An international experience shows that the sustainable development of the society notably depends on the quality of the human factor which is characterized by the lifetime, gross domestic product, and education level. This defines the status and significance of education in the field of quality. The article highlights the issues concerning the organization of the system of multilevel continuing education in the field of economics of quality within the U.N.O. conception "Education for Sustainable Development". Such kind of education is treated as an essential factor to achieve the balanced and well-off functioning of all social spheres. The paper discusses some results of the experience in creation of such system in St.-Petersburg.

This paper conducts comparative analysis of Russian universities' positions in international and Russian rating systems. Particular attention is paid to universities that have obtained special statuses: "Federal University", "National Research University" and also to universities that participate in federal project "5-100". This project targets the Russian

The paper proposes to shift the center of gravity of the development of postgraduate educational programs discussion in a social discursive field in which inconsistencies and uncertainties in the existing regulatory and legal framework of the modernization process of training and certification of highly qualified scientific personnel are brought into correlation with the main target - degree thesis preparation. The interest to the institution of postgraduate study and dissertation theses in Russian society is constantly decreasing. The results of comparing the education at graduate and postgraduate levels, as well as the existing postgraduate studies models in the world are given. The authors come to a conclusion that the social problems of post-graduate institution are much more significant than any the educational programs preparation problem.

The article analyzes the problem of estimation the level of graduates' professional competence formation; suggests the methodical approach to the assessment of graduate's competencies with the participation of employers. The authors formulate the necessary conditions for the practical implementation of this approach. The approach is based on the idea that checking the level of competences formation is possible only in conditions of real working environment. During practice-integrated training employers for a definite period can monitor the development and formation of students' professional qualities. The most important thing is that employers can monitor the formation of key competencies that should be present in all areas of training. The paper presents the results of the practical testing of the proposed approach on the example of Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service.

The paper suggest the methodological approach to increase the efficiency of educational institution activity on the basis of analysis of foreign and Russian experience on creation and development of quality systems. The authors consider the features of formation and improvement of the quality system in educational institutions on the basis of the standard quality system model based on the methodological provisions of the standards and recommendations of ENQA and the standards ISO series 9000 version 2000. In connection with the approval of ISO 9001 : 2015 there is a need to improve the standard quality system model for educational institution. The authors suggest ways to solve this problem basing on the methodological principles of this standard. Special attention is paid to the process approach and leadership of the head. In particular, the feasibility of establishing integrated management systems and quality systems for educational institutions is marked out.

The article proposes conceptual approaches to the independent accreditation of academic programs in management. These approaches are based on the analyses of some project within Federal Education Development Program and author's participation experience in a couple of them. Developed with the Ministry's support in 2011-2015 independent accreditation and monitoring models are not widespread, the new assessment organizations didn't appear, and independent accreditation tools are almost equal to those that are used in the procedures of the state accreditation. The concept proposes alternative approaches to the structure, procedure and the content of the independent accreditation that can be used in the framework of the Federal Support Policy and for development of independent accreditation system for leading programs in management.

The article addresses engineering education and its contribution to the development of contemporary resilient society. These issues were discussed at the World Engineering Education Forum WEEF 2015 in September 2015 in Florence. It is shown that engineering education is the basic component of United Nations' "Education for Sustainable Development" strategy. The modern system of engineering training is based on partnership between science, education and industry, it uses new tools and teaching technologies, takes into account interdisciplinary links, cross-cultural and global experience and therefore it is able to provide the high quality of educational programs. The contribution of Russian researches into the development of global engineering education is outlined.

The article deals with the main aspects and prospects for development and implementation of the experimental model of the third level of higher education in engineering or technical sciences. The proposal of creation and design of information Web-based resource is discussed. Such Web resource will be based on knowledge bases, data warehouses and relationships between profiles of students, academic advisors and managers, subjects and information resources (electronic libraries and other information sources). The model and Web-based resource described in the article were proposed and discussed in frame of NETCENG Tempus project for introduction in universities of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus on the basis of the best international practices and in accordance with the trends of the Bologna process.

The paper shows the gender structure of higher education teaching staff in the post-Soviet Russia, and draws the results of comparison with foreign countries. The data is based on Russian and international educational statistics. The objective of this work is to reveal the type of dynamics of the gender structure of higher education teaching staff at the turn of the XXI century. It also demonstrates peculiarities of Russian higher education teaching staff feminization through a number of methods, including analysis, comparison, and quantitative evaluations (percentage, indices, and statistical series etc.) as well as by application of such parameters as proportion of women, and gender parity index. The gender aspect of the official structure of Russian higher education teaching staff is viewed as the gender composition of the teaching staff according to the level of the official structure as well as men/ women distribution by these levels. Summary: with higher education teaching staff gradually feminizing worldwide, this trend gains still greater speed in Russia. Moreover, the higher the official level is, the higher the feminization goes.

The paper examines some of the challenges in applying a gender approach to the analysis of faculty activities. The effect of the language tools used in the media is shown. Also the usage of specific units is considered to affect the formation of gender stereotypes, which can be correlated with the profession of a University teacher. The novelty of this work is to systematize and classify different gender stereotypes, and also to analyze the language means in the modern media in English. In this paper the emergence and the use of new lexical units that mark changes in the assessment of gender roles is justified. The results of the study allow us to conclude that plural masculinities have become a tool for implementing gender roles of University teachers.

The article compares various aspects of employment of higher education institution and vocational education college graduates with disabilities in Moscow. A comparative analysis is based on the sociological research data. We observe the qualitative differences in the process of employment and in the position on the labor market of the two groups of young professionals. University graduates are more often guided by the motives and factors associated with non-material aspects of work. In contrast, college graduates are characterized by "materialism": focus on earnings accompanied by rejection of getting further education leads them to occupy positions with lower rates of payment. This stimulates the growth of discontent among this group of workers and increases intentions to change job. If the situation in supply for worker's specialties on the labour market will not change in a long term we can predict rising in popularity of higher education among school and vocational college graduates with disabilities of Moscow.

The article analyzes the activity of USTU as a source of development of common educational space of Komi Republic and views three main lines of university activities: education, science and research, sociocultural mission. The author especially considers the prospects of networking cooperation between USTU and schools of the city of Ukhta as a pivotal city of the Komi Republic.

The article discusses the principle of formation of universal and specific components of methodical competence of university teachers through the functioning of the various levels of educational environment as organizational culture of the University. This principle relates reflective, need and motivational, structural, technological, cognitive and constructive components of the methodical competence with the levels of development of organizational culture of the University. Specific educational environment, viewed from the perspective of cut-through teacher training, contributes to the development of methodical competence of a university teacher.

The article presents a special educational, social and communicative project aimed at students' adaptation to corporate culture of the largest employing organizations. Adaptation of a university graduate to a workplace means assimilation of corporate values and organizational culture of an employer. We have elaborated a unique model that enables students of Ukhta State Technical University to adapt successfully to working environment. The profile module of university organizational culture can easily be adapted to specific profile of employing organization. We also have worked out a supplementary training program for student activists "Organizational culture management" for mastering their management skills. The program includes a theoretical course (foundations of organizational culture, motivation theory, axiology, theory of symbols, communication theory, psychology of small groups, team building methods, project management tools, symbolic capital theory) and a module for practical training.

The article dwells on the process of formation of a united educational space of a University complex on the example of three Ukhta colleges accession to the Ukhta State Technical University. Special attention is paid to adaptation of Ukhta Forestry College personnel to the University complex. This year this college has celebrated its 85^th anniversary.

The article differentiates the concept of the educational environment from the concept of organizational culture of an educational institution. The authors consider the role of higher education institutions in formation of the educational environment of the region; describe the individual mechanisms of correction of the educational environment with use of the tools of organizational culture as applied to university public associations on the example of the student construction team movement. Student construction brigade successfully combines the elements of social and economic organization and this enables them to be the connecting link between university and enterprise and also to be a substantial part of a regional educational environment.

The article presents the Republican noncommercial publishing historical and patriotic project «Life-long memory ofwar» initiated by Ukhta State Technical University. Several hundred students attended to the implementation of this project. The result of work is the publication of a multivolume collection of memoirs of participants of the Great Patriotic war - inhabitants of Komi Republic.

MOOCs are becoming increasingly popular all over the world and the means by which learning is measured, evaluated, and accredited has become topic of controversy in higher education. The objective of this paper is to investigate the models of massive online open courses, their technological, administrative and methodological peculiarities. The best samples of foreign and Russian projects on MOOCs are highlighted and analyzed. MOOCs will continue to play a major role in the rapid evolution of higher education so it is necessary to analyze and put into practice of Russian universities and colleges the pedagogical potential provided by this new educational phenomenon.

The author considers two major types of learning community design in MOOCs - massively cooperative (connectivists cMOOC) and massively parallel (xMOOC: Coursera, Udacity, Khan Academy, etc.). Being focused on massively cooperative type, the paper also shows that cMOOCs foster the development of personal learning and its tools. The author comes to a conclusion that while the development of xMOOCs means creation of the "broadcasting" infrastructure, cMOOCs are aimed towards a new culture of massively-cooperative distance learning.