On May 20, 2014 the Chairman of the Russian Federation Government Dmitry Medvedev has held a meeting of the Presidium of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation on realization of priority national projects and demographic policy, devoted to modernization of the higher education institutions and associated with this process task of development of leading Russian universities.
Opening the meeting Dmitry Medvedev told about the idea of national projects and about results of seven-year work on its implementation. “Requirements of modern economy and increase of high-tech industries share in it often outstrip possibilities of our institutions of higher education. So an update of higher school has really become one of the priorities in the implementation of the project on education”, - said the Prime Minister.
He reminded that universities have a mission to achieve competitive advantages on the international level. “I remind you that this task persists – the task of accession of our universities to the world top 100. The problem is very difficult. However, we still strive for it, and therefore the Government launched a special project in 2013: 14 universities that were selected in open competition received additional funds,” D. Medvedev said.
Perhaps not everything turns out as planned, but there are already positive changes by many criteria. The most important criterion is certainly the quality of education. Another important factor is employment of graduates. Most leading universities follow recruitment requirements of employers, use provided bases for students’ practice and training. It prepares them for solving practical problems, including specific branches of industry and regions.
Also positive changes in the development of universities are connected with science: 222 centers of common use of scientific equipment and experimental facilities were created. This is a moment of principle, because not all universities have their own research base. About 800 small innovative enterprises work at universities, which employ quite a large number of students, postgraduates and teachers. There are indicators of revenue from the commercialization of inventions, they are quite relative, but nevertheless it is considered that last year this sum exceeded 2.7 billion rubles. Universities successfully participate in work of technoparks, innovative regional clusters, in different technological platforms. That is, not only the universities themselves, but also the Russian economy obtains concrete results.
The Head of Government reiterated that results in general existed. But all best federal and research universities could play more active role in the modernization of the higher school. It is very important to establish contact with other universities, to develop students and teachers mobility within the country, to introduce actively network and electronic teaching methods and, of course, to create conditions for the education of students with disabilities.
