On June 23, 2014 a meeting of the Presidential council on science and education has taken place in the Kremlin under the chairmanship of the President of Russia Vladimir V. Putin. They discussed issues of modernization of engineering education and the quality of specialists’ preparation.

“Quality of engineers is becoming one of key factors of state competitiveness and, crucially, the basis for its technological and economic independence”, - said Vladimir Putin, opening the meeting. Promising task set by the President before the Russian higher school, which trains technicians, consists in ensuring leadership of the Russian economy at the expense of new, primarily domestic, technologies.

Members of the Presidential council on science and education discussed issues related to employment of graduates of technical universities, noted that the national system of technical education should be aimed at training engineers whose skills and qualifications meet requirements and needs of enterprises. For this purpose the very structure of the educational process in technical universities must be changed and focused on practical exercises.

The President pointed out the measures taken to strengthen national engineering school, one of which is the creation of national research universities, focused on the training of modern technical personnel.

The Director General of the State Corporation for atomic energy “Rosatom” S.V.Kiriyenko took part in the meeting. He said that a consortium of supporting institutions – 14 higher educational institutions headed by MEPhI – ensured preparation of practically all employed in the industry specialists. According to Sergei Vladilenovich, preservation of the branch system of the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” in the points of presence of the SC “Rosatom” is of great importance to training of engineering personnel for industrial enterprises. The unicity of this system consists in the possibility of obtaining theoretical knowledge in the chief institute, and practical – directly at branches and at the industrial enterprises in closed administrative-territorial units that cannot be done at the Moscow area.

S.V.Kiriyenko also pointed out the necessity of forming the interest to the engineering profession at school with the use of opportunities of additional education system. To this end, the State Corporation organizes specialized classes for children and retraining of school teachers within the “Rosatom” School.