The relevance of studying the generational functions of academic and administrative staff and students is due to the need to study the potential of generational communities and its use in the development of modern universities. Understanding the problems of intergenerational relations in universities is closely related to the identification and disclosure of the content of the functions of generations of educational communities. The purpose of the article is to examine the generational functions of university educational communities and the importance of these functions for universities. The possibilities of applying the methodology of the generational-functional approach, which involves the allocation of the dominant function of the generation, are substantiated. A theoretical interpretation of the concepts of the generation of the educational community, its social subjectivity and functions is proposed. The features of the generational structure of academic and administrative staff and students are presented. The author’s interpretation of the set of functions of the generations of these educational communities is given and the dominant functions of generational communities are substantiated. The practical significance of generational and functional analysis of educational communities for the development of the university’s “age and generation policy” aimed at unlocking the potential of generations and harmonizing intergenerational relations is shown.

Critical thinking is considered to be one of the key educational outcomes, and its development is an important goal of higher education worldwide. However, the question of whether universities contribute to the development of students’ critical thinking and the extent of this contribution remains open. The aim of this study is to examine the role of students’ behavior in the development of critical thinking during their university studies. The study utilizes data from two waves of a longitudinal study conducted in eight selective Russian universities (N = 888). The results indicate that students’ critical thinking levels increased over one year of study, although the effect size is relatively small. Moreover, none of the aspects of educational behavior contribute to an increase in critical thinking levels. On the contrary, aspects such as creating a positive self-image and extracurricular involvement are negatively associated with the development of this skill. These findings may be explained by the characteristics of the educational process in Russian universities, where passive teaching practices still dominate. Based on the obtained results, the article provides several recommendations for fostering students’ critical thinking.

In the context of the transformation of higher education and the shift from knowledge transmission toward the creation of a developmental educational environment, the role of the university instructor as a key agent becomes increasingly significant. The instructor shapes students’ academic motivation and their subjective perception of educational quality. Despite growing interest in the transformation of pedagogical roles, the design of educational environments, and the management of student motivation, these phenomena are often studied in isolation. This creates a methodological gap between the structural characteristics of the educational environment and the dynamics of students’ academic motivation. The relevance of this study lies in the need for a comprehensive approach to analyzing the perceived image of the instructor, the educational environment, and students’ motivational profiles.

The aim of the article is to examine the relationships between the perceived image of the instructor, students’ assessments of the educational environment, and their academic motivation. We hypothesized that students who perceive their instructors positively tend to evaluate the university environment more favorably and demonstrate higher academic motivation. We also assumed that these relationships may vary depending on students’ socio-professional characteristics. The study involved 348 university students from various Russian regions. Data were collected via questionnaire surveys using psychometric tools. The analysis employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, latent profile analysis, as well as comparative and correlational methods.

The novelty of the study lies in the conceptual, methodological, and empirical actualization of the instructor’s image as a key component of the university educational environment and its connection to student academic motivation. Three key dimensions were identified: inspirational-charismatic style, academic integrity, and personal maturity. For the first time, latent profiles of instructor perception were revealed, differing in levels of motivation and satisfaction with the educational environment. The findings extend existing models of educational interaction and have practical implications for designing university environments in which the instructor acts as a facilitator, mentor, and cultural mediator.

The article explores the self-reflection of faculty employed at leading Russian universities about the state and trends in the development of scientific research. The objective of this study was to identify the characteristics of scientific work as perceived by faculty members at universities. This approach facilitates the identification of “pressing points” within the scientific community. The research was conducted via in-depth interviews, in which all questions were open-ended. The informants themselves identified the subjects that, in their opinion, best characterize the state of university science. A total of 60 individuals from four universities participated in the interviews. The subsequent analysis of the results employed the thematic coding method.

The study identified three themes that emerged in the majority of the interviews: the bureaucratization of reporting, funding issues (including grants and government assignments), and difficulties in attracting new researchers to science. A review of interviews suggests a correlation between the increasing administrative burden associated with research reporting and the potential for it to impede the fulfillment of teaching obligations. A decline in research funding has been observed due to the impact of inflation. Ensuring the continued influx of young individuals into science has been identified as a pressing concern. The problems of attracting young people to science are related both to financial aspects and to the prestige of the profession. The study yielded several proposals aimed at mitigating the identified problems of research in universities.

The mission of modern universities includes creating conditions for the development of youth potential, the formation of leadership principles among students, where humanitarian ties between countries are developing and strengthening under the influence of integrative youth initiatives. In Russian-Belarusian student cooperation, humanitarian diplomacy is manifested through grassroots scientific, educational, professional, cultural, sports, social and other projects supported by universities. Despite the desire for a diverse agenda of youth interaction, as defined in the strategic documents of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus and the Union State, in practice, the involvement of students from both countries in international projects seems limited. The article analyzes data from a survey conducted in 2024 of third-year students studying at 12 universities of the Sverdlovsk region (Russia) and 3 higher educational institutions of the Grodno region (Republic of Belarus) (quota sample, quotas are based on gender, training profile, universities; n = 3000; confidence interval 0,95, sampling error < 3%). With more experience of youth cooperation among Belarusian students, third-year students from Russia demonstrate a higher level of interest in various practices of interstate cooperation. The differences in the existing experience of cross-country cooperation between young Russians and Belarusians can be explained through the prism of national characteristics of higher education systems and the specifics of state support for youth activism. The study proves that both Russian and Belarusian students are almost equally ready to participate in international scientific, educational, cultural, environmental events, projects dedicated to global integration and the development of entrepreneurial skills. However, the leadership potential is higher among the interviewed students from Belarus, and the organizational principle is more pronounced. 

The interpretation of competences by teaching staff, university students and employers is of particular interest, given the importance of this concept in the organisation of the educational process. The aim of the study is to establish the proximity of the key participants of the educational process in higher education regarding the essence and content of competences: professional and supraprofessional. Data collection was carried out by means of questionnaire survey and expert interview; theoretical developments of behavioural and functional methodological approaches to studying competences were used in operationalising the concepts. The Cramer’s coefficient (V) and Pearson’s correlation analysis were used to compare the assessments. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted in 2024 in Omsk. Interviewed: (n1) 44 representatives of university teaching staff; (n2) 215 students; (n3) 41 employers. Of the questioned respondents 19 employers and 23 teachers were interviewed. The results showed that teachers’ answers more than other participants of the educational process demonstrate a functional approach in interpreting competences, including professional and supra-professional ones. Employers to a greater extent demonstrate an integral approach to competences, combining functional and behavioural characteristics. The questionnaire survey has shown that among teachers the share of respondents who interpret professional competences not only in such characteristics as: knowledge, skills and abilities, but also through the behavioural models derived from them is much lower than among employers and students. Within the framework of the presented work, the identification of differences in assessments was carried out on the basis of comparing the opinions of three key participants of the educational process with regard to both professional and supraprofessional competences. This allowed us to conduct a multi-subject analysis of the understanding of such an important component of the educational process as competences on the part of the teaching staff, students and employers. The peculiarity of the conducted multi-subject analysis is the experience of interaction in the implementation of educational programmes and employment between the surveyed and interviewed employers, teachers and students. The study contributes to the development of competency-based approach in designing educational programmes. The results obtained can be used in the design of educational programmes and professional standards on the basis of coordination and consideration of the understanding of competences by different participants of the educational process.

The article offers an approach to identifying “agentic” students and graduates in the field of work and employment of university, and analyzes the differences between the respective groups in terms of their educational experience (with an emphasis on higher education) and well-being. To identify agency, understood as an activity related to proactive influence on surrounding structures, we refer to respondents’ self-identification of their current employment status, as well as their experience of project work in the job place (for corporate entrepreneurs). We call “agentic” those respondents who indicated entrepreneurship or self-employment/freelancing as their main source of income (due to the need for them to be agentic by creating a new structure in the economic field and ensure its functioning), as well as corporate entrepreneurs (that is, corporate employees with experience in project leadership). Corporate employees without project leading experience at their main workplace; respondents with partial integration in the labor market (for example, odd jobs); respondents outside the labor market. We found that individuals in “agentic” positions in the labor market are more likely to initiate changes in the educational process at the university, as well as participate in formal and informal organizations at the university and, in general, be proactive in educational activities. They are also characterized by higher levels of well-being. These findings indicate the important role of the university in the formation of educational and professional trajectories against the background of the growing demand for individual agency in conditions of increased variability of social structures (neo-structuration).

The article is devoted to the consideration of a wide range of problems of development of domestic higher education, and, first of all, the problem of continuity in this process. The reason for these discussions was the announcement of the beginning of the next stage of its reform, the current round of which is associated with the adoption of new strategies and programs aimed at achieving the desired scientific and technological leadership of the country. In this regard, an attempt was made to critically understand historical experience, aimed at revealing the roots of negative phenomena in modern Russian higher education. The leading method in this case was a comparative historical analysis of the conditions and circumstances of the formation of prerevolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet modes of higher professional education. It is noted that the key parameters of the pre-revolutionary and Soviet models were determined by their systematic integration into large-scale state projects related to the technological and cultural development of the modern way of life. The root cause of most of the problems in post-Soviet higher education is the collapse of the Soviet project itself, which left the complex subsystem of higher education in a situation of almost complete non-compliance with the new parameters of a sharply simplified social system. For various reasons, a radical reform of the educational sphere did not take place, and as a result, an independent post-Soviet model of higher education did not actually emerge. Instead, we observe a steadily regressing set of fragments of the former Soviet model and selectively borrowed individual elements of the Western model. The permanent reforms that have been ongoing in the meantime have not had the desired effect in the more than a third of a century that they have been implemented. The critical component of the work itself is directed at the inadequacy of the perception of foreign experience, which manifests itself in the mythologization of the Soviet and the fetishization of the Western. As a result, the conclusion is made that the improvement of the sphere of higher education is possible only under the conditions of the adoption and implementation of a project for system-wide development, clearly formulated in interconnected categories of value guidelines and socio-economic goals.