А group of authors of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, working within the framework of the activity of Coordination Council for the Federal Educational and Methodical Associations on education in the field of “Engineering, Technology and Technical Sciences” have undertaken a comprehensive study dedicated to the processes of the digital economy formation. More than two hundred primary sources of reference have been analyzed. Several main groups of risks associated with the transition to global digitalization have been defined and classified. Further research results described in this article allow to characterize the specific features of the occurrence of risks in the Russian Federation and to determine the ways of reducing these risks.

In addition to the six groups of risks which are currently possible to arise and which are characteristic of the entire world space, the authors have revealed a number of several additional risks typical only of Russia. One of the key areas in Russia that poses a whole range of various risks is the education system. The authors have analyzed and classified the policies and moves suggested by the researchers and politicians to reduce the likelihood of these specific risks occurrence.

The qualitative leap of the educational process in Russia is possible only by means of the formation of some new competence profiles of educational institutions graduates with reference to the digital economy development conditions. The authors have defined seven types of competencies that are relevant for the transition of Russia to the digital economy and developed twelve pilot educational modules necessary for their formation.

The article discusses the current situation in the Russian higher school system related to the publication activity of faculty, including publications in journals indexed in international citation databases Scopus and Web of Science. The author argues that the vast majority of scientific and pedagogical workers of Russian universities, especially those teaching social and economic disciplines, are unable to provide the necessary number of such publications required by the administration, due to both organizational and financial reasons. In order to ensure at least a relative balance between the interests of the faculty and their employer, it is proposed to create new structural entities in large public and private universities – centers for support of the publication activity of teachers. The author has developed a project of standard organizational structure of management for this Center, as well as an algorithm of its work and the main functions of its divisions.

The paper considers the methodological approaches to the description of the competency outcomes of education when implementing the federal standards of higher education on the example of the Sociology as an area of study. The authors have offered a methodic for assessment of the competences formation which is based on the so called indicators of achievement of each of the related competences and on the distribution of these indicators among all elements (modules) of the educational program of BA or MA in Sociology. In the paper, a list of indicators of universal (to be achieved in each higher education program regardless of the area) and general professional competences of the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Sociology is proposed, as a result of monitoring and evaluation of several educational programs in the area of Sociology; moreover, the authors adduce the examples of content-related, concrete indicators of education called descriptors for competences. Besides, the paper describes the testing schemes which enable to adjust indicators of universal competences and to evaluate the level of competence of students who have completed the related educational level.

An important trend in higher education is an increasing use of digital technologies and an expansion of online-learning formats, which poses new challenges for university faculty to master the pedagogical competences in teaching online.

Universities are forced to expand their educational activities in the online environment, and to involve an increasing number of teachers in the design and delivery of online courses. However, faculty members often do not have the necessary skills and competencies, and their experience in the use of digital technology is insufficient. Meanwhile, the success of online teaching depends not only on advanced methods and technologies, but first of all on the quality of faculty involved. An important issue is how teachers are trained to perform these tasks. To ensure the effectiveness of online education, the Institute of Further Professional Education of the Kazan National Research Technological University is developing approaches to training faculty for the transition to virtual learning environment. They should take into account factors, incentives and barriers affecting faculty’s participation in online teaching, and analyze changes in the activities of teaching stuff in the online environment.

The paper dwells on the foreign experience in training faculty for online teaching. We analyzed publications considering new roles and competencies of online teachers, barriers and motivations that encourage faculty to participate in online learning. The paper gives an overview of the content of foreign training courses aimed at the formation of a complex of subject, pedagogical and technological competences of faculty related to online teaching. The main goal of the analysis was to determine the core competencies of online teachers, so that to reflect them in the program of training faculty for teaching online.

In these days, mathematics is one of the most important tools for any person. However, in Japan, many students hate and avoid mathematics in their high school age. In Waseda University, one of the biggest and oldest private universities in Japan, special curriculum is constructed for such “Bunkei’’ students who major in social or human science.

The article discusses how to implement common cultural competencies in the course of teaching philosophy. The authors believe that the optimal content of the course is the history of philosophy, which, when being creatively taught, can become a school of critical thinking and education and give direction to those who are trying to consciously shape their world view and educate their mind. The historical-philosophical approach organically incorporates the problematic one, makes it possible to discuss current issues of the day, based on classical examples of the philosophical culture. Some techniques for the development of cognitive skills that correspond to the strategies of liberal education are considered. The authors draw attention to the benefits of the work of a student with a philosophical text, the need for the development of written and oral speech, organically associated with the development of thinking. In the conditions of increasing bureaucratic regulation of the educational process and limited time, it is important to preserve the space of academic freedom, to build teaching taking into account the individual-personal contact with this or that audience. University philosophy is regarded as a valuable experience in overcoming the limitations of everyday consciousness, it seems to be a source of ideas that provides support in a situation of epistemological uncertainty and value relativism. The article covers both philosophical and theoretical, and applied aspects of the problem of teaching philosophy in higher education institution.

Russian pedagogical community has recently faced a new challenge generated by the introduction of emerging conceptual framework for doctoral education treated as the third level of higher education system. The framework for doctoral education covers some typical study programs such as “Methods & technics of pedagogical research” as well as some new ones, including “Academic writing” and competence-based teaching for the traditional postgraduate training. Our argument concerns the course syllabus “History & philosophy of science” aimed at developing the research skills of doctoral students in education. This course is an integral part of the emerging system for doctoral training in Russia. We analyze some philosophical foundations of contemporary pedagogical science, including logical empiricism, Popper’s falsifiability, Paradigm Thesis by Thomas Kuhn, science theories by Paul Feyerabend and Stephen Toulmin, as well as correspondence, pragmatic, conventional and coherent theories of truth. We examine the impact of philosophy of science on methodology of pedagogical education in the context of the history of pedagogical thought. Our conclusion is that despite their poor logical conditions, pedagogical science and research methods benefit from the ideas of philosophy of science that also contributes greatly to the subfield of pedagogical methodology. We seek to optimize the study program of doctoral training syllabus “History and philosophy of science” for doctoral students in education.

Classical elements permeate global academic discourse and scientific terminology. Understanding the meanings and functioning of these elements can help multilingual scholars cope with disciplinary literature and write for publication and is therefore essential in teaching English for academic and specific purposes. However, few manuals on academic vocabulary explore word-formation in-depth or use it as a tool to alleviate learning through analysis and synthesis rather than memorizing words. Russian, as many other European languages, is a synthetic language in which affixation is as productive as in Latin. The paper presents a well-designed and approbated course of academic vocabulary for social scientists, analyses relationships between linguistic studies and teaching academic vocabulary, and discusses the ways of increasing the effectiveness and clarity of teaching by more systematic study of classical elements, enhancing students’ analytical skills through innovative methodology and using the advantages of similarities between Russian and Latin word-formation. Comparative analysis demonstrates that the key features of the course, such as interactive computer-based visual materials and various analytical tasks involving students’ background knowledge and academic awareness, help students not only decipher unknown words, but also produce neologisms, which is essential in coping with new terminology. Published as a book, Academic Vocabulary for Social Sciences is now available for teachers, students and researchers as a resource for study and self-study. The effectiveness of the approach demonstrates that it can be used as a model to design similar specific vocabulary courses for students of other synthetic languages.

The article provides an overview of foreign and national research on the possibilities of using cognitive management in the educational environment of higher education institution. The authors emphasize the potential of cognitive management principles application in the educational organization, the direct correlation between cognitive management tasks and the general purposes of educational process. The possible approaches to knowledge management in educational organization are described. The authors dwell on the general methodological, economic and functional aspects of cognitive management at the university, argue that the value-communicative essence of university education enables to manage the knowledge base of the university. On the example of Ukhta State Technical University the article considers the possibilities of students’ project activity and project self-government. Firstly, it ensures the increment and intensification of the value-communicative flow of knowledge within the University and in its interaction with the external environment. Secondly, it fosters students to master the role of a cognitive manager. Thirdly, it encourages students to develop their meta-abilities which can be viewed as a form of cognitive management outcomes in higher educational institution.

The concept of “cognitive trend” applied in the article summarizes the specific theoretical approaches and changes in the management practice of modern regional University. The effect of synergy in relation to University third mission, which is further specified as a valuecompetence synergy, is approved as a key goal that led to the emergence of a cognitive trend. The phenomenon of knowledge is proposed to be considered as the main motivational resource to achieve this goal, which makes it possible to associate the author’s position with a wide area of research in the modern science of education called “cognitive management”. The motivational resource of the knowledge phenomenon is substantiated in the context of the four-level model of University organizational culture. An analysis of the four-level model gives a basis to assert its exceptional relevance to the idea of the University and the objectives of its third mission. The axiological content of the University organizational culture is revealed through the reflexive analysis of the phenomena of scientific truth, scientific knowledge, and evidence as a criterion of science. The possibility of extrapolation of the value content of the University organizational culture in the regional environment is justified from the standpoint of G. Kelly’s cognitive psychology. As a source of the fundamental principles of the communicative space of the University, the authors propose the social and philosophical concepts of communication by M. M. Bakhtin, J. Habermas and K.-O. Apel.

The article explores the phenomenon of strong nexus between the development strategies of small cities, claiming for the status of supporting regional cities, and universities located there. The university community and urban public are inclined to the positioning of such cities as “university cities”. The authors dwell on the role of campuses in the implementation of the “third mission” by universities. Particular consideration is given to the specific component of the third mission and, accordingly, the campus infrastructure for the development of local communities, urban and regional environments. A model of the regional environment monitoring system is described, which is based on the system of sociological surveys including five subsystems (questionnaire of employers, questionnaire of schoolchildren aimed at vocational guidance, questionnaire of parents, questionnaire of communities, and internal monitoring). The article also focuses on the forms of using campus facilities for the implementation of various events and social projects involving the local community and aimed at the development of the urban and regional environment in the following areas: consolidation, education and community assistance, social mobilization and public branding.

The article examines the history of the formation and development of University education in Russia during the reign of Alexander I. The author analyzes the key legislative acts and statutes of the Russian universities created in 1802–1805, as well as the reorganized in 1819 University of St. Petersburg. The article dwells on the history of Dorpat, Vilnius, Kharkiv, Kazan, and St. Petersburg Universities during the period of Alexander I’s reign. It is shown that as a result of the activities of the Emperor and his associates, a progressive harmonious system of education and higher education was created. The author traces how the educational policy began to change due to radically changed views of Alexander I in the last decade of his reign, which resulted in the clericalization of higher education, public education in general. The traditions initiated by M.V. Lomonosov were halted by the obscurantists and mystics. The universities were treated as hotbeds of freethinking, moral depravity, and philosophy was demonized as a source of spiritual contagion.

October 14, 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of the first university in Crimea, which initially, in 1918–1920, was called the Taurida University, and now is V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University. In this regard, it is useful to recall the main stages of the history of the university. Of particular interest is the history of Taurida University in the years of the Civil War, when its teachers were the greatest scientists who fled from the Bolshevik terror from the university centers of the former Russian Empire to the “white” Crimea. But it was precisely this period that received the least coverage in the literature published in the twentieth century. The main reason for this is the lack of a sufficient source base. After all, the pre-war university archive was lost, and the main source for a long time remained only two volumes of the “News of the Tauride University” published in 1919 and 1920. The noted narrowness of the source base forced researchers to look for additional sources of information. Attention was drawn to the archives of institutions, organizations and individuals associated with the university in the initial period of its existence, as well as sources of personal origin (diaries of Academician V.I. Vernadsky, memories of his son, Professor G.V. Vernadsky, etc.).

In the late 1990s, the author of the article was fortunate enough to reach the richest unique source that remained untapped by researchers on the history of the Crimean intelligentsia, science and culture in 1917–1920 – Crimean newspapers during the Civil War. On their pages, it was possible to find not only chronicle notes to recreate the missing pages of the history of Taurida University and existing scientific societies, not only information about the participation of university professors in the activities of numerous Crimean scientific organizations, but also publications of a number of leading scientists that remained unknown.

The present article is based mainly on these newspapers, which have long become a bibliographic rarity.