The Russian government has started implementing its ambitious plans to boost the country’s leading universities' performance in the
international arena. According to Igor Fedyukin, the deputy minister of
education, this year 15 universities will receive special state grants
and at the initial stage the subsidies will be worth RUB9 billion
(US$270 million).
The action is being taken under an existing state programme to develop
education from 2013-20 and a special plan to improve leading
universities, which was approved by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The initiative is a response by the government to world rankings of
universities. None of Russia’s leading universities appear in the top
100 of the rankings.
The plan includes conducting an independent analysis of the compliance
of Russian universities with ranking criteria, as well as the
development of ‘road maps’ to promote national universities in the most
authoritative rankings – those of Times Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong and QS.
Fedyukin commented: “Entering of at least five Russian universities in
the rankings of the world's best universities will become one of the
biggest challenges of the national Ministry of Education and Science
during the next several years.”
As part of the plans, Fedyukin said, the government would provide
special grants to universities. They would need to comply with
formulated requirements that would enable them to rise up the rankings.
The 15 universities that will receive the special grants will have to
upgrade their management teams and create conditions conducive to
attracting top academics from leading Russian and foreign universities,
as well as talented young professors, heads of scientific laboratories
and famous scientists.
In addition, they will be required to implement joint educational
programmes with Russian and foreign universities, as well as take part
in research and development projects in cooperation with local and
international high-tech companies.
During the first quarter of 2013, an independent audit will be conducted
to enable the Ministry of Education and Science to select and approve
the list of universities that will be supported to become world-class.
According to Fedyukin, the project also involves considerably increasing funding of research in universities.
Russian universities and students have generally welcomed the new state
initiative, but believe that the government has been partly responsible
for domestic institutions not being able to compete strongly in
international rankings.
Albert Vladimirov, a member of the Russian Union of Rectors, commented:
"The Russian university community believes that excessive state
intervention initially led to the fact that Russian universities became
uncompetitive in the international arena.
“Most of national universities traditionally specialise in educational
activities, rather than scientific research, which is contrary to the
Western model.”
According to representatives of the scientific community, promoting
national universities will be impossible in the absence of decent
funding and wages for teaching staff.
Vladimir Belyaev, a political scientist and professor at Kazan State
Technical University, one of Russia’s oldest institutions, said:
“Universities do not have a fresh approach, due to extremely low
salaries of their staff, which do not exceed RUB12,000 (USD$400) per
month.
“Young scientists do not want to work for such money, which has resulted
in a lack of progress in the Russian scientific community.”
0 Comments