Russia’s leading universities discuss issues relating to youth education and the use of public property

Among the key topics were the following: organisation of educational work at universities of the Russian Federation and ways to improve the efficiency of the use of public property by educational and research organisations. 

The meeting is not an ordinary event for the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Ministry values the self-organisation of rectors of Russian universities, said Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. Over the past few years, educational work has been identified as a priority.

Our task at the new stage is to identify people who will be engaged in educational work at university and who are committed to what they are doing. They need to act not according to job descriptions, but to adopt a creative approach to their job. Both education and upbringing are closely related. We talk about this a lot on various platforms. Education without upbringing is simply unthinkable.

Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation

A formal approach to education is unacceptable, said Valery Falkov. He also asked rectors’ community to pay special attention to specialists working with students and in particular to lecturers who are directly engaged in this process. 

The second issue on the agenda was the use of public property in the field of education and research. The Minister of Science and Higher Education expressed gratitude to Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, Chairperson of the Presidium of the Council of University Rectors of the Northwestern Federal District and the Association of Leading Universities of Russia. Valery Falkov had previously proposed Nikolay Kropachev to work on this issue. This issue seems extremely urgent and the best proposals formulated during the meeting will be taken into account by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, said Valery Falkov. 

Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about some of the results of the recent work of the Association of Leading Universities. The members of the Association of Leading Universities developed rules for using invigilation that are common to all members of the Association. At the beginning of 2023, the Association also formulated measures to improve the efficiency of university museums. The proposals were sent to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, and the State Duma to further send them to all universities in Russia. In this regard, Nikolay Kropachev asked the speakers to formulate proposals that could be sent for revision to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. 

The meeting was opened by a report on the topic "Improving the efficiency of using public property in the field of education and research. A case study of St Petersburg University". The report was prepared by Yulia Linskaya, Deputy Head of the Department for Research and Educational Policy of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation; Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Law; and Elena Chernova, Senior Vice-Rector of St Petersburg University, Doctor of Economics. Elena Chernova focused on the importance of improving the efficiency of how universities use resources that should be used in the interests of the state. 

St Petersburg University allows a number of its partner universities to use its halls of residence and educational and research resources and infrastructure, including Lomonosov Moscow State University, Petrozavodsk State University, Herzen University, and Sirius University of Science and Technology. The University’s online courses, developed within the framework of the budget funding, were opened for free use during the pandemic. As a result, more than 13,000 students from 89 universities could continue their studies in the spring semester of 2020. The remote voting system "CryptoVeche", developed at the Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University, is available free of charge and is used in more than 100 scientific organisations and universities in Russia. The system is also used in the district administrations in St Petersburg. The Research Park at St Petersburg University, as the best research centre in Russia and one of the best core facility centres in the world, is open to Russian and international researchers.

More than 84% of the maximum possible load is the actual load of the research equipment of the core facility centre. Over 79% out of 84% load are in the interests of external users.

Elena Chernova focused on organisational and legal problems of resource consolidation. Among them are the problems in relation to accounting for the state property and assessing the degree of its demand; the inaccessibility of the full information for potential users; and the lack of Russia-wide rules for the open use of museum collections, libraries, and halls of residence to name just a few. 

Olga Serova, Senior Vice-Rector of Pskov State University, spoke about the concept of public property and discussed the project "The House of student youth". 

During the meeting, Nikolay Kropachev suggested an initiative to create a working group that would collect the best ideas and send them for revision to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. The proposal was supported by Valery Falkov.

The representatives of Russian universities shared their best practices in relation to youth education in each educational institution. Elena Kudryashova, Chairperson of the Council of Rectors of Universities of the Arkhangelsk Region, Rector of Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University, presented new tasks in the field of educational work as a factor in the transformation of universities. Viktor Koksharov, Rector of Ural Federal University, spoke about the construction of a multi-level system of educational work. Nikolay Rogalev, Rector of the National Research University "Moscow Power Engineering Institute", focused on the system of patriotic education.

The report "Mentoring through social networks: using the authority of lecturers to develop patriotic and moral guidelines for youth" was delivered by Olga Sotnikova, Chairperson of the Council of Rectors of the Komi Republic, Rector of Pitirim Sorokin Syktyvkar State University. Nina Zhuravleva, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and International Cooperation at the Bonch-Bruevich St Petersburg State University of Telecommunications, delivered a report on the topic "Improving the effectiveness of educational activities at university through the development of student mentoring". Aleksandr Kozharinov, Vice-Rector for Social and Educational Work at Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, introduced the best practices of the university in educational work. 

Andrei Polosin, Vice-Rector of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, presented a report "Worldview: education, upbringing, and values". Oksana Laricheva, Vice-Rector for Educational Work and Artistic and Creative Activities at St Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television, discussed the topic "Working with academic staff is the basis of educational activities at university".