The diversification of forms and types of doctoral programs is currently a global trend. Universities across the globe offer programs that differ in the modes of training, characteristics of the target audience, and possible labor markets after graduation. In Russia, doctoral education exists in a unified format, focusing primarily on the academic labor market. Recently, there have been discussions about the need to expand the range of programs and the types of academic degrees in Russia. In this article, we present the analysis of professional doctoral programs: in response to what challenges and needs they appeared, how they are implemented, in what forms they exist. In addition, we consider the Russian experience of implementing professional doctoral programs; analyze the existing opportunities and barriers for their development. Based on the analysis, we came to a conclusion about the relevance of the professional doctoral programs’ development in Russia, the expediency of simplifying the conditions for their implementation and legitimizing special requirements for the design of dissertations with an applied orientation.

Purpose. Quantitative analysis and identification of determinants of Russian universities’ financial sustainability.

Methods. Non-parametric methods for data analysis and machine learning.

Results. We proposed two groups of working hypothesis. The levels of financial sustainability of Russian state universities are linked to internal environmental factors including the levels of financial management quality, income-generating activities scale, debt financing, fiscal discipline, academic and research-based activities scales. The levels of financial sustainability of Russian state universities are linked to external environmental factors and depend on the funding patterns and regional dimensions.

Conclusions. Special conditions for increased state funding are not sufficient to strengthen universities’ financial sustainability. Moreover, we have established the insignificance of the university geographical location influence on financial sustainability. We have come to a conclusion that both financial management efficiency and prior year financial sustainability have key roles to play in current sustainability formation. Universities with a large scale of income-generating activities are more financially stable due to the diversification of sources of financial support for their overall activities.

The article addresses the problem of teaching the course of history and philosophy of science. This course has been taught to graduate students of Russian universities for more than 15 years. But disputes over its content and expediency still do not subside, but only flare up with renewed vigor. Those disputes were in three directions. The author proposes to return to the discussion of the existing problems in each of the areas of criticism of postgraduate discipline. These are: 1) the content of the subject from the standpoint of the coordination of its historical and philosophical parts (What?); 2) pedagogical and methodological support of training (How?); and 3) the ultimate goals of postgraduate training in general (For what?). The questions “how?” and “ what for?” are included in a broader context – the formation of the competence of a future scientist, his readiness to solve complex and non-trivial scientific problems. Reflections outlined in the article are built into the overall picture of post-graduate training in universities that has developed to date. The author sums up his reflections by calling for non-stop communication in a mode of continuous “recursive adjoining”. Such a strategy, in his opinion, remains the most reliable means of highquality promotion of both teaching and training of graduate students in general.

Being one of the basic didactic terms, “learning” is frequently translated by Russianspeaking researchers as either “obuchenie” or “uchenie”. It seems strange, as these two words are not synonyms in Russian. Moreover, in Russian conventional didactics they denote two different phenomena: “obuchenie” refers to the entire educational process consisting of both the teacher’s and the learner’s activities while “uchenie” corresponds to the latter one. Successful international academic communication presupposes that any terms accepted by English-speaking professionals should be adapted to the national didactic concepts of this or that country. Taking this requirement into account, the author concludes that the only possible equivalent of “learning” in Russian is “uchenie”, not “obuchenie”, while the phrase “the shift from teaching to learning” and the term “student-centred learning” should be translated as “sdvig / perekhod ot prepodavaniya k ucheniyu” and “studentotsentrirovannoe uchenie” respectively. The author comes to the conclusion that student-centred learning (SCL) opposed to student-centred teaching can be considered the highest point in the development of student-centred approach currently prevailing in European countries. SCL as a new type of learning means that the student becomes an active participant in educational process having his (her) own needs and interests in the focus of attention. The substitution of the word “uchenie” by the incorrect variant “obuchenie” existing in the Russian academic discourse nowadays prevents Russian-speaking researchers from seeing clearly the essence of SCL.

This article focuses on soft skills that are needed for young engineers starting their professional careers. The objectives of the study were: 1) to determine soft skills of young engineers that are most in demand among employers; 2) to assess the importance of soft skills for the successful start of the graduates’ professional career; 3) to determine the necessary conditions for soft skills development in the engineering bachelor’s degree educational process. The methods of expert assessment, written survey, oral conversation, decomposition, statistical and structural-logical analysis were used in the study. A review of foreign and domestic studies focusing on the analysis and assessment of soft skills needed in the work of engineering and technical personnel in various fields of activity is made. The results of an empirical study showed which soft skills are assessed by young engineers and heads of industrial enterprises as highly demanded for university graduates’ successful career start. On their basis, an optimal grouping of soft skills was compiled, which meets the requirements of professional training for many types of engineering activities. The authors adduce the results of a comparative analysis of the highlighted soft skills, based on the assessments of their importance made by teachers of engineering disciplines, heads of departments and engineers of industrial enterprises, as well as senior students of engineering bachelor’s degree. It was found that representatives of industrial enterprises, especially managers more highly assess the importance of soft skills for the successful professional activity of graduates of an engineering university in comparison with teachers and students. An explanation of the discrepancies in the obtained assessments of soft skills is proposed. The difficulties and necessary conditions for soft skills development in engineering bachelor degree educational process are determined. The article substantiates the key role of the studentcentered approach to teaching and the corresponding teaching and learning technologies for the successful development of soft skills on the basis of different disciplines, including specialized and practice-oriented ones for the engineering profile. The authors formulate the conclusions about the features of soft skills development, which can be used to improve the university training of engineering personnel.

The article discusses the need for an integrative approach in teaching Business English, aimed at forming and developing professional competencies of a future graduate in the field of management. The applied aspect of the integrative approach means implementing the principle of integration in all parts of the educational process. In this study, it concerns the formation of professional competencies during the process of learning a foreign language. The basis of the successful implementation of an integrative approach at all levels is adding a reflective component, forming of reflective position of a student. It helps analyze and order all the elements and stages of the studying activity from goal setting to result achieving; it also helps students realize themselves as active participants of the studying process. Today, due to various factors and reasons, the potential of the discipline “Business Foreign Language” in forming professional competencies often remains unrealized. The course developed allows to fully reveal its opportunities of forming professional competencies for a future manager. The course is focused on developing skills in a foreign language and professional training of students in such field of study as “Management”. This contributes to the students’ personal and professional growth. This is achieved due to the course’s content and structure, when the general concept of management and its functions being considered sequentially and logically. Including the reflective component into the studying process allows not only the teacher but also the students themselves follow the level of progress and the degree of achieving the goals set by them.

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Nowadays, digital technologies are widely used at all levels of education and are effectively integrated into diverse teaching and learning activities (transmission of information, educational projects, presentations, games, training, modeling, evaluation and competence assessment, etc.). Information and communication technologies are considered in this study as a key element of assessment of teacher student professional skills and competencies during school teaching practice. A digital portfolio is regarded as a form of authentic assessment of teaching practice and a way to improve teaching performance and to contribute to pre-service teachers’ professional growth. The purpose of the research is to analyze the opportunities and potential benefits as well as the disadvantages of using digital portfolio in teacher preparation course and to propose recommendations for the full realization of this method’s potential. The author analyzes the experience of Swiss teachers in using a digital portfolio to assess the results of student teaching practice. The research focuses on the role of the digital portfolio in developing the pre-service teachers’ ability to selfassessment and self-reflection.

The philosophical training of tertiary-level students is designed to perform a number of functions assigned to it by society and the state. However, in recent years, it is no longer in demand by the majority of the educational process participants, since the university philosophy does not respond well to modern challenges from education, primarily to the need of digitalization and competence approach implementation. To preserve the disciplinary status of philosophy, the lecturers have to modernize the content, methods and forms of implementation of the discipline in order to increase its attractiveness in students’ minds, as well as the demand by society and the state. One of the possible ways to update the training course of philosophy is seen in its reorientation towards the development of students’ universal competencies prescribed in the state educational standards. In this case, the philosophical content becomes a tool to achieve this goal, and the philosophical heritage is used as a theoretical basis for mastering the technologies of mental action. The article presents the experience of Kazan University, where the philosophy course has recently become a tool for “system and critical thinking” competence training. Although a digital format of philosophical training has a number of cognitive advantages, nevertheless it is fraught with the risk that the philosophical value potential will not be fully realized. This risk can be minimized through a mixed format of teaching philosophy. Тo increase the demand for philosophy in higher education, the author offers a number of ways to enhance the role and importance of philosophy in students’ minds.

The paper examines the problem of transformation of the dialogue between educators and philosophers (within the framework of the scientific dialogue between the philosophy of education and the history of philosophy) in the 21st century. The work implements a perspectivist approach, exploring the interdisciplinary field of philosophy of education and history of philosophy from the position of an actor of science in measuring the dialogue between educators and philosophers. Monographs and scientific papers of 1990–2021 serve as a source material for the study. In the course of the study, the author’s approach to the study of the current state and discussions of the philosophy of education in the perspective of the dialogue between teachers and historians of philosophy has been substantiated. The article generalizes the features of the transformation of the field of philosophy of education in 1990–2021, identifies the periods of change in the dialogue between the philosophy of education and the history of philosophy, highlights the general directions of modern discussions. It is demonstrated that in modern research the dialogue between educators and historians of philosophy occurs at all levels of philosophy of education: the level of methodology; practical developments of thinkers of the past; cultural, social, value context. At the same time, the role of the historian of philosophy is to deepen criticism and interpretation of the pedagogical discourse of the past in response to a specific request from specialist educators, in clarifying certain aspects of philosophy and contextualizing them within the framework of the situation of education. The article shows the importance of studying the historical and philosophical layer of modern problems, indicates the continuing relevance of the study of the philosophy of the past and the work of the historian of philosophy for specialists in various branches of the humanities.

Background. The growing importance of international cooperation among universities have increased the number of joint training projects. Common Bologna principles followed by Russian and Spanish tertiary institutions helped perform a pilot study focused on telecollaboration and plurilingual and pluricultural competence implementation. The project aimed at forming plurilingual and pluricultural competence and communicative competence among students studying either English or Spanish or both through the integration of digital technologies into the learning process.

Methods. This 7-month study took place in Moscow (Russian Federation) and Valencia (Spain) from November 2019 to June 2020. Participants were university students aged 20–23 from Teaching Training Faculties from Lomonosov Moscow State University and CEU Cardenal Herrera University. The undergraduates who volunteered to participate in the focus group took part in five telecollaboration sessions (March-May 2020). The participants were divided into two mixed (50% Russian and 50% Spanish learners) subgroups and discussed suggested topics during online studentled bilingual sessions. After each online interaction, researchers collected their opinions through questionnaires and discussion with a lecturer.

Outcomes. All participants announced that the study gave them a chance to improve their language abilities, update their vocabulary and enhance their intercultural experience. None of the partakers reported having experienced any difficulty doing the project and only regretted that interaction time was too short. Additionally, lecturers were able to test new curricula implementation and assessment procedures.

Conclusions. The pilot study was feasible to deliver and there was a clear, satisfactory result with the focus groups participants and teaching staff.

The subjects of education satisfaction analysis with the teacher training results at the University was carried out. The training deficiencies and new challenges were identified, which made it possible to determine the guidelines for the development of pedagogical university. A variant to transform the organizational scheme of communications between university departments was presented to increase the efficiency of educational environment organization for professional training of future teachers.

From the standpoint of pedagogical bioethics, approaches to organise the educational environment of a pedagogical university are proposed for the effective acquisition of teaching experience by future educators. The design of the educational environment should provide an understanding of the ethical boundaries of various communication formats and an experience of performing communicative roles. The variety of these formats and roles corresponds to the variety of loci in the modern educational space.

The article addresses contradictions between the existing and predicted tendencies in the organization and content of pedagogical practices. Through the analysis of teacher training programs, the need for student educational practice has also been established, which provides a solution to a wider range of professional tasks. The revealed contradictory nature made it possible to formulate the problem: what can be a trigger for the initiative acquisition by a future teacher of the experience in solving professional problems? Primary attention in solving this problem is paid to the conditions for the manifestation of personal student initiatives: the creation of platforms for dialogue, the provision of a periodic process of transition from practice to theory and vice versa, the use of operators of semiotic diagnostics of changes in students’ personal interests. The article presents the experience of organizing the educational environment, which provides future teachers with a modern range of professional probation. The options for the organization of official student practice are presented, including the development of online classes of educational and leisure activities of schoolchildren. This model contributes to the manifestation of students’ personal initiatives, both within the training profile and in the sphere of interdisciplinary intersections. The authors adduce the results of the questionnaire survey of students after the practice, showing their satisfaction with the chosen profession, a high level of motivation for mastering professional actions. The main methods and directions of organizing practices have been determined. They make it possible to ensure the predicted level of solving professional tasks by graduates.

The paper provides some results of the library reader survey which allowed establishing the new role and place of the research library of a pedagogical university. The creative role of the research library determines the possible options of interaction between the library and scientific and educational departments of the pedagogical university. In the educational environment, the library becomes a “third place” between home and classroom.

Modern Uzbekistan undergoes wide-scale social and economic reforms that include the modernization of higher education system. This paper aims at evaluating the actual and potential impact of the reforms in Uzbekistan’s higher education on the Russian universities’ opportunities to export education to Uzbekistan. Accordingly, the paper traces the evolution of the national higher education system under President Islam A. Karimov (from 1991 to 2016), analyzes the new priorities of higher education policies set by his successor Shavkat M. Mirziyoyev, shows their interlinkages with the transition to a new model of national development, and focuses on the objectives and instruments of higher education internationalization. Theoretically and methodologically, the research relies on the concepts of internal and external internationalization of higher education, Clark’s model of higher education system elements, and Trow’s concept of higher education massification levels. The authors show the scale and interconnectedness of higher education challenges that have been developing in Uzbekistan in the course of the 25 years of its independence. The authors argue that higher education internationalization has become a way to achieve a number of objectives, in particular to improve the quality of higher education, orient it to massification, make it more accessible in the country’s regional centers. The paper shows the parameters of internal and external internationalization of higher education in Uzbekistan that has demonstrated the unprecedented dynamics in post-Soviet countries. The paper underlines that the policy of rapprochement with Russia launched by Tashkent in 2016 has created exceptionally beneficial opportunities for Russian universities to work in Uzbekistan and attract Uzbek students. Four mid-term scenarios of higher education internationalization in Uzbekistan are suggested.