This paper investigates the theory and practice of using effective contracts for academic staff. The study identifies the effects of the implementation of effective contracts at the National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University using bottom-up approach. Recently, the International Standards of Scientific and Educational Activities have significantly changed the programs for the development of universities. Therefore, in recent years, the system of effective contracts is actively developing. In this research SWOT-analysis of effective contract system is introduced. The described system is used for more than three years at the National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University. The first part of the research is devoted to the history of origin, principles and problems of applying effective contracts. In the second part of the article, recommendations are given for the introduction of a system of effective contracts. The Research goal was to study the theoretical and socio-economic aspects of the practice of applying effective contracts at the university to improve the motivation system and avoiding erroneous actions to manage the process of its development. The methodological basis of the study is the system and competence approaches to the management of quality of work of academic staff. The practical significance of the research consists in the presented recommendations on improving the process of introduction of the effective contract system for academic staff, contributing to the development of a competitive environment, and the formation of new mechanisms for motivating the idea of achieving a positive strategic effect in a university.

Nowadays many students feel the need to develop a number of additional competencies that will enable them to significantly expand their employment and professional opportunities after graduation. The student government’s research and educational project “School of Competencies” is a modern and growing format in Russian universities for the development of students’ additional professional and general cultural competencies, which include competencies in the legal framework for the organization of their own business, business planning, marketing, advertising and communication with the public, stress resistance, registration of applications for grants, techniques for writing scientific texts, etc. In this paper the authors: a) conduct a brief review of literature and justify the relevance of the “School of Competencies” project for students; b) present the subject content of the “School of Competencies” project and the nomenclature of the professional and general cultural competencies of students; c) develop their own stages of implementation of the “School of Competencies” project in universities.

The article examines domestic practices of reducing losses in educational organizations. Attention has been paid to the activities of educational organizations aimed at reducing losses, both in the main production processes, and in the auxiliary processes that consume resources, but do not create value for consumers. This article is an attempt to estimate of the state of implementation of lean-technologies in the main production processes in higher education. There are references to not numerous examples of their use. Practical applications of lean technologies in auxiliary processes have been viewed in more detail. Based on the analysis of the information on the official site of public procurement, the authors consider a tendency to transfer the functions of accounting, personnel and legal support for outsourcing by state (municipal) agencies and departments, in particular they view the Moscow Region Government practice of outsourcing the auxiliary processes of subordinate educational organizations. The comparative analysis of costs per student has confirmed the effectiveness of outsourcing. The article dwells on the unique practice of Bauman Moscow State Technical University on the implementation of labor standards system.

The article highlights the technology of organization of educational process in higher educational institution with the application of the interactive method of training – “factory of processes”. The article adduces the comparative characteristics of the “factory of processes” methodology, the general content-technological determinants with the format of business game, as well as their distinctive features. The authors note the sufficiently large scenary variability potential of the “factory of processes” method with the obligatory inclusion of a number of stages. The experience of implementing the “factory of processes” in the educational process of the Tyumen State Medical University in the framework of the program “Lean production in health care” is described. The article shows the high potential for incorporating the format of the “factory of processes” technology into the educational process with obtaining the necessary competencies and aiming at using the acquired skills in further practical activities.

The article analyzes the experience of the Flipped Classroom technology implementation on the example of “Russian Language and Culture of Speech” discipline. The author has summarized the results of a student survey that prove the effectiveness of a digital educational environment as means of optimizing classroom lectures. The article focuses on technological, scientific, and methodological aspects of teacher’s activity in conditions of changing his/her roles – from “sage on the stage” (lecturer) to “guide on the side” (tutor, instructor); it also defines the competences of higher education teachers that are relevant in the conditions of Flipped Classroom technology implementation. The article shows the important role of a higher education teacher who is at the same time a scientist, a counselor, a manager of electronic educational environment, a tutor, and a curator for a new generation of future specialists in different fields. The professionalism of a higher education teacher has a strong impact on the teaching materials, the effectiveness of methods and forms of individual studies, and classroom interaction.

The article addresses the problems of educational resources development in the Chinese language in higher education. The author gives an analysis of educational resources on the Chinese language, explores the main achievements and the problems connected with the development of educational resources, presents the review of new educational literature in the field of teaching the Chinese language, defines priority areas of the further development of educational resources in the Chinese language in higher education. In the conclusion the author substantiates the need to use the principle of the level-based formation of the communicative competence in the Chinese language. The implementation of this principle will help solve a number of problems in the development of educational resources in the Chinese language, such as: level setting of the goals, stages, content of training and learning outcomes in the Chinese language professional education training program, development of professional competencies based on the communicative competence in the Chinese language, ensuring the continuity of school and university education in the Chinese language, etc.

The article deals with the technology of organization of the educational process in a higher educational institution with the application of the interactive method of training – factorу of processes. The comparative characteristics of the methodology of factorу of processes are given, general content-technological determinants with the format of the business game are shown, as well as their distinctive features. A sufficiently large variational scenario potential of factorу of processes with the obligatory inclusion of a number of stages is shown. The experience of implementing the factorу of processes in the educational process of the Tyumen State Medical University in the framework of the program "Lean production in health care" is demonstrated. The article shows the high potential for incorporating the format of the factorу of processes into the educational process with obtaining the necessary competencies and aiming at using the acquired skills in further practical activities

The article considers the European experience of implementing scientific/research activities and the formation of a framework of qualifications for research career. The authors define and analyze the stages of this process revealing the special role of the Bologna and Copenhagen strategies and the documents and programs developed by them and give examples of creating specialized, sectoral and institutional frameworks within the European Research Area. Particular attention is paid to the methodological culture of creating qualification frameworks, difficulties in distinguishing levels and finding an adequate language for their description. The question is raised about topical problems in the process of forming the sectoral framework in the field of Education and Science in Russia and implementation of European experience in our country. The European experience shows that the process of qualification framework formation in the spheres of education and science requires the system approach, involvement of all the parties concerned, an overall and thorough discussion of the alignment process on all the levels of qualification. It is worth drawing attention to the framework character of the qualification system. It should be viewed more as guidance, incentive, strategy rather than a binding legal instrument. The most difficult issues concern the structure and content of this framework (what should be the levels of research activities description, how to categorize the descriptors, what are the criteria for assessment of quality of scientific/research activities according to researcher’s rank and other issues).

As international competition in education is growing, Russia needs to develop a strategy for enhancing the internationalization of its education system and attracting more international students. This task is especially pressing for regional pillar universities. The paper describes the experimental course aimed at teaching Russian teachers of humanities to design master’s programmes in English for international students, analyzes the encountered problems, and offers possible ways to solve them. The authors identify a specific “cross-academic barrier” to effective teacher-student communication in English, as well as a number of teacher’s functions aimed at overcoming this barrier. Special focus is placed on teacher functioning as an adapter and mediator, which is essential for effective interaction with foreign students. The authors also give practical recommendations for tackling professional problems which may arise during the process of designing master’s programmes in English. In conclusion the paper states the necessity of Russian teachers’ second language socialization in order for them to psychologically adapt to the specific conventions and practices of academic communication in English.

One of the tasks, for transition to sustainable development, is the formation of a new culture of relationships between people and the environment – the culture of eco-friendly lifestyle. Being one of the main institutions for socialization of youth, universities play a leading role in this process. Involvement of students and university staff in the implementation of ecological projects in the framework of extracurricular work can encourage the formation of eco-friendly culture. The implementation of such projects not only contributes to overall greening of education, but also forms appropriate skills and habits of eco-friendly lifestyle among a wide range of people. The article focuses on the main directions of greening of universities, introduces the foreign experience of “green campus”, and represents the experience of implementing student projects in the field of ecology and sustainable development in Russian universities. Particular emphasis is placed on the opportunities and benefits of greening Russian universities by supporting and developing student initiatives. Interuniversity festival «VuzEcoFest» is the example of student initiatives in the sphere of ecology. It is a youth project for the promotion of conception of green universities.

The paper draws attention to ambiguous interpretation of engineering pedagogy terms in the process of international professional communication. It describes some examples of misunderstanding of the terms and inadequate translation of them into Russian. Compiling a terminology English-Russian and Russian-English concise dictionary “Engineering Pedagogy” will contribute to solving this problem for Russian specialists of engineering education. The dictionary is one of the issues of the series of learners’ terminology bilingual and multilingual concise dictionaries published by Moscow Automobile and Road Construction State Technical University (MADI). The idea of compiling a multilingual glossary has been supported by International Society for Engineering Pedagogy (IGIP). The dictionary “IGIP Multilingual Glossary” is being compiled now. Both dictionaries are based on the lexicographical concept worked out for the MADI series of concise dictionaries. The paper also describes the main terminological problems to be solved in the process of compiling the dictionaries.

While in Anglo-American universities the course traditionally called as “English Composition” has been in the curriculum for a long time, in Russia “Academic Writing” has been actively developing only for the last 10–15 years. Nowadays Academic Writing is taught in many universities all over Russia, writing centers are set up, annual international conferences are held. In the focus of Russian teachers and researchers are the genres of academic writing which are important and interesting for students (e.g., essay, letter of recommendation, grant proposal etc), thus the genre approach is being applied. For the last five years with the development of the concept of “education through research” there has been an increasing role of the professionally-targeted genres. Special attention is paid to rendering as “writing-transformation” forming the linguoprofessional competence of students. The shift from writing as product to writing as process and practice signifies a different, independent status of writing. The search for the system approach to genre teaching is still ahead.

The author considers the significance of teaching post-graduate students the module of written scientific communication to avoid problems facing them in future publishing career. The notion ‘academic writing’ is interpreted as the key to realizing national differences in intercultural written interaction. The author highlights the inevitable interference of the English scientific language and the native language of a researcher, the international part of a modern academic paper being English as lingua franca. Typology of cultures helps to explain possible misunderstanding in reading academic papers. Linguistico-culturological analysis of several scientific articles written in English by investigators from various countries allows the author to conclude that any researcher writes in English under unconscious domination of his national features.

The article addresses the issues concerning the development of the humanitarian component of higher education in Russia. The main idea of the article is that for modern Humanities education it is of fundamental importance to strengthen its functional links with promising social changes and social practices. In this connection, the need for compulsory systematic sociological support of the educational process increases: sociological research acts as a kind of “pedagogical intelligence” tool, with the help of which the parameters of a meaningful adjustment of the Humanities education are identified and its final social efficiency is diagnosed. This thesis is illustrated by the example of such a mandatory discipline studied at Russian higher school as History. The article describes the current socio-cultural situation in the study and teaching of History, which is aggravated not only due to a decrease in the level of historical competence of young people, but also owing to the divergence of historical discourses, as well as to some postmodernist methodological principles that hamper the establishment of historical truth. The article discusses the influence of this situation on the perception of the scientific concepts of the historical process, which constitute the content basis of the educational process, on the course of this process and its results. In this regard, the role of sociological methods for the identification of real historical self-consciousness is noted, allowing to take into account the state of the social environment and to “adjust” historical education to the needs of the developing society. The author substantiates the idea of transition to flexible, selfcorrecting curricula, which, thanks to the use of sociological support, is able to react quickly to deep socio-cultural trends of various types. The argument given in support of this point of view uses data obtained in the course of sociological surveys conducted at various times in leading Russian universities. In conclusion, the content and organizational-methodological aspects of modernizing History teaching are examined in accordance with the considerations expressed in the article. In this regard, a desire was expressed for more coordinated training programs on Humanities disciplines.

 Man as a creative personality desires for freedom as well as cognition and creative work as his essence. It should be noted, however, that what we know about ourselves and how we see ourselves are far from being the same thing. We live to a large extent in imaginary worlds, and they appear to us more actual than their real-life prototypes. Religion, art and science try to tackle this problem, and in each case an attention is being focused, respectively, on a different aspect of being. What is the most attractive for mind here is Mystery underlying this phenomenon. Imagination is inherent in every creative act, and in any such act do Time and History attend. Time effects on the outcomes of our efforts today. This, in the author’s view, is obviously demonstrated by the history of Russia, where its numerous present-day achievements and failures are determined by its past.

The article substantiates the defining role and the importance of the course of general military disciplines in students’ military training system. This course is the main tool in the formation of high professional and moral qualities of a serviceman, highly demanded not only in the military, but also in all other spheres of activity. The results of the conducted researches (experiments) and the experience of military service of reserve officers – graduates of military departments during their conscription into military service in 2000-2010 are summarized. These results confirmed the ineffectiveness of the existing in students’ military training system long-term practice of traditional way of passing of the course of general military disciplines. This situation determines an objective need to improve appreciably the quality of training. The authors propose an innovative system approach to increase the efficiency and the quality of students’ military training providing integral and interconnected development and improvement of the main components of such training: legal, content, organizational, methodical, scientific, technical and technological, control, motivational, educational, personnel, economic. The article defines the priorities in the development and improvement of each component and proposes innovative forms of integrated education of military departments students such as integrated tactical-special training tasks and complex group exercises that enhance the efficiency and quality of knowledge obtained and the formation of practical skills in the performance of duties for official purpose in the real conditions of daily and combat activities. In conclusion the authors specify that realization of the proposed innovative system approach will objectively promote the increase of efficiency and quality of students’ military training. It opens wide opportunities for carrying out scientific researches in this field defining at the same time the general strategy for improving its qualitative parameters.

The article explores the processes of transformation of Russian cadets’ motivation and value orientations during the last decade, as well as the dynamics of their motivational and value sphere throughout the period of study at military educational organizations. The analysis of scientific literature, public opinion polls and author’s own research showed the restoration of the prestige of the military profession, improving of socio-economic status of military personnel, enhancing of students’ confidence about their choice of profession. Military professional motives for enrolling in military education organization are dominating throughout the period of observation. The system of value coordinates also remains stable; cadets are generally proud of service in the Armed forces and share the norms and values of military service. The use of correspondence analysis allowed the author to identify the relationship between different motives and values and to measure the proximity between cadets of different courses in the motivation and value space. The author concludes that cadets’ motivational system is being gradually transformed as they grow up. First-year students are more attracted by pragmatic, material advantages of military service. The second, third and fourth courses take an intermediate position; this stage is characterized by the process of rethinking professional choice. Graduates have the most formed military and professional orientation, the greatest value for them is the interest to the chosen military specialty.

The monograph “Chronicles of Nuclear University MEPhI” (the authors – N.A. Kudryashov and M.N. Strikhanov) published in the series “Science in the Soviet Union: Through the difficulties to the stars” is devoted to the first 50 years of the history of MEPhI. The book focuses on the educational innovations characterizing Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, now – the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI as a center of scientific and technological development of the country. The key innovation inherent in its very basis is coupling of educational process with students’ research activities from the very first days of their stay at the University. This innovation is closely connected with a unique brand of MEPhI – so called “Career Time Compression” that is illustrated by the career of one of its rectors – V.G. Kirillov-Ugryumov. The book introduces into scientific circulation the archival materials, biographical data, the exclusive historical materials based on documentary evidences and memories of scientists of one of the best universities in the country. The authors convey the history of the legendary institution through the fate of people who took part in its formation.