On February 17 the Creative Center “Moskvorechie” has held an annual, significant for the University event – the General meeting of the Academic staff of the University in the framework of the Plenary meeting of the MEPhI Scientific session.
By tradition, meeting participants were welcomed by guests of the university. Deputy Director of the Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” V.I.Shevchenko wished effective work and expressed the view that now university's participation in major international projects was one of the most important directions in MEPhI development program.
V.I. Shevchenko reminded that in addition to the active participation in experiments ATLAS and CMS MEPhI is currently the only Russian university fully participating in the new and promising international CERN project – SHIP experiment.
In a welcoming speech, a senior priest of the MEPhI house church father Rodion called scientific research as an endless process that never stops.
High tone of the meeting was set by the MEPhI rector M.N. Strikhanov. With great pleasure he reminded the audience about achievements of the University in the past year, which are reflected in Russian and world rankings, Rector urged his colleagues not to rely on past services, but to use accumulated potential with greater efficiency and to take the initiative and creative approach to solve tasks, set by new challenges.
As for victories – they are visible and, without any exaggeration, have placed MEPhI at least in the top five universities of the country. Adducing results of national ratings – of Interfax agency, Echo of Moscow and the rating agency “Expert RA”, the rector said that in the first one MEPhI occupies the third place for the second time in a row, and in the second rating – the fourth, entering the number of universities with “very high level of training”.
In 2014 MEPhI has significantly expanded and strengthened its position in the leading international rankings.
The second consecutive year the University entered the top 100 in THE World University Rankings in 2014/2015 in “Natural Sciences” (95th place) and keeps leading position in the citation of scientific papers. It should be noted that the objective rating THE includes only three Russian universities.
For the first time MEPhI has entered Times Higher Education BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings and took the 13th place (second among Russian universities after Moscow State University).
Last year also for the first time MEPhI entered QS World University Rankings, immediately joining a group 481-490. Prior to this, the university had participated only in regional QS rankings.
In the ranking QS BRICS MEPhI took the 57th place in 2014, not only strengthening its global position, but also showing a significant growth dynamics. In addition, MEPhI got into substantive QS ranking in “Physics and Astronomy” for the first time, where it took 251-300 place.
One of the most important factors in strengthening MEPhI position in the world rankings, according to M.N.Strikhanov, is raise of brand awareness in the international market of educational services.
The next issue was policy of the Ministry of Education and Science and the Russian Government, which is focused on three tasks. They are – improvement of quality of Russian education; attraction of best Russian and foreign scientists in universities; regulation of university financing from the federal budget. In accordance with it M.N.Strikhanov presented instruments for their implementation and expected results of achievements.
Thus, a tool for the first problem is to monitor the effectiveness of universities, which will lead either to a significant reduction in the number of public and private universities, or to limitation of their educational activity only at the bachelor's level. MEPhI rector expressed confidence that only status of a leading university can provide a possibility to conduct education at higher levels (magistracy, postgraduate study). He also pointed out that the number of outside masters will increase in MEPhI: “For example, if in 2015 MEPhI enrolls 50% its own masters and 50% outside masters, then in 2017 the number of master's degree students from other universities will increase up to 75%”.
The second task is to attract the best representatives of Russian and foreign scientists in universities. M.N.Strikhanov stressed that enrollment for positions will be held by competitive selection. “We should invite scientists who have high authority in science; primarily it concerns scientists from RAS and industry universities. In other words, the university should be like a center that consolidates educational and scientific community” – the rector suggested. Wages increase is that tool to improve the attractiveness of the university for famous scientists. Also, University must actively conduct research and development activity to solve this problem.
Much attention was paid to the Program of competitiveness increase of the university and related to it task to perform indicators, in particular the need for multiple increase of publication activity. Another key mechanism of the Program implementation is creation of centers of excellence, as a special organization form of the educational process.
Summing up the work of universities, which participate in the Project 5-100, in 2014 M.N.Strikhanov informed that MEPhI has been recognized as a leader for the implementation of performance indicators among the participating universities.
