Russian universities in 2013

By Vestnik Kavkaza

“A period of change has ended in the educational sphere,” the Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov stated in his New Year speech toward his colleagues.

“A lot of disputes were connected with the United State Exam (USE) in 2013. We believe that launching of the USE drew out the problems which had been accumulated in the system for decades. In April 2014 the Public Council will develop proposals for the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia on a form of a final composition as a precondition for the Russian language USE,” Livanov said.

Meanwhile, Victor Sadovnichy, the rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, thinks that “it was a difficult year for our education system. The process related to the optimization of the system of higher education continued. All the time the universities were facing the question of the quality of students' admission to the first year. New federal state educational standards and programs are being introduced. A new federal law "On Education" was ratified in September. It has also introduced a number of new conditions into the system of higher education. Even now, even after the adoption of the law there are still a lot of questions about the future of the postgraduate school in our country because, according to the law, the postgraduate school is attributed to the third tier of education, while before that it served as a system for training researchers in our country.”

This year wasn't easy for Moscow University. “Unfortunately, in current research as well as in public opinion, scientific-metric indicators often become the most important: how often its scientists are cited, in which journals they are published, how many Nobel laureates work at a university. Of course, these are indicators, they exist, but they access a very small portion of a university's life, a very small one. In fact, a university lives a richer life and its role is much more significant. Unfortunately, we have not been able or at least have not talked much about the fact that this university trains real professionals, who are grateful to their basic training their whole lives. This basic training allowed them to walk through their lives, regardless of circumstances in which they find themselves,” Sadovnichy thinks.

“Recently "Expert" published a Ranking of World Universities. It interviewed about 30 leading companies - Boing, BMW, Intel, Pepsi Cola - the graduates of which university do you prefer to hire and the graduates of which university constitute your pride? Moscow University in this ranking of world universities took 47th place. But this single question overshadowed all the previous ratings. These leading companies are focusing on the graduates of Moscow University. Such firms do not take people for nothing and will not keep those who do not bring them scholarly, technological benefits, those who do not contribute to the intellectual development of the company,” the head of MSU believes.