SPbPU Rector A.I. Rudskoy Sharing his Thoughts on Competitiveness of Russian Universities at the Press Conference in TASS
On April 6, at the press center of the Information Agency of Russia "TASS" in St. Petersburg there was a press conference on the competitiveness of Russian higher education system.
The conference was attended by a member of the Presidium of the Presidential Council for Economic Modernization and Innovations of Russia, a member of the Presidential Council for Science and Education, Rector of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, A.I. Rudskoy; the chairman of the Council of Rectors of St. Petersburg universities, Rector of St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics V.N. Vasiliev; Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University "LETI" named after V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin), V.N. Pavlov; and Vice-Rector for the quality of St. Petersburg State University of Economics E.A. Gorbashko.
The chairman of the Council of Rectors of St. Petersburg universities V.N. Vasiliev in his speech appreciated the development of higher education system in St. Petersburg, emphasizing that as far back as a century ago, the strategic goal of higher educational institutions of the city was training the students from all regions of Russia and involving the best teachers and researchers. "At that time the focus was on human capital, and that was the measure of the competitiveness of research organizations and higher educational institutions. We can see the same thing happening now," said V.N. Vasiliev.
The current trend is that, in addition to educational and research activities and the generation of new knowledge, universities must be able to commercialize the technology by going out into the real sector of the economy. These are the so-called entrepreneurial universities or "Universities 3.0". There already appear "Universities 4.0", whose activities imply social responsibility. "Educational and research activities, entrepreneurship and social responsibility are those functions that underlie real competitiveness in the international market," concluded V.N. Vasiliev.
Rector of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, A.I. Rudskoy continued the topic of the competitiveness of Russian universities. Andrey Ivanovich said that education, especially engineering , can not be considered on the regional level, it is a global trend. "It’s obvious that Russia can not be away from global trends," said A.I. Rudskoy. "Globally we understand the increasing competitiveness of universities as creating the educational and research environment and conditions of communication student - teacher and student - employer, equipping the university with innovative facilities, expanding and internationalizing the contacts. All this is included in the concept of the modern university, which is positively perceived by the global education community".
The Rector of the Polytechnic University also outlined a number of problems faced by higher educational institutions. For example, technologies nowadays are developing faster than a student manages to get education. In this regard, there is a paradox, when a young specialist comes to the company "hopelessly outdated". "Universities will never keep up with the industry, that’s why contacts with industrial companies, including multinationals, the creation of basic department chairs are main requirements of competitiveness," said A.I. Rudskoy.
One more requirement, according to SPbPU Rector, is the internationalization of knowledge and exchange of teachers in search of best practices. Andrey Ivanovich considers it necessary to switch to a modular system of education, when the high-class specialists will teach students a course vertically and read some lectures on the major, which the students deeply studied beforehand. "Thus, the students will integrally get the best knowledge from the high-class experts. This must be the task of higher education in Russia nowadays".
"The university is competitive, if it trains engineers and system designers of the XXI century, performs its works at the level of international standards, enjoys authority of the world scientific and educational community and fulfils a very important task of social responsibility in the framework of "Universities 4.0"," summed up A.I. Rudskoy.
Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University "LETI" named after V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin), V.N. Pavlov agreed that the main task of modern universities is to prepare students to be successful in life. "This means that they will need to win the competition among a large number of well trained professionals, so they should be a little faster, smarter and more creative".
The conference participants agreed that in such a competitive struggle one very important problem is solved – the creation of opportunities for the prospective students to be able to obtain world-class higher education in Russia.
The theme of the press conference aroused great interest among the journalists. A lot of questions were asked about the internationalization of education, about the peculiarities of the admission campaign 2016, the career counseling of the prospective students and job placement of the graduates.
Media Center, SPbPU