The authors of this article consider the current situation of lifelong learning education in leading Russian universities and define some possible strategies for integrating scientific research with educational activities. The empirical bases were: 1) statistical data on the activities of educational institutions of higher education (N = 1180), 2) dataset of monitoring the activities of universities participating in the federal academic leadership programme “Priority-2030”, 3) dataset of a survey of heads of centers for further vocational education in Russian universities (N = 450) as part of the Project “Monitoring of education markets and organizations (MEMO)”. The authors identified strategies for combining scientific and educational activities for lifelong learning programs at universities in the interests of the development of individual consumers, enterprises and branches of the national economy. The authors also found that universities take into account the social needs of society and the preferences of employers, but to a very small extent focus on transforming their scientific results into a new educational product for mass consumers. The significant focus of universities on research activities to a certain extent hinders the development and launch of new education programs, however, it is a group of research universities that demonstrates a higher cost of programs sold. The authors consider, how universities can be focused on working with the population or industry enterprises, integrating the research results into the modules of education programs, and stimulating an increase in the number of teachers combining research and teaching activities, at realizing the third University’s mission and taking into account the research grant volume.

The article presents the results of the author’s research aimed at identifying the peculiarities of employment of postdocs, a relatively new labor category for the Russian academic labor market. Due to several difficulties associated with forming a sample of postdocs (difficulty in identifying key persons responsible for the development of postdoctoral programs; direct, but not always justified, refusals to provide data, difficulties in identifying potential respondents due to their occupation of various scientific positions in Russian universities), the “snowball” method was used. As a result, the empirical basis of the study was formed based on the results of an online survey of 44 postdocs. As part of the study, tasks related to compiling a socio-economic portrait of a postdoc based on economic, socio-demographic characteristics and indicators of research efficiency, identifying the characteristics of the employment and placement experience of postdocs, objective factors and individual motives for making decisions in the field of choosing postdoctoral programs were solved, as well as diagnostics of tools and channels for young researchers to search for vacancies. The authors distinguish between types of academic mobility (educational and labor) and consider postdoctoral studies as a promising form of external labor academic mobility aimed at attracting and retaining high-potential young researchers planning a long-term career in the academic labor market.

Shifting the emphasis from the inbreeding model of university development (internal labor mobility) to the model of external labor academic mobility of young specialists allows those universities that can effectively manage the flow of academic human capital to receive additional socio-economic preferences and return on investment. There are very few similar empirical studies that analyze the features of the development of postdoctoral institutions in Russia and abroad and are based on quantitative and qualitative data from surveys of direct participants in external labor academic mobility – postdocs, which determines the scientific novelty and practical value of the proposed results.

At present, according to Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly our country has set the task of reforming higher education based on the synthesis of the best practices of the Soviet educational system and the experience of recent decades. This increases the responsibility of technical university teachers, whose competencies have been determined in recent years on the basis of different scientific approaches. In this regard, the problem of identifying the teachers’ qualities that are significant for students is becoming especially relevant.

In order to solve the problem, the research of students’ essays obtained as a result of the International Essay Contest in English “My University Engineering Teacher I will Never Forget” was undertaken. The contest was organized by Moscow Automobile and Road Construction State Technical University (MADI) in 2021-22. The hypothesis of the research suggested that the personality traits of the technical university teacher are valued by students not lower than their professional competencies.

In order to achieve the goal and verify the hypothesis, four tasks were set and solved during the research: the students’ opinions on the role of the teacher were revealed; the professional competencies of the teacher that are significant for students were determined; the personality traits of the teacher that are significant for students were determined; the significance of the teacher’s professional competencies and personality traits for students was compared. The research methodology provided for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the students’ essays including their content analysis.

The paper describes the main results of the research, which confirmed the hypothesis, as well as their interpretation. The interpretation of the research results allowed us to draw general conclusions concerning reforming the modern system of engineering education. The main conclusion concerns the necessity of returning engineering education to the traditional for the Soviet higher school integration of education and upbringing and the significance of developing in the educational process not only the competencies relevant for employers, but also the personality of future specialists.

The article discusses the issues of creating intercollegiate campuses and the gap between the statements about the environmental sustainability of projects and the environmental awareness and behavior of their future users. The authors focus on the environmental practices of students and the assessment of the level of awareness of environmental problems. Data collection and analysis was carried out on the basis of qualitative methods: semi-structured interviews with students of Tyumen State University, 58 persons, the data were analyzed by thematic and axial coding. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that with a high level of awareness of students about environmental aspects, environmental practices are poorly represented in their daily experience and have not become sustainable eco-habits. Informants noted the lack of necessary infrastructure at the university as the main barrier to environmental behavior. In the presence of environmental-oriented training courses, social networks remain the main channel for informing about environmental initiatives of the university. The authors have proposed recommendations for the ecologization of the university.

Psychological well-being of students is becoming one of the priorities of higher education today. This paper is devoted to the study of the work experience of psychological services in Russian universities. The results are based on the data of semi-structured interviews with 15 heads of psychological services of Russian universities. The interview data show that the main directions of the services’ work are following: counseling, preventive-educational measures, diagnostic, adaptation, and nurturing. In turn, during the pandemic the services adapted their activities by transitioning to the online format and creating of hotlines for emergency psychological help. At the same time, psychological services face such problems as lack of funding, difficulties in building interaction with psychiatric organizations, conflict of interests between university management and the service management in their activities. Nevertheless, the main trend for the psychological services development is to build a system of psychological support involving different levels of university hierarchy. The results of the study can be used to design a model of university psychological services, as well as to make practical decisions about the development of the psychological services network in Russian universities.

This study presents an application of machine learning for creating a typology of Russian universities’ financial models. Large-scale national initiatives aimed at enhancing human potential and academic excellence, such as Project 5-100, university-industry consortia, world class research center programs as well as the Priority-2030 program, require relevant financial and management accounting tools enabling appropriate analyses of universities’ contribution to national scientific policy implementation. However, when conventional financial analysis and audit techniques are adopted from the corporate sector, they may prove to be irrelevant for assessing the societal impacts of universities. Existing impact study methods, such as those applied in the Russell Group universities’ impact assessment, are expensive and time consuming, so promising machine learning techniques and existing open data from government information systems were used in this study to assess universities’ financial models. 

Nowadays there is a lack of empirical data demonstrating the degree of professional barriers in the future teachers` readiness to work at inclusive schools. This problem is relevant for the training teachers at universities. The purpose of this article is to present the results of the study of qualitative and quantitative characteristics of professional barriers that arise among future teachers in the process of preparing for working at inclusive schools, the results of the testing the pedagogical technology to overcome professional barriers in training future teachers. The study involves 393 students majoring in specialty “Pedagogical education”. The authors use the questionnaire called “Professional barriers in the future teachers` readiness to work at inclusive schools”. The research found the imperfection of professional training for the implementation of inclusive education. There are academic, activity, social, personal, resource professional barriers that arise among future teachers in preparing for working at inclusive schools. Professional barriers are caused by some deficits. They do not allow future teachers to perform their professional and pedagogical activities at an acceptable quality level. The classification of professional barriers based on the analysis of empirical data is presented. The content and features are described. The systematization of empirical data made it possible to develop a pedagogical technology to overcome professional barriers in training future teachers at the university. The approbation of pedagogical technology contributes to clarifying scientific ideas about the process of professional and personal formation of future teachers in terms of identifying and overcoming their professional barriers. The results of the study may be used in training students majoring in specialty “Pedagogical education”. Professional barriers are considered to be a significant aspect of the professional teaching training.

The relevance of the study is due to the contradiction between the objective need for developing the academic motivation of Master students by means of research-oriented education and the insufficient development of the corresponding didactic conditions. The purpose of this paper is to identify the research-based learning potential in the development of Master students academic motivation and reasoning the didactic conditions promoting its effective implementation. In order to achieve it, the following tasks were solved: to reveal the essence of academic motivation and its features among Master’s students studying “Pedagogical science”; to promote theoretically and experimentally the didactic conditions for the effective implementation of the motivational potential of research-oriented learning. To identify the features of academic motivation, the methodology “Scale of Academic Motivation” was used.

Research results: the essence of academic motivation as a set of motives that are the reason for the conscious inclusion of a student in educational activities is revealed; the features of the academic motivation of Master students studying Pedagogical science were revealed (the conscious choice of the program of training by the vast majority of students; different students’ background – previous education, work experience, age, that determines the polymotivation of educational activity with the dominance of internal motivation). It is shown that the motivational potential of researchoriented teaching of students is associated with its main characteristics: the purpose, content, nature of studying and research activities, features of results evaluation. Didactic conditions were experimentally promoted that enhance the motivational potential of research-oriented learning (taking into account the characteristics and levels of development of the corresponding types of students’ motivation; creating real opportunities for free choice of research topics for Master students; using work in pairs as a form of organizing educational and research activities; using a complex of stimulating methods for evaluating the study results). Perspective paths for study of the students’ academic motivation are indicated.