.

I have been engaged in research and teaching for 65 years, since my final year at the university. In former times, universities got additional funding for research via special orders from industry. That was common for both leading universities - Moscow State University, Leningrad State University, "Polytech", and others as well. As of now, we've lost this practice. Higher education can be of high quality only when it’s combined with research activities at the same university, preferably - interdisciplinary research in new fields. Nowadays, research is mostly funded by grants - as they do it in the USA. I have lots of friends and colleagues there who sometimes complain about some research getting all the grants -  it is being applied to several funds and gets funds from all of them. At the same time, universities have practically no funding for their own research. Doing high-level research implies having modern equipment. At the same time, those who are doing these research are not only the academic staff who lead the work, but also engineers, laboratory assistants, technicians - those who can't live off grants and need a set wage.

I would propose doing the following: we should introduce basic funding for scientific research, at least for research universities. This doesn't mean that we will eliminate the grant system. We can win only if we develop new technologies based on advanced scientific research and inventions. Let's introduce basic funding to the country's 29 leading research universities - those that are based on this principle.

Georgy Poltavchenko, Governor of Saint Petersburg

During the last five years we've built more than 10 schools, more than 50 kindergartens - thus solving the problem of their insufficiency. We are also solving the problem with new housing development. There are some local problems in the residential districts that develop too fast. We are still to create the necessary social infrastructure for them, and new schools are to be built in these particular districts.

Vasliliy Tretyakov, vice-rector for educational technologies and environmental monitoring of the Ural Federal University

Tens of billions of people worldwide use online courses to get the most advanced knowledge, real practical competencies that allow them to find employment in particular areas. The availability of online education is unprecedented in comparison with traditional educational methods. What's more, the online format can grant access to education to people from any place in Russia, including those with reduced capabilities. We strongly believe that developing online education is a must for creating a system of continual education in this country, as well as an effective way of renovating the curriculum in universities. Let me give you a really simple example: introducing the new knowledge, new practice to a single course is sufficient for it to become available for all students in our country.

Eduard Galajinsky, rector for Tomsk State University

Aside from science and education, the university's participation in the region's development is now one of the merits for the university's efficiency: many rating systems discuss the inclusion of this new index that evaluates the university's influence on the region. From knowledge economy's point of view, universities begin to play a leading role in economic development. Those who can promptly introduce new knowledge into economy becomes the basis for both the region's and country's economic well-being.

Artem Yurov, director for the Institute of Physics and Technology of Baltic Federal University 

The discussion was mostly on the five trends that have been set by the ministry in the last several years. Those are the development of science, including the universities’ infrastructure and talent pool, introduction of a system of science-based metric indexes as an efficiency evaluation method, support of fundamental research via governmental orders, realization of "megascience" projects, and the academic mobility system that is to balance out the brain drain. 

Are universities really the most effective way to organize science? Naturally, there are arguments both for and against it. Universities show better dynamics in such indexes as the number of publications. Young qualified specialists - this is what is needed for the development of science. Where do they come from? They first study from textbooks, that are based on monographs, that are, in turn, based on articles based on research results from some or other laboratories. As of now, technological solutions develop so fast that they've started to get ahead of fundamental science. That's why we need new fundamental theories that explain the new phenomena - the "big data", for instance. Thus, fundamental science has an impact on the competitiveness race. Whether it’s good or bad is an open question, but that’s still a fact. And that means we can no longer train personnel like we did before. It means that those who get results and write monographs must be the ones who teach the students. If we won't do this, we'll lose science.

Stanislav Pashkevich, head of the research laboratory of Moscow State University of Civil Engineering

Starting from the senior school, we conduct a range of introductory events for schoolers. We create science clubs based in the universities, meetings with famous scientists. The university's target audience - the graduates - already form a positive attitude towards Russian science even before they apply. So, when applying to a university, the person makes a more conscious decision, as he is already involved in science. This simplifies the task of engaging young folks in research: we no longer have to ask something like “who wants to do science?”. In fact, there already is system of attracting young people to science, from their school days and up to their enrollment to a Research program.

The state constantly initiates projects that have to do with the symbiosis of science and industry in real economic sector. We must focus on business, it is necessary to improve the connections between the industry and young scientists, for them to get real results - as the demand for one's results is really important for a young scientist. The author of a research has to see that his idea, his contribution is important, that it is being used.