When publishing an education related article, a problem of choosing and evaluating a scientific periodical rises. A simple comparison of educational journals ranks in Russian ratings and other resources that use an appropriate approach in selection and assessment of journals, which allows them to rate journals, shows ambiguous results. The conducted analysis revealed that none of resources offers a full range of reputable journals in an analyzed category, thus, cannot be a universal tool in this field.

The article demonstrates the necessity of expanding the capabilities of the system of higher military institutes and military training centers of civilian universities to ensure the increasing requirements of the Russian Ministry of Defence for training of officers. The article considers the model of the special officers' training for military service under the contract by the innovative educational trajectory on the basis of a civil university, having in his structure the military department (department of military training). The model has been developed at Lobachevsky State University ofNizhni Novgorod (UNN). It enables to prepare an officer for two different fields of study in higher education. The innovative model is presented for officer training area "Foreign regional studies" (Bachelor's programme) followed by training by the programme of "Psychology" (Master). The implementation of innovative model does not require changes to existing legal acts.

The study focuses on the effect of academic motivation on achievement. Theoretical framework of the research is self-determination theory, which distinguishes several types of motivation and specifies relation between motivation and cognitive, behavioral outcomes. The database used in the study was collected in two waves of longitudinal project among undergraduate students enrolled in 2014 at six majors. Mediation analysis shows that academic motivation (general and situational) has indirect impact on achievement. Academic activity is mediator, which mediates effect of academic motivation on achievement. Students with more self-determined profile, who are engaged in learning activity for interest and pleasure, participate in active form of learning and get higher grade compared to students with less self-determined profile, who are guided by external stimuli.

The article focuses on the key issues of studying and teaching history in the system of higher education of the Russian Federation, which are considered on the basis of the data of sociological surveys. The author gives a characteristic of the level of students' historical knowledge and their relationship to the academic subject «history». The analysis is differentiated by the integrated groups of specialties (humanities and engineering).

The article describes the results of an international study of entrepreneurial intentions of students specializing in tourism and hospitality. As a result of the agreed questionnaire and further processing of the data the factors influencing entrepreneurial intentions were revealed. For students from Russia, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania and Oman the tendency to create new business isn't statistically significantly different. Men are more likely to become entrepreneurs than women. For students inclination towards entrepreneurship is motivated primarily by the attractiveness of this activity. Negative factors are not significant, students do not evaluate them as a barrier to starting a business. On the tendency to create new business positively affect entrepreneurial values of significant groups, the belief in the ability to provide their personal (psychological) and social security, as well as entrepreneurship education.

The article reveals a potential of open online courses in higher education in order to increase its efficiency and availability. The organizational and methodological aspects of e-learning development in higher education are considered. The economic background for implementing open online courses in the educational process is under analysis. On the basis of benchmarking the best foreign and Russian practices the authors propose different cases for online courses implementation to higher education programs, as well as organizational and financial schemes of interaction between higher education institutions.

The 6'^h annual International and regional IGIP conference and a methodological seminar of the State Technical University - MADI took place on March 18, 2016. Within the framework of the conference the journal Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii [Higher Education in Russia] has conducted a workshop. Area of discussion - "Teaching Staff Training, Higher School Pedagogy, and Engineering Pedagogy". The participants were the members of the Editorial Board and the experts in teaching personnel training and in professional pedagogy. There are presented the participants' reports on the panel discussion.

The article addresses the changes and trends in modern education such as the dominance of training over education, detachment of training from education and the emergence of differences between knowledge and information. The author substantiates the necessity of a new understanding of education, based on continuity and puts forward the idea of personal projective education. The main goal of education is the ability to work with information, which is treated as a semi-finished product from which the right knowledge should be drawn. The author also spells out the principles of working with information and defines the concept of personal truth, in contrast to objective truth, - the result of working with information.

The article suggests a method to analyze the main aspects of the higher school teacher's professional activity and presents the results of its testing. The basis of the analysis is the ratio of activity aspects distributed on two scales: the subjective significance for a teacher and time expenditure for their implementation. Detection of the most important aspects allows to specify those ones that are filled with personal meaning for teachers. One of the factors that ensures practical implementation of these meanings is time resource needed for the implementation of this or that aspect of the activity. Thus, in teacher's professional activity there can be identified and scaled different areas: from the safe area, where there is no significant discrepancy between importance and time-consuming, to the conflict one, which includes the aspects of activity with a significant gap between two indicators, which mark the presence of a meaning conflict.

The article considers the main areas of development of Volgograd State Technical University as the supporting university of Volgograd region. The mission, the strategic goal, and objectives of the flagship university are presented. The characteristics of high quality breakthroughs in the field of educational and scientific activities, in the creation of a favorable business environment of the university are given. The author outlines the positive consequences and the prospects of the realization of the VSTU development program for the socio-economic situation in Volgograd region.

Starting in 2015, a competition on creating a network of regional basic universities in Russia, attracted wide attention of the scientific, academic, public and professional communities. The aim of this competition is to create an efficient and competitive network of universities, which must become a driver of socio-economic development of the regions in the next 3- 5 years. At the same time, within the framework of the integration of internal transformations, that take place in the process of regional universities merger into basic universities, there are many difficulties and problems. One of the most urgent and priority issue is the organization of «new type » effective university control system, since the further «advanced» activities of the basic university will be based on it. The article, grounding on the analysis of external market conditions for the functioning of the university and internal factors, presents the rationale for the modernization of the regional basic university management system.

The article considers VSTU traditions of pedagogical work with future engineers, describes the university experience in organization of extra-curricular activities and the development of social and cultural environment at the university. The authors analyze the goals, structure, pedagogical and financial support for the education management system and the results of its activity.

The article considers the formation of a unified information environment of a basic university. Analyzes the current state of information technology infrastructure, information scientific-educational environment of the Volgograd State Technical University and Volgograd State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, which form the basis of the information structure of a regional basic university. The author describes the ways of integrating the information systems of the participating universities, the prospects of the development of the University site and the University portal. Special attention is paid to increasing the level of information literacy of University teachers and University staff.

The article addresses the content of pedagogical support to successive stages (vocational guidance, propedeutics, identification, individualization, approbation, personification, and autonomy) of professional self-determination of higher school students aimed at shaping their subjective positions in the educational space. The model of the pedagogical support for professional self-determination and subjectivity has been elaborated, with the indicators of students' subjectivity. It is shown that the pedagogical support for vocational education in the educational space of a university can be a mechanism to harmonize the requirements of the modern and perspective labour market and personal needs of students.

The article addresses the questions of professional training of performers with sight loss in a specialized piano class. The authors distinguish three main stages, which reveal the specifics of visually impaired pianist training: a stage of familiarization with a musical composition, working on the composition, and stage rehearsals and performances on the concert stage. The article focuses on the question of repertoire choice, the features of using braille music code, the role of listening to the recordings together with a teacher, the various imaginative associations for the purpose of forming a holistic image the textural and timbre components of musical fabric, the sufficiency of stage rehearsals. The authors make a conclusion that the specifics of professional training of visually-impaired musicians refers only to methods and means needed to achieve the main goal, which is an ultimate expression of an idea of a composition.

The article presents the experience of the Altai State University in the use of cultural heritage to increase the level of proficiency in Russian by the Russians and migrants in Russia, as well as the practice of using Russia's cultural heritage to study the Russian language in Central Asian countries. Attention is drawn to the fact that the quality of University language education is becoming one of the factors influencing the promotion of Russian as a foreign language. One of the most effective solutions to be included in a number of areas of training in SCO University is linguistics as the Foundation for integrated language teaching.