Abstract. The entry of the national system of higher education in the Bologna process is explained in the article by economic circumstances – an attempt to reduce its budgetary financing by switching to a two-tier structure in the face of an unfavorable combination of demographic and financial conditions at the turn of the millennium. There are also considered such themes as: the Bologna process and the Russian educational policy today, the Bologna process and the market, the Bologna process and the modern pedagogical revolution with the involvement of the materials of the three review articles written by V.I. Baidenko and N.A. Selezneva. The author dwells on the problem of combining the spirit of the Bologna process, based on the horizontal links of universities, with the traditional distributing economy for Russia.

Abstract. The paper focuses on the research of the establishment and development of flagship universities of the regional economy in the Russian Federation. The paper analyses the practice of establishment flagship universities on the initiative of the government of Russia using the program-target method. The paper deals with imperfection of the modern methods of determination of the purposes of flagship universities activities of the regional economy. The paper considers features of universities activity which focus on solving problems of the development of the regional economy; features of flagship universities activity of the regional economy in the context of the “Strategy for Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation”. The paper attempts to determine the status and goals of establishing flagship universities, to organize the planning of their activities, to structure and interact with other actors in the region. The authors mark out the following main functions the flagship universities perform: to prepare and to realize a wide range of educational programs for perspective economic system of the region; to do a wide range of initiative research in the sphere of regional development, using spatial resources of the region, environmental protection, development regional and local societies which transform into subsequent actions and decisions of regional and local authorities; together with regional authorities to create technological platforms which ensure the transformation of the results of educational and research activities into real innovative businesses in the process of experimental modeling of relevant business processes. The paper discusses the network interaction of technical, pedagogical and medical universities in order to accelerate the integrated innovative development of regions.

Abstract.Undergraduate educational programs making on the basis of professional standards compliance does not meet the strategic goal of vocational education system reforming – training personnel capable of making modern competitive products and services affecting the country’s innovative development. The disadvantage of the former higher education system is not the professional competencies lack in the education content, but the lack of graduates’ innovative competencies. The undergraduate federal state educational standard making on the principle of vocational guidance is proposed in the paper. Professional education should become an ongoing process in modern conditions and higher education at undergraduate level has to be professionally oriented, universal, and invariant from the constantly emerging changes in the social world. There is supported a statement that if the lifelong learning programs variety is a tool for short-term tasks solving in the production and provision of operational upgrading, then higher education at undergraduate level is an instrument of the medium-term training personnel strategy.

The paper highlights the milestones of the history of the International Society for Engineering Pedagogy (IGIP) from 1972 until now. Professor A. Melezinek was a founder of the society; he developed its structure that survived to the present time. Now his pedagogical ideas are being developed and revised to reflect the changes in the goals and contents of engineering education, new methods, means of training and control, modern communication capabilities. Global challenges, problems of sustainable development and construction of the so-called “Resilient Society” were the main topics of the last Annual IGIP conferences. Globalization has led to the organization of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES). IGIP was one of its founders in 2006. We discuss different aspects of cooperation between Russian technical universities and IGIP, which began in 1995. Regional IGIP conferences and round tables are one of the aspects of such cooperation. The importance of this interaction for the Russian scientific school of engineering education is emphasized.

A promising method of “flipped classroom” is becoming increasingly popular among university teachers. The growing demand to use this method can be explained by the desire of teachers to intensify the learning process with the existing restriction on contact hours with students. “Flipped classroom” is considered to be an effective approach for the optimal organization of training contact hours, reversing the learning process in comparison with the traditional one. The article analyzes the implementation of the “flipped classroom” method using BYOD-technology on the basis of open educational resources. The authors define an algorithm of login process and management of online resource tools, reveal and reason efficiency criteria and corresponding indicators of the approach application. A fragment of the lesson with “flipped classroom” method and BYOD-technology application within contact hours is given. The paper shows the advantage of the combined approach for higher education teachers aimed at developing authorial “flipped classroom” method content using BYOD-technology as compared with traditional teaching methods.

Modern world integration processes lead to an increase in demand for engineers with international level competences. This requires the improvement of continuous training. Pre-university engineering training is considered as a stage of applicants’ orientation to engineering education and their adaptation to the complex educational process at university. This can be achieved by improving the content of education and including the technological, applied research and special linguistic components. The main directions of the content of the pre-university training are variable and have to be determined according to the tendencies of high-tech industries’ integration into the international technological space. An important factor is the implementation of training in an international multi-partner scientific and educational environment, which involves the international production companies, international profile network associations and the international academic community in the educational process. This allows implementing effective forms of training, including the work in real research teams, networked educational programs, the use of virtual platforms and simulators. The Tatarstan Republic has innovative practical experience of pre-university engineering education of schoolchildren oriented to the needs of the regional oil and gas chemical complex. In this regard, Kazan National Research Technological University (KNRTU) implements pre-university training on the basis of the lyceum with advanced curriculum in Chemistry. Such training is organ-ized with the participation of regional partners of the Danish Corporation “Haldor Topsoe” and the European Chemistry Thematic Network Association (ECTNA). Pre-university engineering training develops shoolchildren’s motivation for engineering education, has a professionally specified character of training and also comprises the changes in the content of the engineers’ future professional activity.

This article highlights the practice of teaching Humanities to technical students of different training levels (from undergraduate to postgraduate students). Program of each level and every subject include both reduced theoretical basis and practical training. The paper considers the samples of the programs, practical tasks and principles of their selection. The chair of engineering pedagogy of Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas now works out a set of pedagogical and psychological programs such as “Psychology and Pedagogy”, “Psychology of student teams”, “Pedagogical Ethics”, and “Pedagogical Rhetoric” that provide a basis for development of students’ social skills. The consistency in the organization of the practical training as well as theoretical background promote development of students’ social competence, self-confidence both in professional activities and in other life situations. The latter is particularly important for postgraduate students as far as they make up the main teaching reserve of every university.

The article examines the contours of pedagogical semiology, reveals the criteria for the correspondence of scientific and pedagogical text to reader’s understanding adequate to author’s vision of phenomena described and the pedagogical reality. The paper is a response to the article of A.A. Polonnikov “Semiologic Turn” in Pedagogical Sciences published in Vysshee obrazovaniye v Rossii (2017, no. 10). The article presents a critical analysis of the issues of pedagogical semiotics and pedagogical texts. The authors cast doubt on the thesis of Polonnikov’s paper that “semiological turn” is caused by the gap between author as itself and textual person which indicates the change of discourse practice. The authors argue that researcher as a subject is inseparable from an object researched. This thesis may be intensified when applied to pedagogy. Pedagogical texts reflect personality’s features in three aspects: intellectual, emotional and volitional. The authors suggest instead of “semiological” searches to introduce a category “pedagogical text comprehended”.

The paper presents a commentary on the article “Pedagogical knowledge and a scholarly text reflecting it in the realities of the “semiological turn” (a dialogue with A.A. Polonnikov)” by A.V. Korzhuyev and N.N. Antonova. The author analyzes the basic metaphors constituting the current pedagogical discourse and discusses the issue concerning the linking between pedagogical research and pedagogical practice. The paper comes to a conclusion about their inseparable unity, as well as about the multiplicity of research forms and pedagogies immanent to them. The author introduces an idea of the modern pedagogical thinking. Its main characteristic is the change of self-consciousness of the pedagogical language as a leading condition of educational relationships’ operation and development.

The author critically examines the A.V. Khutorskoy’s article published in the 12th issue of 2017. The analysis is done with the use of other articles of the author who is aspiring to create a new scientific school of pedagogy, in particular in the field of the competency based approach. It is shown that the author’s claim to create a new approach to the design of education based on the competences is completely untenable. First, the delineated groups of competencies are so loosely formulated that the majority of these competencies preclude the verifiability, and therefore it is unclear for what purpose they have been formulated. Second, the principles of the new approach, which supposedly are dating back to the works of Russian cosmists, are so peculiar and contradictory that their unambiguous understanding is excluded straight away. In fact, it does not matter for the author, because these principles do not affect the content of the competencies proposed at the end. Yet, if they really influence something like, for example, the definition of the types of the customers of education, the result is extremely strange and absolutely not operational.

The article analyzes changes in the profile of organizational culture of an average Russian university during the last 13 years (2003–2016), diagnosed with the use of OCAI methods. The research base of the article consists of poll results obtained by the authors in 2003–2005 and 2016. It is shown that during that period of time Russian higher education demonstrated significant deviation of university organizational culture from its planned state. Modernization processes in higher education caused universities to form adaptation reactions different from those designed at the stage of designing new development institutions. Research data allow identifying a gap between expectations concerning modernization of university organizational couture and real trends, including the growth of bureaucratic component and decrease of real autonomy and independence of academic staff, increased imbalance in corporate values of university communities creating new risks and threats for higher education development. The influence of such factors as university type, respondent’s position, profile of subjects taught on the cultural mindset of university staff was also defined. The novelty of the research is in the analysis of change dynamics in university organizational culture, defining more complicated mechanisms of its transformation and development that do not allow implementing simple linear solutions for forming modern university culture.

The article examines the regulatory burdens of the higher education sphere of Russia. The term «Red Tape» in modern economic literature is associated with presence of excessive regulatory requirements that cause waste of time and financial resources and do not provide benefits to society. Red Tapes mean excessive, meaningless paperwork, high degree of formalization and limitations, unnecessary procedures and numerous inefficient regulatory elements. The permanent reformation of the Russian education sector incorporates a broad range of regulatory requirements that lead to ambiguous results in the regulated sphere. The article analyzes possible purposes of the regulator and outcomes of these government interventions. The analysis shows that the attempts of achieving quantitative indicators have a negative impact on the regulated sphere of science and education. The aim of the article is to expose the negative outcomes of the bureaucratic mechanism, namely Red Tapes in the normative documents for possible regulatory intervention and modification. 

This article deals with the problem of educational changes. Education invariance is related to inertia of its forms and self-reproduction of vested teaching practices, but first of all – to the current epistemological regime in education. Orientation of educational system at scientific samples of knowledge dehumanizes pedagogical relations, mariginalizes students’ creative activity, and blocks the latter’s innovative-pedagogical processes. As a result, education becomes a hurdle on the way to cultural and social development. The author suggests a solution of the problem in the objectivization of the situation, as well as in the analysis and change of implicit functioning education forms.

The paper defines the concept of transhumanism, which denotes transition beyond the bounds of humanism and bears in mind utterly new human beings. The author views the prospects of modern education through the optics of transhumanism project, describes the changes in education on the background of explosive growth of NBICS-technologies. NBICS combine nanotechnology, biotechnology, IT, cognitive and social sciences, genetic engineering, stem cells, and cloning. These research areas converge and create a cumulative effect. One of the risks and threats of the technology growth is creation of the community of humanoid robots and “service people”. Information society changes radically the conditions of learning and teaching owing to multiple sources of information and communication facilities. Internet becomes a part of learning process and at the same time causes a discord between school knowledge and information and leads to historical disorientation in society. This is one of the signs of dehumanization of education. The second feature of education in the light of transhumanism conception is the problem of knowledge value. Now there are two scales for evaluation of knowledge – cultural and actual. The second scale uses utility and applicability as a criterion. It follows that mass accessible education is ineffective and there is a need in institutional elite education. The third feature of modern education in the context of transhumanism is an emergence of lifelong education and its separation from institutional teaching. Lifelong education ceases to be externally organized process affecting a learner and becomes a personal affair manifesting individual’s activity and self-development. Mass education is based on learning and teaching whereas elite education is based on education. The paper comes to a conclusion that this is a period of so called “transhumanistic turn” of domestic education which indicates its dehumanisation and the loss of former values.

The paper focuses on the essence of plagiarism as a phenomenon accompanying publication of the results of scientific research. The author dwells on the most dangerous consequences of plagiarism for science and society – from clogging up science by ignoramuses imitating scientific activity to the complete destruction of scientific institutions of the country. The paper gives a brief scientific report on the origin and development of the phenomenon of plagiarism and a review of publications related. It is a well-known fact that with the advent of digital technologies and online publishing plagiarism began to flourish. Nowadays the number of publications with different types of plagiarism used is comparable with the number of reliable papers and monographs. This situation is absolutely abnormal and it is aggravated by the fact that scholarly reputation is no more meaningful in today’s Russia. As a result, we have a growing population of officials with academic degrees and titles but with no reference to science. In such conditions, the country has no chances to develop and survive. Therefore, to prevent the expansion of plagiarism and to avoid scientific misconduct it is necessary to take measures including the following steps: 1) to hold regular lectures for students, postgraduates, doctoral students and young researchers on the topic of the history, guidelines, and ethical standards of research work, 2) to organize special services under scientific and academic institutions that will control researchers’ publication activity in order to detect possible plagiarism, 3) persons and institutions with the detected plagiarism, inappropriate authorship, and research manipulations are subject to public punishment. These steps do not demand any charges and state interference but will promote recovery of academic environment. 

The implementation of the large-scale system program devoted to the development of a new technological generation economy announced by the President of Russia V.V. Putin in his Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on December 1, 2016 brings new challenges to the system of engineering education in Russia. The Coordinating Council in Educational Sphere “Engineering, Technology and Technical Sciences” works out a strategy for the development of engineering education in Russia for the period until 2020, based on the need to face up new challenges. The solution of these tasks is impossible without a broad public and professional discussion based on the analysis of the history of engineering education development in Russia and in the USSR, its achievements and problems of modern engineering education, materials and documents on public policy in this field. This article attempts to analyze the relationship between engineering education development and the tasks of Russia’s economic, geopolitical development in different historical periods.