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Report of the General Secretary of the Russian Rectors' Union O.V. Kashirina «Historical Conditionality of Educational Models and Challenges of Modern Times»

The recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum was organized by Russia and too k place on the Russky Island. In my opinion, it became the landmark for Russian education. It was announced in the Forum about the commenced establishment of a unified education space of APEC. This means academic mobility, joint scientific research, joint development of new forms of evaluation of the quality of education, including new mechanisms of the global rating of institutions of higher education. All this will contribute to prevention of the current trend to breakage of ties between the key subjects of the educational process: students' and teachers' corporations, employers, state and social institutes. It is no wonder that in the Forum the Managing Director of the World Bank Ms. Indrawati related the prospects of remote territories directly to development of the human resources and their qualification, improvement of the quality of available education. In this connection I would like to distinguish high dynamics of positive transformations in the universities of Siberia and the Far East. According to the expert evaluation of the Rectors' Union, Altai State University is, no doubt, in the vanguard of this process, and its Rector ­ Sergey Valentinovich Zemlyukov ­ and his team welcome us today. What should we start with? First of all, it is required to determine the strategic guidelines for development of the Russian education in the new geopolitics and conjugate them with understanding of new social and economic conditions. This should lay the foundation to formation of the new prospect model of the Russian university. Indeed, historically, the university model has always conformed to the social and economic formations. In the Middle Ages knowledge got the nature of universal affordability, and that is why the society demanded and established such a university that became the instrument of the universal teaching knowledge.


Thus, beginning from XIth century, universities were segregated in a separate social institution in the form of corporations of masters (according to today's social hierarchy ­ teachers and scientists) and scholars (now - students). Hereby the main goal of universities at the time was formation of an integral view of the world. It was considered integral only in case if a scholar studied at all faculties of the university. Hereby the order of studies did not play any role. A student could study at several faculties in parallel or get knowledge successively. Wide academic freedom of the University of the Middle Ages was also embodied in this. The only inviolable condition was that the Faculty of Divinity was deemed superior, and a student could enter it only after completing all other faculties. That is, the main task of universities was, in essence, upbringing of the population. Knowledge was to serve only as an illustrative material for formation of the due esthetic and ethic feeling towards the world in the members of this corporation. Hereby the world was the basis of both knowledge and economy. In education it played the role of illustration of the truth of holy, sacred knowledge. And in economy the earth played the role of the source of wealth. Only in the within the knowledge position of New Time the university became to be oriented towards objective knowledge classic Humboldt's model. Formation of not only ideas of the world, but about it, became its task. Economic relations of that time required active the man.

Thus, for the first time in the history of the mankind knowledge began to take an active part in formation of the economy and individual entrepreneurs become the subjects of this economy. The spirit of universality disappears in education; the way to cognition of the truth becomes individual. In this context public disputes became a very important part of cognition. In this case it did not matter, who lost the dispute or who won it, the truth was of importance. It is this way the economy of the New Time operated. The overall wealth of the country was made up of the overall activity of individual entrepreneurs. And in this case the bitterness of bankrupts was of no importance. Early in XX century the principles of the university education were subordinated to the economic expediency. The key principles of the American research university were developed exactly against its background. Hereby, in my opinion, the Soviet education system complied quite well with the spirit of the twentieth century. As the main thing is it was reproduction of the staff, demanded by
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the people's economy. Mastering new skills became one of the main parameters for graduates. Hereby one should point out differences between the Soviet and American models of education. The American educational model continued the line of Humboldt's university as an apologist of the capitalist educational model. The orientation of the American educational model towards applied science was the principal difference of the American educational model from Humboldt's one, where fundamental science was the main and the only supplier of knowledge. From the economic point of view this was stipulated by appearance of Ford's theory of conveyor, where application of the best social, psychological and practical mechanisms from the point of view of time saving, reduction of costs and maximization of profits was the main thing. The Soviet educational model started to view the world in the light of the communist ideology and study them simultaneously within the fundamental Soviet science. The result of this study should have formed the most efficient practice. From the economic point of view this was stipulated by the tasks of accelerated development (five-year plan in 4 years), which was possible only under the conditions of standardized, universalized collective practice. I can state surely that the modern Russian higher school does not conform to the Soviet model of education, since it is not determined functionally and economically. At the moment there is no universal collective practice similar to that of the socialist period of the Russian history. In fact, the current model of the Russian university is more liberal, the responsibility of the subject in it is leveled to a great extent. For reconstruction of the Soviet university, one had to revive the Committee and the system of centralized unified production or training or placement of both goods and services, and staff. And, first of all, matrix pride of the Soviet economic science the famous input-output State Planning and distribution the main Soviet balance.

Today it is utopian and inexpedient, since determination of a stable, though relative index under the conditions of the modern economy at the state macro-level imposes exorbitant maintaining obligations and responsibility on the entire social system. In the opinion of such outstanding economists, as Gurvich, Maskin and Myerson, under the modern economic conditions the main task of the state is to control strategic macroeconomic and macro-social relations. That is to select target dynamic guidelines from the majority of those, which can be measured in long-term relative indices, and by no means to regulate though relative, but short-term microeconomic and micro-social indices.
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Unfortunately, not in all cases yet one succeeds to go away from accentuation of attention on tactical aspects and details, which an institute of higher education is entitled and able to solve independently. Excessive regulation of work of an institution of higher education reduces the efficiency of development. In my opinion the state and the professional community must jointly control the result of the work of the institution of higher education, and by no means the process. Independence should be granted to the institutions of higher education in determination of approaches and instruments for solution of the development tasks, set by the state and the society. Not by the form, but by the fact it will bring academic freedom to them. Both the state and the society must respect the way, chosen by each university independently. Of course, we all should judge about the activity of the university by its results, and not by the conditions of its formation, in particular, if we deal with one input parameter, event it is such a weighty parameter as the a verage scope of the USE of the accepted applicants. It is traditionally believed that Humboldt's model of the university is an apologist of the academic freedom, which the modern Russian university lacks so much. However it is evident that this model and its continuation ­ the American educational model ­ are in the deep crisis at the moment. Today the employers are not ready to employ graduates, since they should be trained additionally. The European studentship is discontented with the level of education, which resulted in recent students' revolts that occurred in Europe. Whereas the higher education community does not fully understand what it should change in its activity to improve the quality of teaching. At the moment the American educational model is balancing on the verge of stability only at the expense of inflow of both foreign teachers and students. Citizens, who grew up in the USA are not prone to long studies. It is indicated by the latest state sociological research in the USA. Fewer and fewer US citizens finish school, not to mention the institutions of higher education. And it is no wonder. Early in the 90-s of the last century development of the world economy entered the new stage ­ the emergent economy appeared economy, in which trends are formed not by major market players, but by unexpected acts of its least significant subjects. The principal difference of the emergent economy from the preceding ones consists in the fact that responsibility for welfare of the society in general is transferred from the specific person to the environment in general (manufacturer, employee, society, production means, and the environment).

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In this case responsibility is distributed among all subjects of the market at the expense of special financial instruments. In this context free activity of an individual subject becomes unprofitable for the subject himself since the risk of individual practice is very high and is not leveled by the same risks of other market players. As the 2008 crisis showed, only large-scale corporations that form their own environment can win, and only for a short time. And the overall balance, which will allow to account interests of a lot of individuals, becomes very important here. Following the spirit of the emergent economy, the new university model must be much more flexible. Under today's conditions there mustn't be any a priori theoretical prescriptions for the students. The student should be able to choose them, based on his tasks. That is why the practical skills and competences get the highest urgency. In this case the basic mechanism of education will be not so much adoption of abstract theories, as practical search for the required knowledge via involvement of the student into the scientific research, promotional and production processes within small innovational enterprises and laboratories, involvement into scientific and production environment . I think it should be done from the 1st year of studies. In this context the new proposed university model is principally different from the preceding ones. If all preceding models perceived studies as preparation for the future, in the XXI century studies should become the work, they should become the real daily routine for everyone. Thus, admission to the university automatically means employment of a person, and not later, at least in 4 years, but at once. From the first days certain scientific and educational and innovational functional shall be entrusted to each student. And if the management of the university does not see any place for new employees, it should not and may not announce admission. The prospect university model should proceed activity, aimed at the present. It is work of orientation to work will allow to accomplish students' corporation. We will get both principal environment via the new motivation. from understanding of education as an both teachers and students. And this the new quality of the teachers' and renewal and activation of the academic

The prospect university model does not presuppose hierarchical differences, except those, stipulated by the functional of common work. Hereby, this function is not reserved to any one forever. The active internal environment, characterized by social competition, shall become the basic quality of the new university.

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Social competition presupposes diversification and transparency of the environment. Within the social competition not so much transfer of knowledge, as generation and construction of the new social and economic ties becomes the basic function of the institution of higher education. The model of management of the institution of higher education should be as flexible. First of all, this concerns the mechanism of financing of the institution of higher education. At the moment it is made up of two constituents: budgetary and extrabudgetary. The extra-budgetary constituent is essentially tied to the budgetary one via the cost of education. And in this case the problem is not only non-transparency, but also economic inconsistency. Today certain mixing of the state order, state assignment and the mechanism of assurance of constitutional and social guarantees takes place. It would be appropriate to form the state assignment for all institutions of higher education within the target indicators of the development programs of institutions of higher education, formulated as dynamic guidelines, measured in long-term relative indices. It is proposed to legislatively fix the minimum share of the number of constitutional and social reserved vacancies from the total number of students in any department and any specialty of the institution of higher education of full-time form of studies as a mechanism of assurance of constitutional and social guarantees of the state in the field of higher education. What number of students exactly study free of charge at what faculty, should be determined by the institution of higher education, it is important that it would not be under the standards, fixed legislatively. Its academic freedom should be expressed in this, among other things. Hereby the state assignment shall be financed depending on the three indices: 1) volume of extra-budgetary obligations of the institution of higher education, 2) efficiency of implementation of the development program and 3) share of free of charge students in the total number of students at the institution of higher education. Hereby areas of responsibility should be distinguished between the institutions of higher education of different status and importance of the mission of each institution of higher education of the system ­ Moscow, remote regional, branch one ­ should be understood. They are reduced to a common denominator by the efficiency of implementation of the development programs. They should become the basis for annual rating of institutions of higher education and decisions on conferment or confirmation of the corresponding status of the institution of higher education.
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This will allow to develop fair competition between the institutions of higher education and to prevent possible monopolization of the system of education with a bias to Moscow regions. We should ensure real competition of institutions of higher education, hereby not only inside Russia, but inter-regional one. In my opinion, it is interesting that the development programs of institutions of higher education bear another new and very important functional, they allow to link state interests and individual interests. As a result new motivation arises to the responsible approach in the educational activity, including in implementation of the tasks, set by the state. It is very important today for preservation of stability of the society. Maybe, already today one should also think about distribution of functions of the academic and corporate management of institutions of higher education. Since the today's scheme of education does not allow to control different functions of the institution of higher education efficiently. Such distribution took place in Russia before revolution ­ earlier it was a common practice of Russian universities, and is now used by many foreign institutions of higher education. There the function of management of the scientific and research content of activity of the institution of higher education is assigned to the president of the university, who is elected by the teachers' corporation. And the function of financial and property management of the institution of higher education is assigned to the rector (in prerevolution Russia ­ trustee), who is appointed by the founder of the institution of higher education. Such distribution of the functional will probably allow the rector to focus on the events on improvement of efficiency of use of financial and property resources of institutions of higher education, and, which is important, will finally reduce the state expenses for maintenance of the system. And the president of the institution of higher education will be able to the full extent to focus on assurance of the full-scale educational, scientific and innovational activity of the institution of higher education. A separate subject is preservation of the uniform educational space under the new conditions. It shall be ensured not at the expense of unification of the educational process, but at the expense of uniformity of requirements to the skills and knowledge of the public officer and officer of the state companies, which will be developed by the state in interaction with the teaching, scientific and professional business community.

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These abilities, skills, knowledge and competences should be checked within the state examination, which shall be separated from the institutions of higher education, due to which they will get an opportunity to form proprietary educational standards on the basis of the development programs and state requirements. And the state examination itself should be made the tool for access to work in the state authorities or in the organizations with presence of state funds in the charter capital. Support of the considerable share of graduates, who passed the state examination successfully, should be attributed to the responsibility area of the state institutions of higher education. Hereby one should develop competition between the institutions of higher stimulate growth of the number of different education techniques and opport selection of the education paths between the institutions of higher education. introduction of the proprietary standard of diplomas of institutions of higher will contribute to all this. All the above activity of hi processes of spontaneously education, unities for All-round education

will strengthen the role of business and community in organization of gher educational institutions. Indeed, today their participation in the institutions of higher education is not formalized; it is often built at the expense of the personal factor of rectors or chiefs of enterprises.

It is evident that institutionalization of the new subjects of the educational process will allow to form a new university model with preservation of the priority of the uniform educational space, which is so important for our country. And this will be the space, in which the new university will come from the especial priority of transfer of knowledge to the superiority of its generation and formation of social and economic ties. Responsibility of the educational corporation to the society will be restored in the new university to the full extent via the joint work of a teacher and a student. So, not the man, as in the Middle Ages, not the world, as in the New Time, not instruments of labor, as in the XX century, but environment as the integral unity of all these constituents becomes the main value of the new education model. The harmonious interaction of people and the world around becomes the main value, correspondingly. The main characteristics of the new university model are the following: Not studies, but learning: not service, but joint work collegiality. Priority of horizontal ties over vertical ones. Project-target approach, but not command and administration system.
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Control of the result and not conditions of the process. Social competitiveness, and not leveling. And, finally, transparency, but not closeness of universities to the state and society. In conclusion I would like to point out that I was glad to accept an invitation of Sergey Valentinovich Zemlyukov to visit your famous region, as I wanted to present this report not on the Moscow ground, but at a remote, but powerful and actively developing regional university.

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