The paper focuses on the topical problem of harmonization of professional and educational qualifications. Based on the analysis of the international practice (US experience), the author considers the attempts to couple professional standards and federal state educational standards and shows their inadequacy. The paper dwells on the peculiarities of the Russian National qualifications system formation and comes to a conclusion that owing to the absence of the modern sectoral qualifications frameworks in Russia it is impossible to accomplish the harmonization of labour market requirements and university graduates’ competences.

The paper considers the issues of attracting business representatives to educational activities of higher educational institutions in the context of the improvement of the quality of higher education and personnel development of small and medium-sized businesses. The paper determines the required institutional mechanisms ensuring interaction of business representatives with higher educational institutions. These mechanisms include regulatory framework and organizational conditions. The authors identify the main problems that prevent the full use of normatively established opportunities for attracting business representatives to educational activities. The article formulates the problem-solving proposals for these challenges based on the experience of the higher educational institution represented by the authors, as well as the opportunities for participation of public associations of employers, in particular the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

The purpose of the study is to identify the peculiarities of the motivation for obtaining higher education by modern first-year students, including those depending on the chosen area of training (specialty). The students of the first courses of 12 universities and branches of Russia from different regions of Russia took part in the study. The students estimated the relative importance of motives by direct ranking. The study has identified the motives which are the most significant for freshmen of all training areas, and which are the least significant. There were revealed special features of the motivation of freshmen of each of the training areas. The features of motivation of first-year students who have chosen this or that direction of preparation are in close connection with the social and economic situation in the country, and reflect not only the subjective aspirations of students, but also their real expectations. The quantitative data obtained in this study can be used as a basis for analyzing the structure of motivation for higher education.

The article addresses the problem of improvement mechanisms of training at medical university on the conditions of the target admission. The authors analyze the current state of regulatory framework regarding target teaching aspects, explore the dynamics of target admission quota. The comparison was made of entrance score of target group students and the general competition depending on the faculty. The paper traces the learning trajectory of the students of targeted training. Special attention is paid to the frequency and structure of reasons for targeted training students’ dismissal form the university. The authors have analyzed the agreements on target training as well as measures for socio-economic support of this group of students. In conclusion the paper formulates suggestions for improving the target training of medical personnel.

The article considers the topical problem of the role of sports volunteering in the development of the Russian students and the volunteer movement in the University environment. The authors present the main trends regarding the inclusion of volunteering in everyday practice and in the University management. Relying on a wide empirical base of sociological data in the Ural Federal district, the authors aim at concretizing features of personal development of students who have had an experience of participation in various activities as sports volunteers. This publication presents the results of mass survey of students (2017; N=1860, quota sampling). The presented data demonstrate the prevalence of sports volunteering among University students of the Ural macro-region. The researchers show the specificity of this activity and determine the degree of youth involvement in volunteerism, and development of certain personality characteristics of sports volunteers, and their willingness to constantly prove their competitiveness, adapt to permanently changing conditions and rules of life, change their personal educational path.

Modernization of higher education in Russia corresponds to a universal tendency of professionalization of teacher training and strengthening of its practical orientation. At the same time, the theoretical and technological aspects of the practice-oriented methodical training of a future teacher are insufficiently worked out. The author shows that the most perspective approach in this sphere is an immersion in professional reality. This may be achieved by a special form of realization of students’ educational activity – professional and pedagogical event (PEE). The paper characterizes the main types of PEE such as research, professional test, subject lessons organized jointly with pupils of secondary schools. The paper introduces a concept of educational and professional task as a form of training material presentation which specifies a research vector. The example of educational and professional task is given. There are also described the stages of the PEE organization: preparatory, forecasting, organization and realization, reflective.

The article presents the method of case modeling used in the process of education within the programs of higher humanitarian education. The author dwells on the problems of current learning methods, as well as on the existing methods of their solution. The paper reviews the flaws of the current methods from the standpoint of “soft” and “hard” skills, which are necessary for graduates. Following the analysis the author suggests using the method of case modeling which is applicable within the modern programs of higher humanitarian education. One of the characteristics of case modeling method is staging: details and facts are appended step-by-step to the general description of a problem. In conclusion the author compares the presented method of modeling of problem situations with the other educational methods, such as lecture, self-dependent research.

The article analyzes the experience of introducing blended learning at the university on the example of a discipline “The Russian Language and the Culture of Speech”. The prospects of a mixed form of training as the most important factor of the transition from passive learning to active are substantiated. The author dwells on the principles of the “flipped classroom” technology based on the rearrangement of the key components of the educational process with the active use of electronic educational environment. The paper shows the advantages of using the “flipped classroom” technology from the point of view of optimizing the audience load, students’ motivation, orientation at the effective formation of their general cultural competences. The author presents the new methodical approaches to designing the discipline “The Russian Language and the Culture of Speech” aimed at improving the quality of teaching.

The paper presents the author’s notion of the competence approach as applied to the organization of learning process at higher education institutions. From his point of view, competence is a normative (external) requirement to students’ educational background, a range of necessary knowledge and skills to accomplish a certain kind of performance while competency puts an accent on the possession of a competence; it is a whole, which combines personal qualities for productive performance related to a specific object. The paper introduces the notion “educational competence”. The author’s approach features a set of key educational competences, it includes seven groups. The author dwells on the structural components of competences such as name of a competence, its type, range of objects, social and practical dependence, sense orientation and personal importance, common knowledge about real objects, skills and abilities related to range of objects, modus operandi, necessary experience in related area, indicators of competency level – according to study steps. The paper presents an example of didactic competences in a course of didactics for area of specialization “Designing of educational process”. Estimated learning outcomes are formulated in terms of integrated competencies.

The paper highlights the state and problems of the publishing environment related to technical sciences. The author analyzes the effectiveness of the application of impact factor and auxiliary bibliometric indicators to periodicals on technical sciences and comes to a conclusion that these indicators are not capable of resisting the attempts of manipulation and are often useless in revealing shady publishing practices and unscrupulous scientific journals. The paper substantiates the necessity of additional institutional measures of state regulation for the improvement of the publishing environment of technical sciences for increasing the productivity of researchers’ activity. Among these measures the author proposes the additional criteria for inclusion scientific and technical periodicals into Higher Attestation Commission journal index (e.g. such index as the demand for a certain periodical), financial and reputational support of sectoral journals, organization of international scientific and technical sectoral journals under the support of joint ventures and international associations. These and other measures will facilitate the recovery of the publishing practices of applied and technical sciences through governmental regulation.

The article discusses the “publication disease” of student science as a deviation phenomenon of the period of education reforming, and as a phenomenon inherited from the current scientific practice. Using case study method, the author analyzes two versions of students’ publications that represent the extreme levels of the deviant range in student publications. The article dwells on the causes of similar deviations in the university environment and gives the concrete proposals to remedy the current situation: 1) to improve the ethics of university science, 2) to form students’ research competences properly, 3) to dispose the Russian bibliographic database of junk publications and malpractice journals, 4) to create a special electronic RSCI library of student scholarly works, 5) to adapt a unified normative document regulating academic ethics at universities. The author believes that these measures may improve the state of youth science, make it more transparent and effective.

Keeping with the topics of 9th-11th European Quality Assurance Forums (EQAF), the paper analyzes the impact that a new pedagogical paradigm has on changes in higher education as well as on developing a new quality assurance methodology. At present Europe is featured by a new inter-university institution – tutor support of students; developing assessment practices for professionally-oriented baccalaureate and changes of state policy tools in higher education due to the advent of a new public management. The authors monitor a practice of surveying students and graduates and present results of t4SCL project aimed at developing sustainable strategies and methods of student-centered learning. The paper identifies the focus of 10th and 11th EQAF on trends in higher education development for the coming decades and reveals the dynamics of mentality changes in higher education occurred for the time of the Forums.

The article examines the difficulties of an adequate translation into Russian of the term “learning” as the key one in the Bologna process. The absence of unambiguous translation affects the perception of the contents of the cycle of articles by V.I. Baidenko and N.A. Selezneva.

The article highlights the challenges of global digital society and describes relevant problems discussed at the International Conference on Engineering Education in Budapest (Hungary) in September 2017. The authors focus on the contribution of Russian researchers to the development of engineering pedagogy and modern engineering staff training on the basis of the world trends of digital economy and online-learning development.

Students’ scientific research is an integral part of the education process in the Far Eastern State Transport University (former Khabarovsk Institute of Railway Transport Engineers) from the first days of its foundation. The students’ scientific research has gone through several stages in its development, regulated by the resolutions of the Communist Party congresses and the documents of the Ministry of higher and vocational education of the USSR. The analysis of the archival and documentary materials of the period 1937–1991 shows that the students’ scientific research in Khabarovsk Institute of Railway Transport Engineers passed through several stages in its development from the disparate scientific unions to the system of scientific research involving up to 90% of students to scientific research and has become an important and necessary part in the training of highly qualified specialists. The present study addresses to the historical reconstruction of the students’ scientific research development in Khabarovsk Institute of Railway Transport Engineers of the Soviet period, as the students’ research was the most progressive form of training specialists with research and practical skills. From this perspective, it is of the immediate interest to refer to the background of the Far Eastern State Transport University, which celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2017.