St Petersburg University experts at the BRICS+ forum: ‘The primary goal of university education is personality development’
The 5th International Municipal BRICS+ Forum has been held in St Petersburg. The Forum was attended by over 7,000 experts, business representatives and policy-makers from 56 countries across the globe. At the panel sessions and roundtable discussions, St Petersburg University academics shared their experience in improving students’ financial literacy, made presentations and spoke about the University’s digital transformation.
Teaching financial literacy to university students
The session "Financial literacy in the new reality", held as part of the BRICS+ Forum, was co-organised by St Petersburg University. Anna Koltsova, Associate Professor in the Department of Economic Theory and Economic Policy at St Petersburg University made a presentation "Information and Educational Space for Financial Literacy Formation".
The BRICS+ Forum focuses on social and economic development of municipal territories and building multidisciplinary cooperation with countries of Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
According to Anna Koltsova, it is important to discern the levels of the information and educational space. Thus, for an educational organisation as an entity, the parameters of hardware and software products used by the organisation are essential. With respect to the disciplines taught, on the other hand, the pedagogical skills and technological tools used by the lecturer to create an information-intensive field are of much greater value.
‘Teaching any discipline may not be limited to the systematic presentation of formalised knowledge through an electronic database, including: lecture materials; teaching and learning materials for seminars and practical classes; or statistical data. We need not just to provide data, but to teach students how to acquire information and work with it, focusing on the process of informal knowledge transfer, which can take place in the format of group discussions, sharing practical experience or exchange of individual ideas,’ Anna Koltsova stressed.
Particular attention is to be paid to the information and educational space (IES) of financial literacy due to the highly dynamic information flow as a distinguishing characteristic of this area. Regulatory norms, systems and conditions of interaction, related to the matters of personal finance, are constantly changing. Consequently, educational information has to be continuously updated. Financial literacy implies disclosure of functional information and informal knowledge sharing and is highly relevant to the students’ current and future activities, explained Anna Koltsova, Associate Professor in the Department of Economic Theory and Economic Policy at St Petersburg University.
Natalia Eremina, Professor in the Department of European Studies at St Petersburg University, took part in the roundtable discussion "Industrialisation, innovation and infrastructure as the key factors to sustainable territorial development" and the panel session "Electoral processes in modern Russia. Current trends and ongoing challenges", held as part of the 5th International Municipal BRICS+ Forum. The roundtable session "Pulmonology in applied medicine. Modern trends" was attended by Vitaly Sereda, Professor in the Department of Hospital Therapy at St Petersburg University, Deputy Chief Physician for Therapy-Chief Internist at OOO "My Medical Centre — High Technologies". Dmitry Orekhov, a writer, publicist, and lecturer at St Petersburg University, was a keynote speaker at the panel session "Anti-colonialism 2.0: Myths we choose".
St Petersburg University developed and has been actively implementing the information and educational space (IES) model for teaching financial literacy, which features a few e-learning management system tools, including: Blackboard Learn; Microsoft Teams; and Yandex applications. Students are offered tasks aimed at searching and processing data for analytical reports, abstracts, and news articles for a website; collection of statistical data on a given topic; development of questionnaires; and design of infographics, clusters, mind maps or outlines using visual organisers. Various interactive formats of student work are used in class to improve the ability to share information. Additionally, the University uses the IES components management system in educational interaction, where the SECI model of knowledge dimensions has proved itself.
Digital transformation in higher education: St Petersburg University’s experience
Professor Vladislav Arkhipov, Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law, Director of the Centre for Research on Information Security and Digital Transformation at St Petersburg University, spoke about the University’s digital transformation progress at the panel session "Priority 2030. A fresh look at education". In his talk, he underlined that St Petersburg University is a leader in online education and is a co-founder of the National OpenEdu Platform, where it ranks first in the number of courses and enrolment. Prior to the ban of Russian universities’ content on the international educational platform Coursera in March 2022, St Petersburg University was among the top 5 universities in the world in terms of the number of online courses hosted on that platform. St Petersburg University is a co-founder and the first representative of Russia in the Global Alliance for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), as well as the first Russian university to sign an agreement with China’s largest national online learning platform XuetangX.
According to Professor Arkhipov, to date, St Petersburg University has developed and implemented over 450 online educational products, with the total number of students from the Russian Federation and other countries reaching 4 million people. These e-learning solutions are used both in St Petersburg University’s own academic programmes (in the 2022/2023 academic year, over 90 per cent of the University’s students took online courses) and in other Russian universities’ curricula.
Professor Vladislav Arkhipov is the author of many popular St Petersburg University’s online courses. Among them are: "Computer Games Industry: Key Legal Issues"; "Information Security for Everyone"; "Big Data from a Legal Perspective: Introduction"; "Legal Regulation of Information Relations on the Internet: Russian Perspective"; "Distributed Ledger Technologies: Legal Regulation"; "Theory of Law and State"; and "Fundamentals of Law".
‘Over the many years of successful work, the University has accumulated a huge amount of data, which allows us to say that education at St Petersburg University is being shaped by data science,’ said Professor Vladislav Arkhipov, Director of the Centre for Research on Information Security and Digital Transformation at St Petersburg University. ‘The University is also developing a student’s digital profile, which is a very complex task, particularly regarding various legal issues of personal data protection.’
Professor Arkhipov emphasised that the implementation and development of digital technologies at St Petersburg University does not mean that the University is replacing its true humanitarian approach and the demands of modern education.
It is essential that at the centre of education is a human being, endowed with freedom and responsibility. In our opinion, new digital technologies are necessary and important, but they can only serve as an aid in the development of a versatile personality and can never completely replace face-to-face, live communication.
Professor Vladislav Arkhipov, Director of the Centre for Research on Information Security and Digital Transformation at St Petersburg University
As an illustration, Vladislav Arkhipov mentioned the new challenges arising from the use of generative neural networks to prepare student papers. ‘Personally, as a researcher, I am convinced that we should not allow students to replace the experience of personal development with the experience of managing neural networks. If a student uses neural networks to prepare a paper, but cannot repeat the same results without AI, then we are not achieving the goal of education. After all, the primary goal of university education is personality development. Both personality and an individual develop through language and speech. This is what modern neuroscience says, and this approach is consistent with the notion of a person who adheres to the traditional spiritual and moral values,’ Vladislav Arkhipov concluded.