October 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin has met members of the Russian Union of principals. The Xth Congress of rectors brought together leaders of almost all universities of the country and guests from abroad. At all this system employs more than 300 thousand people and 5.5 million students.

“The system of higher education was and remains a powerful intellectual resource of the country. It generates new knowledge and, for what it was created – trains personnel for all spheres of life in Russia”, - said the head of state.

In recent years much has been done so universities can develop in accordance with the call of the times, become competitive, set the guiding lines for advanced industries. A network of leading universities was formed, significant budget resources were allocated. The state provides grants to support researches under the guidance of leading scientists.

In addition the system of cooperation between universities and enterprises is being strengthened. “This is an absolutely fundamental requirement for universities – especially engineering one”, says the President. “Now maximum cooperation of education with production, with practice, with real life is at the foreground”, he said. It’s needed to create breakthrough technologies, to provide production with staff. And the Russian Union of principals with its offices in 72 regions should make contribution in it.

One of the topics of discussion was the international ratings, which are “one of the competition instruments on the market of educational services”. Russia is not going to isolate its education system from the international one. According to the head of state, despite external situation, Russia has to take the international rankings of universities into account, preventing isolation of educational institutions. “We have a lot of originality, a lot of what differentiates us from others, but it’s impossible to retire from the world, not to see what is happening around”, - said Putin. And of course it’s necessary to have our own rating with the objective criteria.

Earlier it was reported that the ranking of universities from the London edition of Times Higher Education was announced in early October. It includes three universities of Russia: Lomonosov Moscow State University, Novosibirsk University and the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI”. These educational institutions were included in the hundred best universities in the world in Natural Sciences. MSU was also included in the hundred best universities in Technologies.