Purpose – quantitative analysis and identification of determinants of Russian universities’ global competitiveness.

Methods. Parametric and non-parametric methods for data analysis and machine learning.

Results. The authors figured out the hidden determinants of international competitiveness of Russian universities and the national educational system of the Russian Federation. We proposed four working hypotheses. (1) The positions of Russian universities in the international QS ranking are different for metropolitan and regional universities. (2) The positions of Russian universities in the international QS ranking depend on the status of universities. (3) The positions of Russian universities in the international QS ranking differ depending on the participation of universities in the Russian Academic Excellence Project “5-100”. (4) The positions of Russian universities in the international QS ranking are different depending on the level of annual university income. We obtained dataset for the study from the analytical materials of the British consulting company QS, as well as information and analytical materials from the results of monitoring the effectiveness of educational institutions of higher education in the Russian Federation.

Conclusions. In the empirical part, we have established the significance of the university geographical location influence on its international competitiveness. We have found a high competitiveness level of Moscow and St. Petersburg universities. The international market for educational services does not give preference to universities with the status of a «national research» or «federal». Increased state funding, burdened with approved roadmaps of the Project Office of the Program 5-100, contributes to competitiveness only in the regional educational markets, which is still not enough to strengthen the global international competitiveness of Russian universities and the national educational system of the Russian Federation. Although the level of universities annual income was a significant factor in international competitiveness, university management efficiency played an important role, not only increased funding. Universities with greater institutional management freedom will have greater international competitiveness.

The article focuses on the main trends in the development of modern Russian education. The authors reveal some of its sore points, show the possibilities to overcome them. Some positive examples of the leading universities of the country confirm the high importance of modern University centers of learning, science and culture in the formation of a competence-oriented national educational cluster of innovative type. The authors come to a conclusion that Russian universities, taking into account the existing motivation and the targeted state support provided for them, are able to become quite competitive, to join the ranks of the world top universities, to be attractive not only for Russian but also foreign students. The authors make the case for the the competitiveness growth of the leading universities, argue that the increase of their competitive advantages can become one of the drivers of the development of Russian higher education and the country’s economy as a whole.

An effective interaction between all stakeholders in the market of educational services is a necessary condition for improving the assessment of the quality of higher education, which, in turn, accentuates high relevance of studying the theory and practice of independent evaluation of higher education quality and quality assurance of educational programs. This is the main purpose of this publication, which is the result of the research in the field of independent evaluation and public accreditation of professional educational programs.

During the examination of the projects on independent evaluation and professional and public accreditation of professional educational programs, the following methods were used: collection of empirical information, an analysis of official documents on quality assurance of education, generalization, interpretation.

The article outlines a set of systemic problems hindering the process of formation of professional and public accreditation of professional educational programs launched in Russia and proposes the method of improving the independent evaluation and public accreditation of professional educational programs, which can be treated as a real leverage to improve the quality of domestic higher education.

This paper aims to explore the capabilities of new approaches to the study of educational demands on modern higher education market by describing existing educational strategies of applicants and students. The experience of university choice research in domestic and international practice consists of sufficiently popular description of educational demands, choice motivation and analysis of the choice-making process of university and specialty choice based on available information. The analysis of choice presented in the article is compounded by the description of the main educational strategies being formed on modern educational market, with an emphasis on their behavioral nature. Two following strategies are singled out: “status strategy”, where education acts primarily as an element of status and group identification; and “practical strategy” where education is viewed as an investment of time and resources into increasing one’s chances at the job market. Data gathered from the study of students of five universities of Tomsk and Novosibirsk aligns with these strategies, and this justifies the existence of an increasing divide in social-economic demography of higher education. Such tendency is capable of seriously affecting organizational strategies of universities and influence the very nature of higher education as a social institution by forcing universities and the system in general to take the given strategies into account.

Today practically all students pursuing higher education are obliged to earn money simultaneously and this takes most of their time. In such circumstances in order to prepare for studies and especially for examinations students usually have too little time left. Moreover, they tend to overestimate its amount and unrealistically plan time needed to prepare for exams that inevitably and adversely affect quality of their education. The problem of optimizing students’ preparations for examinations acquires more and more theoretic and practical importance. The purpose of this work is to identify how much it is possible to increase the effectiveness of students’ preparations for studies and examinations by applying time management tools in “learning by doing” mode. For that the article provides a description of the research conducted in groups having day and evening classes and devoted to practical implementation of time management tools such as time-keeping, flexible planning, work with time absorbents. Research method consisted in oral surveys, time-keeping and analyzing its results, optimizing time planning with the help of fighting with time absorbents technics and revealing its real amount to achieve the objective of preparation for examinations. The article works out and proves the algorithm of calculating the real resource of time needed to prepare for examinations, that was tested in student groups and showed its effectiveness on the basis of the examinations’ results.

The article considers the massification of higher education in post-Soviet Russia and shows its special aspects against the background of the studentship history in our country from 1917 to 2017. The main cause of the boom in the sphere of higher education at the turn of the century is the social and economic transformation of the society. The emergence of private universities and fee-based education in the public sector of higher education provided opportunities for broad segments of society. The unmet demand for higher education has resulted in an upsurge in the interest to higher education among the society. The similar boom and wave-like dynamics may be traced regarding postgraduate training due to long lasting deficit. The paper presents the results of comparing student body dynamics in universities, postgraduate and doctoral schools and shows the boom synchronicity at the levels of universities and postgraduate schools.

Intensification of research work at engineering universities of Russian Federation leads to the increase of publication activity of graduate and PhD students in high-impact English language journals. However, the level of academic writing skills still remains rather low. On one hand, it results from the fact that the majority of applicants to engineering institutions have only basic knowledge of a foreign language. On the other hand, the curriculums of most Russian universities do not include developing academic writing skills as a stand-alone discipline or a part of the “Foreign Language” discipline. This paper aims at considering the main constituents of academic writing in a foreign language, such as the current state policy in higher education, the content of academic writing for engineering specialties, the publication process participants, the available resources for developing and improving the required skills in the realities of university language education; as well as identifying the external factors which create favorable conditions for developing academic writing skills of engineering students.

Through the analysis of the positions taken in the discussion on Academic Writing, the article shows that the experience of Academic Writing adopted from Anglo-Saxon educational practices in many Russian universities is based on the traditional EAP (English for Academic Purposes) methods which have been systematically criticized for text-centricity and cultural universalism. The critical revision of the traditional EAP methods requires implementing a discourse analytical approach and cultural relativism in Academic Writing course. A review of critical studies on Academic Writing concludes that the criticism of the traditional EAP methods is developed on the basis of concepts worked in the Russian rhetoric tradition by researchers of the Bakhtin circle. The article points out that in the Russian educational context the EAP experience is to be implemented through a discourse analytical approach that has been adopted in the EAP practices in response to criticism. The concepts developed in the Russian rhetorical tradition are required to apply a discourse analytical approach in the Academic Writing course in Russian universities.

The system of “big challenges” formulated in the “Strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation” is projected by the authors on the model of regional technical university. This projection is mediated by the concretization of the system of big challenges with regard to the social and economic development of a separate region of Russia (Komi Republic). An attempt to explicate the value basis of the system of “big calls” has been undertaken. The article considers the methods of embedding the value axiomatics of “big challenges” into the value profile of university organizational culture. There is a distinction between civilization and globalist paradigms of Russia positioning, as well as a distinction between well-being and security as two strategies of values generalization. In defining the development strategy of the regional technical university in the context of “big challenges,” the modus of values and the modus of action are highlighted. According to the modus of values, the expediency of focus on the “second scenario” of development provided for in the “Strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation” (optimistic) is justified. The authors emphasize the possibility of effective reflection of the value axiomatics of “big challenges” by the university community due to a special technology of monitoring and adjusting the university organizational culture referred to as “value-competence parallelepiped”.

The article justifies the effectiveness of value-focused education as a strategic approach in education, integrating on a value basis the advantages of subject, personality and practice-oriented education. The axiological triad of university values: veritism, personalism, patriotism is considered as the corresponding value basis. The key structural contradiction of engineering education – between the requirements of the innovative economy to the content of modern engineering education and the environmental imperative – is identified and analyzed. The authors make the case for justifying the value profile of university organizational culture, and propose to refer to it as “axiologics of the university”. They also examine an essential distinction between “value” and “purpose” phenomena as a basis for an operational definition of “value.” Value ambivalence of the phenomenon of engineering is considered. The authors propose to interpret the Heidegger solution of the “question of technology” with regard to a dual challenge facing engineering education: training of a professional – on the one hand, and development of a personality – on the other hand. The authors consider university as a source and model of innovative economy, explore the phenomenon of the “innovation chain”.

The article highlights the need to supplement the basic parameters of engineering education with an axiological component. The authors emphasize that the main problem of the current higher technical education is not the quality of professional competencies, but low humanization, which results in an underestimated social significance of engineering professions, as well as a focus on extracting benefits without taking into account the consequences of man-made impacts. The process of humanization of engineering education is possible with its value modification through the development of axiological competencies. The authors substantiate the structure of axiological competences, give the results of expert analysis of their content features in relation to higher technical education, define safety as a key concept in the interpretation of the essence of axiological competences of the engineering professional field. The analysis of domestic and foreign studies of the concept of «safety» as a value, system competence and purpose of engineering education is given, the term «save-attitude» is highlighted. The process of formation of axiological competences in higher education is a longitudinal educational work, an example of which is the educational program «Life-orientation workshop» approved by the authors. The article suggests possible means of diagnostics of axiological competences components and ways of estimation of their development, describes a pedagogical experiment, the results of which allow them to draw a conclusion about the effectiveness of both the educational program and monitoring forms of diagnostics of axiological competencies.

The article addresses the issues related to digitalization in education and in this context – using of its achievements in the inclusive education.

The authors analyze the implementation of digital technologies in the educational system, the benefits and risks of digitalization. The most important advantage of digitalization is its applicability in the system of inclusive education. The common ground between the inclusive approach and the use of digital technologies in the education of people with disabilities is studied. Digitalization in the modern world also influences on the civic engagement. In addition, digital citizenship makes it possible to develop professional competencies, ethical standards of culture among the young generation, in particular, among people with disabilities.

In this article, the authors study the development of psychological, pedagogical, and communicative competencies of pedagogues required in inclusive education. The approaches to the organization of advanced training for teachers in professional educational institutions are shown.

Digital educational technologies have undoubted benefits. If these technologies are used correctly in educational activities, they can help pedagogues to exempt from routine work, and to facilitate the fulfillment of educational tasks for children with disabilities. In order to do this, the entire process of digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence must be mastered. The main thing is to remember that “person” should be in the center of attention during the process of digitalization of socio-political processes.

This study is aimed to reveal the improvement in the competency of productive teachers of both state and private vocational high schools in Sleman Regency after participating in a self-development program in terms of psychological maturity and socio-cultural aspects. This study was carried out in two state vocational high schools SMKN 1 Sedayu and SMKN 1 Seyegan, and one private vocational high school SMK Muhammadiyah Pakem. It was a qualitative study in nature using interview and documentation as the means of collecting the data. Fifteen productive teachers of the three vocational high schools with expertise in Building Engineering Drawing (BED) were purposively selected to be the research subjects. The obtained data in the form of interview tapescripts, photos, and documents were triangulated to ensure data validity. The data were then analyzed systematically through three main stages including open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The results show that through self-development, the BED productive teachers in state vocational high schools can improve their pedagogical and professional competencies. In addition, this program also develops their knowledge and skills in the areas of curriculum, expertise, technology, as well as teaching strategies and methods. Even so, in the case of BED productive teachers in private vocational high schools, this self-development program does not significantly improve their competencies.

The article describes the technology of virtual modeling which is used as a tool to improve the quality of engineering education. The authors propose an approach to the creation of a virtual technological laboratory prototype for studying the processes of organic dyes production in vAcademia software environment. The basic programming environment vAcademia was used to create the laboratory. To create the elements of the laboratory, the tools of various systems were used such as two- and three-dimensional design systems SketchUp, AutoCAD, COMPASS-3D; graphic and video editors: Adobe Photoshop, the GIMP, Photoscape, Windows Movie Maker, SONY Vegas Pro; visual simulation tool for dynamic systems SIMUL8; software for working with tables and text Microsoft Office. The virtual laboratory was created in order to simulate the real laboratory environment and the processes produced in it, as well as to simulate the learning environment in which students transform their theoretical knowledge into practical skills. The test researches on an assessment of the quality of education, with use of the developed communicative and educational environment in the form of virtual space of technological laboratory on studying of processes of production of organic dyes, showed its increase by 15,6%.