The article considers the results of the main activities of universities – participants’ groups of the Priority 2030 program of the «Leadership in Research» track (hereinafter referred to as the research track) at the initial stage of its implementation. An analysis of performance indicators’ dynamics for groups of universities in the period preceding the implementation of the program (2017–2020) and the first year of its implementation (2021) was carried out. Special attention is given to the analysis of the activities of universities that are leaders in the research track. As part of the comprehensive analysis, positive results were identified, as well as some problem areas in the activities of universities. An analysis of the basic indicators shows that the researched groups of universities in a number of indicators have a relatively small difference in the achieved values, while the indicators of the special part revealed an unconditional group of leaders.

The article presents the result of developing the model of the competence profile of a teacher as the basis for the system of revealing, assessing and developing professional skills of a teacher, including competences, which have a significant impact on the quality of pedagogical and scientific work of a teacher. The emphasis is put on different levels of competence profile: functional (competencies necessary for teachers to develop and disseminate research, innovation, and educational practices) and value (competencies acquired and developed by a teacher under the influence of stimulating professional environment and values of corporate culture of professional community and HEI). The empirical basis of the article is the results of a series of focus groups and strategy sessions with teaching and administrative staff and students reflecting the peculiarities of perception of “professional mastery of a teacher” perception as a defining category of quality pedagogical process in higher education.

The university teachers’ tasks are being updated, their labor functions are being revised and supplemente, with changes at the higher education system. The good organization of a modern university teacher is subject to numerous external targets. The perception of these targets, as well as the personal value of the activity components, are important. The purpose of the article are the identification of tasks for a technical university teacher from the standpoint of the Higher School strategic targets, and determination of their solution limitations. The paper reveals the strategic tasks hierarchy of higher technical education – for technical universities, departments and their teachers; the academic community attitude review to strategic objectives is carried out (including: how the strategic objectives are understood by teachers, how priorities and emphasis are placed in these tasks); the priorities of technical universities teachers are evaluated in terms of their tasks solving; restrictions are indicated in solving these problems, and these restrictions connection with the working conditions of the technical universities teaching staff. The paper points out the balancing problem of the teachers work, and the emerging dissonance among the goals, tasks set for them, and private indicators of their activities effectiveness. The engineering education strategic goals and objectives should proceed from the fact, that this is a mutually responsible process of the qualified technical specialists training, from the authors’ point of view. This is especially topical for the returning process to the engineers training.

The scientific problem of the study is related to the identification of educational migration for university admission against the background of youth migration. The practical problems of the study are focused on the creation of analytical conditions for decision-making and planning for the education system development: the distribution of enrollment targets, financing and resource supporting the infrastructure development, and the development of the human resources potential of Russian universities. The object of the study is interregional youth educational migration for university admission. Federal universities data is described as the object of present study. Sources: official state statistics data of 2017-2021, “big data” is the results of passing the Unified State Examinations (USE) and the choice of university and direction of study by students for 2020. The research methodology is connected with the analysis of official statistics, the Russian regions typology according to the characteristics of youth migration: recipient regions, donor regions, regions of a mixed or “transit” type (leaving graduates are replaced by newcomers), closed (low intensity of migration processes). Educational migration was identified by analyzing and comparing databases on the results of the USE and the results of university admission. Stable patterns of migration processes, migration trends and directions have been identified as a result of the study.

The Russian universities’ contribution to the achievement of sustainable development goals is analyzed from the prospect of globalism crisis and transition to the global-local paradigm of the existence of a society. The authors proceed from the theoretical premise that the internationally recognized threefold concept of sustainable development encompassing economic development, social stability and environmental sustainability is based on the understanding of the development as a process and a result of subjective and objective factors that effective in activity aimed at building the future of the humankind. Sociocultural approach allows considering the universities’ practices on achieving global goals of sustainable development through local (national and cultural) practices: ecological, economical and socially oriented activity and/ or building ecosystems at a local level. The article is aimed to define the universities’ organizational environment and conditions providing the high level of sustainable development goals’ achievement.

Universities implement various strategies to introduce the concept of sustainability into the programs of their development. The practices of the universities known for the effective implementation of sustainability concept into educational, research and social practices oriented to the regional sustainable development are analyzed. The universities under consideration provide stimulating ground for establishing horizontal and vertical relationships among all subjects of sustainable development within their educational environment, fostering sustainability culture and motivating students, teachers and other personnel to achieve sustainability goals. Their experience might be informative for Russian Universities as far as the principles of sustainable development and orientation at building educational ecosystems are formulated in the national programs of regional development in Russia (Flagship Universities Program and Priority 2030 Program). In the Priority 2030 Program, the ecosystem principle is one of the fundamental for the result-oriented innovative development of regional clusters created by the joint efforts of universities, businesses, state and social organizations. However, Russian universities in their striving for designing educational ecosystem mostly focus on research and financial aspects than on the development of a man, whose professional, intellectual and moral formation might contribute to the sustainable development of the region, the nation and the world.

The subject of the research in the article is the academic culture of students. In-depth interviews were conducted with professors of classical universities in Russia (N=34). The goal is to objectify the content of academic culture as a value-semantic phenomenon. The emphasis is placed on the role of academic culture in the formation of the value world of students. It is established that academic culture is an element of academism, forms social patterns. The social models include professionalism, transmission of knowledge and general cultural competencies, and others. The assessments of the state of academic culture at universities formulated by professors are summarized. In such assessments, value-semantic reflection prevails, which makes it possible to identify academic culture as a system of interaction of subjects of the educational process in order to achieve joint goals for the formation of their value world.

The paper presents results of analyzing age structure of Russian state universities teaching staff and its dynamics in the post-Soviet period. It is shown that due to the rapid decline after 2010 in the proportion of young people under 30 years of age and increasing share of population over 65 years of age, the imbalance is growing in favor of older people. Comparing average age of university professors and that of the employed population in dynamics shows some exceedance of the former. At the same time, for more than two decades their ratio stayed constant – the average age of teachers was 20 percent or about 8 years more than that of the employed population, which is caused, among other things, by a longer-term professional training. Analyzing age structure for various positions reveals its overall balance, with professors being the oldest in terms of average age, and assistants being the youngest.

The study found significant changes of a position structure, affecting primarily professors, whose share has increased several times, as well as assistants and teachers, who occupy two lower positions in the teaching staff. Their share has decreased even more. Insight into teaching staff age structure and osition structure in Russian universities shows that changes in age characteristic, especially shrinking young people population, are associated with job positions, especially with almost complete disappearance of the teaching staff on assistant and lecturer positions. A teaching staff distribution by position also shows that more than three-quarters of the total staff have positions no higher than associate professor. It means this position is actually a “glass ceiling” for teachers in Russian higher education. This fact and almost complete lack of assistants and lecturers result in a two-stage career ladder (senior lecturer – associate professor) for the vast majority of teaching staff in Russian universities, which will inevitably have a negative impact on the level of his qualifications.

The article presents the results of an empirical study aimed at a comparative analysis of the level of students’ entrepreneurial competencies of various forms of education (full-time, parttime, correspondence courses forms). The sample included 564 students of Ural State University of Economics (Yekaterinburg) and Omsk State University named after F.M. Dostoevsky (Omsk) of non-core areas of training. Empirical data were collected using an online survey and the method of narrative essays. The data obtained were interpreted and processed using qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, including descriptive statistics, correlation analysis (Pearson correlation coefficient, R), one-factor analysis of variance, factor analysis and qualitative analysis of student histories. The conducted research makes it possible to assess the differences in the level of assessed competencies of students depending on the form of study, to determine the correlation of the presence of entrepreneurial intentions and assessments of students’ entrepreneurial competencies, as well as to analyze the attitude of students to the importance of the formation of entrepreneurial competencies at the university. As a result, statistically significant differences in the values of indicators of competence development by the factor of the education form by university students were revealed. Based on the data obtained on the research issues, the authors actualize the importance of attention to the development of entrepreneurial intentions and competencies of university students in non-core areas of training, including through the introduction of special disciplines into the curricula, which can become one of the predictors of the economic and social well-being of the country.

Russia is the sixth most attractive host country for international students, and this has translated into increased publications on international students in Russia. These studies have focused on the issues of Russian higher education internationalization, foreign student mobility, and acculturation challenges of international students. This paper seeks to highlight the knowledge base of international student research in Russia. Specifically, this paper represents a bibliometric review of indexed Scopus data to establish the seminal authors and current foci of research on international students in Russia. The findings indicate a present exponential growth in publications from 2015 in contrast to the slow start from 1999. The findings also demonstrate that the leading authors, with 59% of the sampled Scopus indexed articles, are affiliated with government-sponsored higher education institutions. The findings also established the most cited sources in the related literature and the current themes of research on international students in Russia. The implication of the research and limitations of the study were discussed. The directives for future research were proffered.