This article presents the results of expert analysis of post-graduate programs developed on the basis of the FSES: it systematizes problems that educational and research institutions face when design post-graduate programs, describes approaches to theimplementation of post-graduate programs organized in a systematic way - the experience of the Faculty of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and of Moscow Pedagogical State University; states a number of debatable suggestions on content-related updating of the very model of post-graduate studies as the third level of higher education.

The paper deals with the problem of qualified personnel shortage in science intensive spheres of economy and analyzes the factors contributing to raising of the quality of young specialist training and further employment in high-tech industry. A framework of actions to solve the personnel problem in defense industry is given.

The article discusses the design-targeted approach in higher professional education, especially in subject training. This urgent problem is indicated in the Program of Education Development in the Russian Federation in the years 2016-2020. The authors represent an analysis of innovations that accompany projecting-engineering activity, including using of up-to-date design technologies within the scope of the basic graphical training of students. Thepaper analyzes the possibility of usingthe project method and design technologies in teaching first-and-second-year students. The represented educational technologies have various levels of immersion in the project activities applied in teaching graphical disciplines at Perm National Research Polytechnic University. The need of system and consistent use of project method throughout the subject teaching is discussed. The need of individualization and variation in applied educational procedures is also substantiated.

Strengthening of the defense capability and the national security of the country in the faceof the contemporary challenges requires the improvement of professional training, retraining, advanced training, additional training of personnel and specialists for the defense industries. The article defines the main areas of such improvement based on the analysis of the available human resources of the military-industrial complex organizations. We used the method of content analysis of normative legal acts regulating the functioning of the defense industry in general and the organizations of the military-industrial complex inparticular. The article formulates the conclusions and practical recommendations to public authorities on the implementation of innovations related to professional training of workers and specialists of the military-industrial complex.

The problem of integration of all interested parties (stakeholders) in the process of implementation of the innovative educational program “Metallurgy” is actualized to eliminate systemic gap between labor market needs and provided educational services. The innovative process of the implementation of the educational program is adequate to CDIO logic (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate): the adoption of CDIO ideas; the development of innovative educational program; educational program implementation in educational practice; dissemination of the concept and implementation of the components of changes inthe social and educational milieu. The stages of team formation of stakeholders are distinguished, the criteria for selecting team member are proposed.

The article describes the major issues of the European Higher Education Area development in the context of the Yerevan Ministerial Conference and the Fourth Bologna Policy Forum (May 2015), and the place of Russia in the European Higher Education Area.

The paper describes new trends in global engineering education from the view of professional and social cultural diversity. Different approaches to diversity in engineering are analyzed, the importance of personal and professional life experiences for creativity in engineering is stressed, recommendations for engineering team formation are given. The ideas on diversity in engineering education discussed at the 122nd Annual Conference of American Society for Engineering education in Seattle, USA on June 14-17, 2015 are presented, including the reports given at one of the three International Forum plenaries on engineering education in Russia, its traditions and prospects.

Changes in the Russian system of higher education presented new challenges to universities in terms of their achievements and to professional scholars as well. Scholars forced to become muchmore active both in teaching and research. They have to publish more articles and research papers in prestigious foreign journals in English. They are induced to improve their skills or give way to those who are younger, have experience in leading educational and research institutions, or greater in academic achievement.The paper analyzes the strategic documents of the leading Russian universities, annual reports on the implementation of development programs.Russian scholars mostly write in Russian, read and cite articles of Russian-language authors. There were 89.9 articles per 100 persons in journals indexed in the database of the Russian Science Citation Index, 4.1 articles per 100 persons in the Web of Science, 5.3 articles per 100 persons in Scopus in 2013. The leading universities are intended to increase by 5 the number of articles in the foreign bases by 2020.On the one hand organizational culture and the principles of academic management may offer opportunities for development, gaining new competences, participating in contests and research. On the other hand the current situation can impose restrictions and provoke a teacher on the informal practices.

The corruption has covered almost all economic sectors and levels of government in modern Russia. The education sector has a third place in the corruption rating. The higherpositions in this rating belong to officials and police structures. The third part of all cases of bribe-taking in the education sector pertain to universities. However there are no proper investigations of this process.This paper presents an analysis of the bribery level in Russian universities based on the student’s views investigation. The corruption level at the universities in different federal districts of Russian Federation is shown taking into account the areas of education and the date of the universities founding. The author discusses the reasons of the corruption in the Russian universities.

The article explores the satisfaction level of the learning process among the students and cadets of Maritime Academy of Murmansk State Technical University. We have conducted an analysis of survey results of future engineers on the professional compliance to marine-related activities and the readiness to work in Arctic conditions and have made a correlation analysis of the received data. A high level of of future engineers’ readiness to work in the Arctic is justified by high motivation towards learning and specialized training. We correlate the features of marine engineers’ training with the requirements of national and international standards, codes and conventions. The young northerners receiving engineering education are ready to apply their knowledge to meet the challenges of the development of the Arctic region.

Southern Federal University became one of the universities of a new type - research universities, which answer the requirements of the global world and the trends of the modern technical and economic development. Integration of education process with the advanced scientific research and innovation activities, R&D and institutional innovations ensured formation of intellectual and infrastructural basis for social and economic development of the country and training of specialists, which have practical skills and special competences in up-to-date technologies and able to solve creative science-junction tasks. The graduates of new federal university are expected to be such specialists of a new generation, who will form the future social and intellectual elite.

The article discusses the ways and means for improving the education process in accordance with the needs of the defense-industrial complex. Determination of the speciallevels of educational qualifications (bachelor, specialist, bachelor-master, specialist-master) is considered as an effective mechanism for organizing specialized education to meet the changing needs of employers. Thus the main focus is made on providing conditions for the advanced development of basic and modern technologies of defense enterprises. Analyzing the existing problematic issues, both from the position of university and from the position of employers, the authors suggest a system of stepwise measures aimed at improvingthe structure of the educational process, development of a system of continuous education, as well as at the formation of an effective mechanism for educational management according with the requirements of employers.

The paper discusses the prospects for connecting the universities to use Mega- Science research facilities as an important tool for the integration of world level science and education. The need for such integration of leading universities with research organizations was noted in the RF Government Decision of 19 June 2015 on the results of the joint meeting of the boards of trustees of the Southern and Siberian Federal University.

Institutional change in higher education is aimed at establishing a competitive and efficient system of specialist training. Institutional innovations tend to affect behavior patterns of major actors in this field. Institutional inertia and asynchronous change in formal and informal institutions can be viewed through the prism of adaptive behavior, which arises from existing institutional constraints.The institution of non-specialized undergraduate education influences and changes the basic principles of the educational process and the ways of organizing training programs. Meanwhile, this institution has been implemented for the purpose of developing the system of research training. The paper emphasizes the importance of analyzing adaptive behavior of students and lecturers in the context of institutional change, since that would provide better opportunities to adjustthe activities aiming atincreasing the effectiveness ofhigher education to existing institutions under conditions of rapid modernization and institutional import.

The Southern Federal University serves as an effective platform for consolidation of education, enlightenment, science, innovations and management in the field ofa sustainable development ofthe Azov-Black Sea basin. Implementation ofthe mega-project gives synergetic effect in the solution of economic, social and environmental problems of the region and maintenance of its sustainable development.

The article shows how Regional studies emerged in Southern Federal University (Rostov State University successor), as a complex interdisciplinary field of higher education and scientific research. It describes the contribution of SFU to modernization and maintenance of a common scientific and educational space in the South of Russia, which is one of the foundations of Russian socio-cultural identity.

The paper focuses on the experience of Southern federal university (SFedU) in organization of a inter-university research institute - a division organized for special purpose of complexresearches in the areaof chemistry. The author pointes out that within the structure of SFedU there is organized a Research Institute of physical and organic chemistry with highly qualified research staff. The paper discusses the organization structure of the research institute and the general benefits of such organization connected with reserve of potential employees, integration of modern scientific results and education etc. Main areas of scientific activities of the institute are characterized and a high level of the obtained scientific results is stressed out.

The article deals with dialogue, monologue and silence as pedagogical phenomena. The author believes that the focus of modern teachers (scientists, lecturers, school teachers) on dialogue and dialogue technics is often accompanied by a decrease of interest to monologue. However, monologue has its indisputable advantages. Dialogue andmonologue should interact in teaching of Humanities. Silence as a component of speech activity is also noteworthy as it has different pedagogical meanings. The author concludes that in higher education it is necessary to use dialogue, monologue and silence all together.

The article attempts to reflect on the attitudes that underlie the traditional and technological approaches to education. As a result of the research, the author concludes that both of these approaches are combined by an original explanatory setting, which arises spontaneously from our daily lives, and then, also unconsciously, becomes the basis of our worldview and our educational activities.The question of explanatory setting, underlying the entire education system, again raises the problem of interaction between student and teacher: how to combine this explanatory setting with the requirement (the desire) to understand (without this intention any of educational process is not successful, incomplete). The author focuses on such questions as: what is a phenomenon of understanding as an integral part of the educational process? What place it occupies in it? What is the correlation between the explanatory setting and understanding?

The development of academic writing competence is an institutional responsibility of universities. To achieve this goal, most prestigious North American and European universities established writing centers where tutors, who have excellent academic writing skills and have been specially trained, help their fellow students improve their writing assignments. However, writing centers in Russian universities have proved to be true laboratories for scholarly communications as tasks they have to solve are conceptually different from those of overseas universities and the aims they attempt to reach are by far more challenging. One of such aims is to provide university researchers with expert help in order to develop their professional competencies so that they could significantly improve their publication outcomes and, as a consequence, succeed in the global academic community.

The article invites researchers and teachers of Academic English to reflect on the conventions they use and teach concerning academic genres, especially research publications. We consider some of the existing trends in using active and passive verb forms and personal pronouns in journal publications.

The paper describes linguistic approach to the development of academic writing in the world. Historical analysis is carried out for changes of languages used for academic writing, their interrelation and succession. German language is selected to study modern issues of scientific writing and excessive use of English words. Different types of linguistic adoptions are discussed, provided examples reveal their influence on grammar, lexicology and punctuation of academic German language.

Owing to the achievements of biotechnological revolution in the second half of the XX century which open the way to unlimited human enhancement, a new view on life, transhumanism, has emerged. The followers ofthe new ideology stand for the further evolution of Homo sapiens with the aid of new technologies. Immortality is declared to be the ultimate objective of their activity. However the aim may seem fantastic, the new ideology has a lot of followers all over the world including Russia. Within the framework of this article the author makes an attempt to analyze transhumanist social activities and to identify the real, but not declared, purpose of their practices. The author draws a parallel between transhumanist organizations and totalitarian sects and pseudo-scientific societies. Transhumanist can also be viewed as self PR and a phenomenon of social mimicry.

The purpose of the article is to show the type of a teacher of a Socratic type on the example ofa creative work of Isaiah Berlin. The author provides historical and philosophical reconstruction of Berlin’s intellectual heritage, which has revealed fundamental philosophical premises of the thinker’s educational concept. The author reveals main characteristics ofBerlin’s style of thinking (aesthetic richness, aphoristic nature, integrity and synergism), and concludes that Isaiah Berlin was a philosopher and a teacher of the Socratic type, he entered into a dialogue with his disciples and followers, helping them to make their own judgments about the subject of conversation. His understanding of the negative and positive conceptions of liberty has become canonical for the modern liberal thought, and his idea of value pluralism has become its basic assumption and its main difficulty.