The article is based on the materials of the report presented at the plenary session of the Professors’ Forum 2019 “Science. Education. Regions” of the All-Russian Public Organization “Russian Professorial Assembly” (Moscow, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, February 6, 2019). In the context of the problems that were discussed at the Forum, three points have been formulated, which, according to the authors, determine the priority areas in the development of modern Russian doctoral education: 1. Doctoral education and dissertation. Since the institution of doctoral education is the main resource for training professional researchers and university teachers, postgraduate programs should be aimed at the defense of PhD (Candidate of Sciences) theses. 2. The educational component of postgraduate programs. Doctoral education should be developed as a research program that includes an educational component, rather than as an educational program that includes a research component. 3. Training of research personnel for the regions. In the context when budgetary resources for supporting doctoral education are concentrated in the country’s leading universities, the problem of reproducing highly qualified personnel at regional universities, which do not have such a status, is of particular relevance. The article proposes some specific measures to improve the national system for training of highly qualified personnel in postgraduate schools.

The authors concentrate their attention on the problem of the future of Russian education in connection with the changes in the classifier of professions. The paper analyzes the prospects for Russian higher education in personnel training in the context of growing technological innovations. In this regard, attention is drawn to two aspects. The first aspect covers the question of how sensitive Russian higher school is to the existing and future changes in the requirements of the employer and the labor market, and in general to the training of graduates. The second aspect is an attempt to connect the impending deformations, social and humanitarian, of professional reproduction with the mission of higher education. The key question reads as follows: can a university change its mission towards solving the social task of overcoming the crisis of “unemployed young people” that is looming along with the growth of technological innovations and the robotization of labor?

The aim of the work is an application of the theory of Goal-oriented System of Activity to analysis and organization of effective contract targeted training at higher education institutions. The organization of targeted training of specialists is considered as one of the components of public administration to address staff problems in various regions and sectors of the economy in the context of rapidly changing demands of society, to implement promising youth policy and mitigate demographic problems. An algorithmic chain of meaningful actions is con structed on the basis of the methodology of the Goal-oriented System of Activity, which takes into account the real state of human, intellectual, material and economic resources and enables to minimize existing contradictions and, accordingly, ensure the establishment of partnerships between all interested participants in the process of targeted training (government agencies, employers, higher education institutions and students). As an example, four stages of contract teacher training have been considered.

High quality professional training in accordance with the principles of outcome-based approach depends on the learning outcomes students are expected to achieve upon graduation from the educational program. However, the definition of a set of core competencies is just one of the steps that have to be fulfilled, but not enough for successful achievement of intended learning outcomes by the students. The paper considers the role of teaching and learning methods in designing and implementing of educational programs.

Flipped Learning is becoming a well-known pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves consistently from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.

Education of the next generation of practitioners that will creatively implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) by 2030 requires the complete rethinking by the educator how to do the job being done on a certain way for years. The flipped classroom model addresses how students learn best and become more engaged. Discussions and hands-on activities tend to keep students’ interest. While educators work with students directly as they explore the concepts they’re learning in class, they can provide immediate feedback that helps students improve their learning as they go.

The paper presents the model of Master’s Degree Program in Product Design Engineering implemented for training engineers majoring in “Innovation shipbuilding”. The program is being rolled out as a pilot project since 2017 on the basis of the Institute of National Technological Initiative of Sevastopol State University. The ideology of Master’s programs in Product Design Engineering generally matches with the paradigm of context education, nevertheless it has its own specific features, such as the principle of diploma project readiness (as a product of Master’s program) to enter into the market, and the evaluation of the product by expert community; training of the graduates to professional activity as ‘chief designer managers’, who understand the principles of how to organize the team of specialists and to obtain the required result as a market product; simulation by the students of the role of a customer for the object of designing, and preparation of the future engineer taking into account not only object designing, but also future utilization, that is, the whole life cycle. Special attention is paid to so called “distributed design”, which enables to organize a virtual professional environment of a “design bureau” bringing together different student project groups.

Didactic aspects of the educational component of doctoral training appear highly significant for modern doctoral education. The educational component involves two parts: research and teaching training. The dual nature of training, which includes different and, at the same time, interrelated types of learning activities, requires the development of appropriate research and methodological support of doctoral education. The methodological basis of designing and implementation of the educational component of doctoral training at an engineering university is an integrated approach. A comprehensive system of training is based on the combining of learning material in a certain semantic environment. This semantic environment is represented by the personal development of PhD students, along with the development of her/his professional mobility, competence, increasing competitiveness and improving the quality of training. The processes of designing and implementation of the educational component entail the use of a systematic approach, whereby the designed objects (preparation for the research along with the preparation for teaching activities) are considered as separate pedagogical systems; competence and activity approaches aimed at the development of general and professional competencies within research and teaching activities; personality-oriented approach focused on the educational component for personal development of PhD students within the research and teaching activities in accordance with their individual curricula. The authors discuss the elements of the pedagogical model of PhD students training at engineering universities.

The paper considers the specifics of the spatial and functional localization of regional education subsystems in the Russian Federation. Such subsystems include pre-school education, school education, secondary vocational education, and higher education. A set of indicators is suggested that can be used to assess the development stage of these subsystems. Cluster analysis made it possible to group the country’s regions according to the parameters of the education system, and determine the major characteristics of these groups (virtual clusters). Development tendencies of the education subsystems in the regions of each virtual cluster from 2010 to 2016 were analysed to identify the strong and the weak points of each group.

Rating places of 200 higher education institutions according to ARWU, THE, QS and Moscow International Rating (MosIR) are compared. The authors give an interpretation of a phenomenon of domination of English-language higher education institutions on the top positions and as well as higher education institutions of Europe and North America. The paper dwells on the main ranking parameters in Moscow International University Ranking (MosIR) and its innovative charac teristics, in particular the new parameter “University and Society”. The ranking “Three University Missions” focuses on the social openness of higher education institutions, their communications with society. Special attention is paid to the ranking paradoxes. The authors come to a conclusion that the introduction of Moscow International University Ranking improves the competitive environment in the global educational space.

Flagship University in Circumpolar Zone.

The article focuses on the issues of the formation of a conceptually new target model of a regional flagship university. Based on the experience of the formation and development of the Murmansk Arctic State University, which acquired the status of a flagship one in 2017, the authors analyze the origins of the formation of the model, its specificity, which is substantively and formally defined in the parameters of the Arctic perspective. The major intensively developing areas of MASU’s activity in the past two years have been focuses on two important factors of regional development, implemented in the form of two strategic flagship university projects. The first strategic project – “MASU is the scientific and technological hub of the region” – is aimed at solving the most acute regional task of effectively using both the economic and scientific / innovative potential of the region. The second strategic project – “Creative City is a Territory of Development” – reflects the interaction of the creative communities of the region, the Russian Federation and the world with prospect consumers represented by the regional government, municipalities, institutions and industrial enterprises. MASU is the main platform for combining a variety of strategies and searches aimed at changing urban and township sociocultural spaces, an integrator of various areas of design, creative technologies and cultural practices that affect the improvement of the quality of life and human capital development. The key role is determined by the role of the flagship university as a driver of the regional socio-economic development. The developing dialogue between the university, business and government is affirmed as an indispensable condition for the University’s successful functioning and a pledge for its further development.

The paper addresses the role of universities in the generation, use and dissemination of knowledge, analyzes principles and ways to develop science and education at universities. It is emphasized that the University is becoming an active player not only in training, but also in the production of a new knowledge, in its dissemination and implementation through innovation. At the same time, it is necessary to note that the conditions of the Far North impose a unique specificity on the work of the University and its scientific and innovative activities.

For Murmansk Arctic State University (MASU), scientific and research work is one of the most dynamically developing components that create development potential. The paper presents the range of MASU’s scientific activities which includes 3 main spheres: natural science, technical science, social science, and Humanities. The authors dwell on the students’ and postgraduates’ scientific activities, consider the youth scientific organizational structure.

As a flagship University, MASU is implementing a strategic development project “MASU is Scientific and Technological Hub of the Region” formed with the direct support of the Government of the Murmansk region. Within the framework of the project, an information and analytical platform was created in MASU under the partnership with Kola Science Center RAS (IAP MASU-KSC). This platform is an integrating consulting mechanism including a set of technological, commercial and marketing solutions for the development and implementation of innovative products and technologies in organizations operating in the field of ensuring a comfortable human presence in the Far North.

As one of the priority goals of the strategic development of the University, the trajectory of the Arctic scientific and educational center (SEC) creation on the basis of MASU is highlighted. The key areas and ways to improve the efficiency of scientific and educational activities of MASU, as well as the expected results of the SEC are considered.

The article presents the experience of Murmansk Arctic State University in the implementation of a unique project for the region – «Creative city – territory of development», which reflects innovative social practices, technologies of project training and the strategy of the University to fulfill its potential in the creative industries. Creative industries are a growth point for the regional “smart specialization”, significantly affecting the quality of life of the local communities and fulfilling not only current, but also emerging human needs. Therefore it is important to involve the younger generation in creative activities in order to develop experience of participation in new socio-economic processes. The discussion about the productivity of classical and project solutions in professional training programs determined the advantage of creative projects of students to present their competencies not only to potential employers, but also to other stakeholders in the development of the region. Initiatives in the Northern Design Cluster and the Tourism and Recreation Cluster of the Murmansk Region have become a new type of university activities; their the projects allow to attract experts to discuss areas of work and clusters cooperation models. Creative industries meet the challenges of the era, when for success the territories must use the resources of cultural brands, shape the quality of life by developing social spaces, non-standard use of color and light in design for psycho-emotional well-being. The project “Creative City – Territory of Development” makes it possible to get feedback from the local communities. The university consistently implements a strategy of expanding areas of participation in the life of the region, conducts research on integrating the modern Arctic design, socio-cultural and economic practices of municipalities. Therefore, the article analyzes the growth factors and ways of influence of the university on the regional community in the field of creative industries; emphasizes the complexity of the tasks and the increase in the number of stakeholders in the creative industries, underlines the fact that university projects are both the creative products and creative technologies for the formation of professional competences in the welfare industry, tourism and design.

The article addresses complex process of internationalization in higher education which largely determines the specifics of a regional educational establishment that has the status of a flagship university. In the modern context, the internationalization of higher education serves as a strategy for active introduction of the international dimension into all the basic spheres of university life and turns out to be a much wider phenomenon than just a simple combination of various types of international activities. As a constantly evolving process, internationalization implies the continuous transformation of various educational areas and acts as a catalyst for external changes occurring in education. Despite the fact that in the basic documents regulating the functioning of flagship universities, international activities are not singled out as a separate area, the Murmansk Arctic State University (MASU) includes an international component in its strategic development program, assuming the implementation of a distributed model when the international component is consistently integrated into educational, research- and innovation-related and administrative aspects of the university’s functioning. The authors analyze the distinctiveness of the internationalization forms on the basis of such best practices implemented by the Murmansk Arctic State University as the research and educational project “Borderology”, the program “Bachelor of Northern Studies” and many others. The specific character of the region informatively and structurally determines the educational space of a flagship university, the northernmost higher education establishment of the Russian Federation, developing in a transboundary field. The authors argue convincingly that international activities significantly enhance the potential of the flagship university, allowing the use of international network resources to ensure the socio-economic development of the region and in order to enrich its socio-cultural space. The movement towards internationalization, the value positioning of the internationalization of higher education, according to the authors, mean for a modern university a kind of test of its flexibility, ability to adapt and innovate.

The article addresses the issues concerning the formation of the continuous entrepreneurial education system taking into account the need to develop human resources of small and mediumsized businesses. The authors reveal the main problems that serve as the barriers to the formation and standardization of such a system in our society. The article defines its main goals and levels, highlights the experience and promising forms of teaching entrepreneurship to schoolchildren with the participation of universities. The basic models of entrepreneurial education in higher education are presented and characterized. The authors dwell on the ways of increasing the efficiency of business education of adults and forms of teaching entrepreneurship to older people, formulate the proposals, which will facilitate institutionalization of the integrated system of continuous entrepreneurial education.

The article discusses the features of the modern system of Russian higher education, reveals its advantages and disadvantages. In the light of the Federal Target Program for the De velopment of Education for 2016–2020, the authors conclude that the multifunctional foreign language communicative competence plays a special role in the process of forming a holistic competence-based portrait of a graduate of a higher educational institution, considering the three main trends characteristic of the transition to an updated educational system: direct participation in the educational process of all stakeholders (students, teachers, representatives of professional communications, employers); the need to create and operate an innovative information and educational environment, taking into account the possibility of modeling real professional tasks; personal orientation and individualization of the preparation of students with the growing role of the learner in the educational process. The task is to find the best methodological tools and organizational forms of educational activities in the context of foreign language training of university students. In accordance with this, the authors propose options for implementing the formulated trends. Particular attention is paid to the possibilities of interactive learning of foreign languages; the peculiarities of «immersion» of students in a model professional environment with the involvement of employers and representatives of professional communities, including as experts, in direct participation in the educational process; the importance of personal communication between students and other subjects of the educational process; work in small groups. The emphasis is on the need to create favorable conditions for self-education and self-realization of future graduates and an individual approach to each of them.

Availability of qualified engineering personnel for high-tech industries is a topical problem today. To close the gap between the practice of polytechnic education and real engineering activities, it is necessary to introduce innovative educational technologies aimed at developing students’ ability to work in a team, competences in the field of modern information and communication technologies, as well as a willingness to carry out design based on spatial modeling.

Within the framework of subject training, it is necessary to ensure the unity of fundamental (generalized, theoretical) knowledge and special knowledge corresponding to the profile of the training area. An appropriate construction of the training program contributes to the adaptation and concretization of subject competencies in the direction required for this engineering specialty.

Graphic training is the first professionally oriented discipline at technical university. Within the framework of subject training, it is important to create a learning environment that is close to professional. The authors adduce the examples of educational tasks based on the method of projects and corresponding to the profile of the educational program that students perform in the course of self-directed work. An innovative aspect in the development of individual tasks is the ability to perform projects in 3d.