"Innovations in education and management": Anastasia Yarmosh speaks about the Mendeleev Research and Educational Cluster
In 2020, St Petersburg University launched a programme to contribute to regional development, aiming to create conditions in different regions of the country for training qualified staff who are ready to respond to modern economic challenges.
Anastasia Yarmosh, Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and Partnership, gave an overview of how the Mendeleev Research and Educational Cluster could contribute to the advancement of its participants and the University.
How did the idea of setting up a research and educational cluster first come about?
The prerequisites for its establishment emerged quite a long time ago. As part of the first St Petersburg University Strategic Plan, adopted in 2010, the University developed a broad network of research, academic and business contacts. Our main partners have traditionally been educational institutions, seeking our assistance in conducting research given the advantages of our infrastructural and methodological base. It gradually emerged that the University had a reputable array of experts and resources and could share its best educational, research and management expertise, built up since 2008-2009, with its partners.
The ideas that the University laid down when creating the research and educational cluster correlated, to a certain extent, with the concerns articulated by the federal centres. The report ’Lessons from the "stress test". Universities in a pandemic and aftermath’, which was widely discussed in July 2020, highlighted several systemic problems in the organisation of higher education in the Russian Federation. The first of these is the issue of staffing shortages in the regions. As it turns out, regional universities are not always able to cope with it on their own, especially when it comes to high-tech areas of training, and interdisciplinary specialties. The second problem has been described as low regional connectivity. A number of universities are located at a considerable distance from key federal centres such as Moscow, St Petersburg and Kazan, which could create difficulties in finding partners for cooperation. However, once they shift their focus to regional institutional networks, it becomes clear that there are educational and scientific organisations in the area with which they could combine resources and competencies to solve general tasks and form a strong macro-regional team.
These two interrelated issues formed the basis for the Mendeleev Research and Educational Cluster. Being based in St Petersburg, St Petersburg University, working together with industrial, academic partners and the executive bodies, assists in the development and retention of staff in the regions, launching and supporting topical research initiatives, and developing new economic niches for the regions. In my view, this is quite an unconventional move, given the rare willingness to open dialogue and a sincere desire to help their colleagues.
The Mendeleev Cluster is a geographically diverse structure that is not tied to a specific region, which enables the implementation of projects with participants located in different constituent entities of the country. There are situations when, in order to solve certain tasks, St Petersburg University has to summon a team of experts located in different time zones, from Moscow to Vladivostok. Furthermore, the cluster is not a legal entity, which makes it possible for any organisation, be it a non-profit, commercial or budgetary unit, to join it and work for the development of Russian education and science. Today, we are implementing a model where participants can establish contractual relations within the cluster to implement certain initiatives, with St Petersburg University acting as their guarantor.
How does the cluster ensure collaboration?
If you look at the list of organisations with which St Petersburg University had signed letters of intent or cooperation agreements by 2020, it seems quite long. However, the signing of these documents has not resulted in any effective action in a number of cases. This is, in fact, a nationwide problem. That is why the Mendeleev Research and Educational Cluster programme followed the principle of roadmaps. It enables us to come up with practical and systemic solutions, and implement projects and tasks that will have a clear and measurable effect on the development of the partner university or the social and economic development of the region.
Each higher educational institution or region means a completely different roadmap. There is no single solution that would apply to all existing and future participants in the Mendeleev Research and Educational Cluster programme.
Each time, we start by analysing the labour market, the region’s social and economic agenda and strategic planning documents, and look at the involvement of Russian state corporations, large and small businesses. We study the key economic niches and cooperate with the executive bodies, taking into account their demands regarding regional developments. It is important to monitor the regional development strategies and understand what areas the executive team plans to focus on in the next five years in order to be ready to work together with the key higher educational institutions in the region to support the move. Next, we analyse the potential of educational and academic and scientific institutions in the region that include the composition of curricula and areas of training, quality of admissions, availability of infrastructure, and geographic distribution profile. Some of our current partners participate in a large-scale federal project launched last year − the Priority 2030 programme. Each winner of the contest has established the key areas of its strategic development. However, in the course of their study, experts from St Petersburg University have found that these areas do not always reflect regional concerns. Universities meet federal key performance indicators (KPIs), as indicated in their reporting, while the region may face a shortage of specialists in certain fields of study. Thus, by engaging in a dialogue with universities, enterprises and the constituent entity, St Petersburg University resolves the task of reconciling their needs.
By analysing these areas, we determine which processes we can streamline and how we can involve our experts, infrastructure, and research potential. The result of this work is a roadmap, which may contain from two or three measures to two or three dozen, as the roadmap for Derzhavin Tambov State University, a key institution of higher education in the Tambov Region. Sometimes it is even a question of creating fundamentally new economic niches for an entire region. Such a request has come from Omsk. In the course of the discussions, representatives of Omsk State Technical University informed that not all students of engineering and technical specialties want to pursue a career in their field after graduation, and that one of the university’s strategic areas of development today is creative industries. A similar story has been told by many foreign universities that have intensified training in related fields: it has been found that from 10% to 15% of their graduates, while being well trained, do not want to pursue a career in the high-tech industry. It is a natural phenomenon. This decision is connected with mindset, emotional intelligence and world outlook. Global practice shows that the outflow of specialists often moves towards related creative sectors, such as industrial design, animation graphics, and game design. This has become particularly evident during the lockdown period: young people with good technical competencies quickly refocused on other areas of activity and went into fields that enabled them to implement their skills and training. When Omsk experienced an attrition of specialists who found employment in other fields and left the region, they raised the question of offering them an alternative path within the framework of master’s programmes. Looking back at the important notion of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) in today’s economy, we should not forget about social risks, despite the general focus on environmental issues. Excessive enrolment in high-tech areas constitutes a social negligence towards those 10 to 15% of young people who then do not find themselves in these fields. It is therefore necessary to create opportunities for their self-realisation both in regional economies and in educational models. The related interdisciplinary fields will help to solve this problem.
I would like to emphasise that the creative industry with a technological profile is already a niche of the economy. It accounts for 3% to 4 % of the gross regional product at the start, which is a very large figure. If developed further, it might reach 10 % and give a significant economic boost. Today we can talk about at least two subjects of the Russian Federation, where the emphasis was made on developing extra competences in this area − the Moscow Region and the Nizhny Novgorod Region. The creative industry has developed as a result of working with enterprises, university teams and competent regional policy, which explains the macroeconomic indicator of 5% to 6%. Cooperation with such a technologically advanced partner as Omsk Technical University will create a new niche in yet another region, not only in the central European region, and thereby diversify the resources of the Russian economy. Of course, we will not be able to eliminate the imbalance in industries as a whole, but we will be able to adjust it.
What are the advantages for regional partners?
At round tables and discussions, our partners, educational organisations or business representatives, cite the lack of qualified specialists in the regions as one of their main problems. So, when we present the Mendeleev Research and Educational Cluster programme and talk about models and tools to address staffing needs, they ask what resources we plan to use to implement such an ambitious task.
I will start with the St Petersburg University Research Park, which is well known to all University students and staff. Being the leading core facility centre in Russia, based on the principle of open access with clear rules of use and model agreements, it is a resource that we can readily demonstrate to any interested partner. The Research Park enables us to cooperate in various areas with key universities and industrial companies representing the regions, without incurring any extra financial costs. Partners will not have to replenish their laboratory facilities as they will be able to use all the necessary equipment as part of joint projects with St Petersburg University, i.e. network academic programmes, internships for students and young researchers, and research projects. This unique centre, comprising 23 resource facilities, covers a wide range of research areas and is ready to meet virtually any demand. I would particularly like to mention the Centre of Medical Accreditations and Simulation Centre. When we began working with the regions, we often received requests for advanced training for nurses, as some regions do not have medical universities and they had to send their medical specialists to federal centres.
Over 330,000 studies conducted at the St Petersburg University Research Park
Moreover, the University has vast intellectual resources. I always emphasise that the expert community of St Petersburg University, with its well-established system of interdisciplinary assessment, is yet another of our strongest assets. We are able to assemble the best possible team of experts in a very short time, no matter how unconventional and multifaceted the issue may be. These resources can be used not only to prepare expert opinions, but also to develop completely new, unconventional academic programmes.
Hybrid classrooms are another advantage in the realities of the new post-coronavirus economy, enabling learners from different parts of the world to be integrated into a single educational process. Distance learning provides an opportunity for the implementation of networking and non-degree programmes, without the need to make adjustments for regional differences. Digital virtual space, used wisely, does not harm the quality of the educational process. This format has made it possible to implement our most geographically diverse system of academic programmes for training research managers in partnership with Moscow State University, Far Eastern Federal University and St Petersburg State University of Economics. This is a prime example of a new development in Russian education, with no time barriers to learning − only a desire to combine the best practices and competencies for the benefit of systemic development.
The University can also offer partners several solutions which have already been successfully tested and are ready to be integrated into other sites to solve various problems and daily tasks. The request for remote meetings or voting can be met by "the CryptoVeche" software system developed by the Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre of St Petersburg University. The software has already been used by more than 120 research organisations.
The Research Information Management System (RIMS) developed at the University Research Park enables remote digital management of the research infrastructure. The understanding of facilities, processes, and costs requires data on the workload of equipment, the number of users, ongoing projects and many other factors to be taken into account. Modern management approaches require the ability to work with huge amounts of information: to be able to consolidate it, apply it correctly, produce the necessary analytics, and check it against the requirements of the federal centre and the regulations. RIMS was designed specifically for this purpose. Some of our partners were surprised to see how advanced and ahead of its time this solution was. The idea of platform-based digital research management emerged in 2016, when such a format of digital transformation was not even mentioned yet. This idea was an investment in the future. RIMS is easy to integrate into academic institutions, as it was created within an educational organisation. Today, it is one of the best digital solutions in Russia, with the most thorough insight into the logic and design of research.
What value does participation in such a project as the Mendeleev Research and Educational Cluster have for the University?
Promoting the social and economic development of the region resonates with the values outlined in St Petersburg University Strategic Plan. As a leading classical university, we are well aware of our role in increasing the demand for Russian education both in Russia and abroad. Thus, when the University declares its goal to work with the regions and assist in their social and economic development, it sees the need to establish a sustainable partnership system. The key value for us is effective cooperation, with clear targets and an understanding of the roadmap projects. It was important that we moved from the simple registry of agreements between the University and the regional higher educational institutions in the early 2000s, to a system of partnership where each participant receives a concrete result.
Working with regional universities means working with new ideas and challenges. When we come to a region, we often discover a demand for new competencies as part of project development. This enables us to look at the University from a different angle, to reassess its own value, to form sustainable partnerships, and to receive more support.
Often in the regions, in Perm Krai, the Saratov Region, the Komi Republic, I hear an interesting feedback: ’Colleagues, we are Leningrad State University’. Why do they say so? During World War II, some departments of the University were evacuated to these regions, and as a result, they formed research and educational schools there. It was a very close partnership, which grew stronger in the 1950s and 1960s through professional contacts of research and teaching staff, and was actively maintained during the Soviet period. It is extremely pleasant to hear that the scientific school of physics in Komi belongs to the Leningrad school. Today, our partner universities and executive bodies are grateful for instilling a new management culture and best practices. The main problem for regional educational managers is that they can attend dozens of professional development courses, but the only opportunity to see whether the necessary competence has been developed comes in working on a real project. So, we have moved from words to deeds, and in the process of practical activities we are developing managerial approaches. St Petersburg University has always cultivated its academic presence in the regions, and the consistent continuation of this tradition resonates with our mission and understanding of what it is to be a University with a tradition stretching back for 300 years.
Who has already indicated their intent to become a member of the Mendeleev Cluster and who only plans to become a participant in the future?
The Cluster programme was launched in the autumn of 2020, and for almost a year it was working to increase the number of participants. Universities from 18 constituent entities of Russia, who have long been cooperating with the University and have had some preliminary project developments, became the pioneers of the Mendeleev programme. In two cases, the cooperation was initiated by the rectors: the heads of Far Eastern Federal University and Mari State University contacted us, recognising the high level of our best practices. For example, Far Eastern Federal University sought assistance in launching network academic programmes. It also asked for guidance on the management arrangements needed to set up successful university clinics. Thus, work with universities usually started at the level of initiative teams of staff and then involved representatives of the Rector’s office.
In the autumn of 2021, after a series of meetings between Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, and the heads of the Republic of Karelia, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and Perm Krai, we came to realise that a third player, i.e. the executive authorities, should be introduced into the Mendeleev programme and we should be looking not at one or two specific universities, but at the region as a whole. We have since redefined the programme and are now working with entire regions. In some cases, we had to transform what was already in place. For example, we had already been working with Derzhavin State University on the basis of a 1.0 model and were planning to sign an agreement only with the university, but in the process of creating the roadmap we had to adopt a new model. As a result, during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, the representatives of St Petersburg University, the administration of the Tambov Region and Derzhavin Tambov State University have concluded a trilateral agreement on the Mendeleev Cluster. We have now launched a cooperation project with the Ivanovo Region. That, by the way, is a good example of how fast everything happens in today’s world: my first meeting with representatives of the governor’s team took place on the margins of the forum "Skolkovo Regions. Sources of Innovation in the Regions" on 20 April 2022, and a month later, experts from St Petersburg University visited Ivanovo where, as part of a communication session with the executive authorities, they began work on creating a roadmap to fast-track implementation of the first systemic steps. Working with other constituent entities, in particular the Omsk Region, we follow the model of bilateral agreements with the region and include several universities in the ecosystem.
An interesting example, in my view, is the relationship between the University and the Alexandrinsky Theatre. They contacted us early in 2020. One would think that this is a cultural institution. Is there any common subject we have for dialogue about the economic development of the regions? It turned out that our partner, as the initiator of the National Theatre School project, had taken on the task of revitalising the national theatre in Russia, which created the need to develop an academic programme with a very unconventional content: it was necessary to develop educational solutions to produce a new creative workforce. It is not about stage directors, but about managers who are able to see the economic potential for creating and supporting national theatre in the Russian regions, and then to deliver and present it at international festivals. This required assembling a team of academic staff in a short period of time to put together interesting proposals. St Petersburg University proved able to cope with this task in an expeditious manner. The pilot launch of our joint new educational module will take place this autumn in eight constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Universities can meet such challenges only if they have both assets: experts and competencies in all areas, and at the same time, a well-functioning management system that enables them to respond quickly to requests. Unfortunately, not all universities in Russia are so flexible yet, so even with good groundwork, they do not always respond to such initiatives.
Thus, while St Petersburg University started out with a somewhat conservative one-to-one model of interaction, over time it has come up with an entirely new and innovative system. Indeed, innovations are found not only in technology, but also in education and management. The work of leading university with the regions and their key higher educational institutions is one such example, where the University acts as a guarantor of roadmap programmes for the benefit of Russian regions.