Modern Russian University: Key Models Of Development In Era Of Globalization

What are the main prerequisites for the emergence of fundamentally new models of the university development in the 21st century?

What type of the University is the most suitable for the training of Russian specialists that would ensure progressive and scientific-technological development of society and preserve humanistic values in the context of the new technological paradigm?

Which model of the university development in the 21st century can be considered relevant and adequate in the context of current and foreseeable future realities?

What approach is becoming the most promising in the training of Russian specialists in the 21st century?

Major prerequisites for the emergence of fundamentally new models of the university development in Russia in the 21stcentury

Being an institution of the cultural reproduction and the transmission of values, the university inevitably mirrors in its forms and models of development the specificity of national cultures; peculiarities of understanding and interpretation of traditional institutions and cultural values; general trends in social, scientific, social and cultural values; technological, economic and political processes occurring in the world.

The main prerequisites for the emergence of fundamentally new models in the 21st century are: a shift in the ontology of education in the context of the information society, characterized by a change in space – “topos” and in the time of human existence – “temporality”; the formation of the fourth technological paradigm with its global trends (artificial intelligence, robotics, etc.); acceleration of the scientific and technological progress that drastically transforms the world within a generation and creates a gap in the labor market supply and demand; specific features of the social and economic development of the country, which are distinguished by the specificity of dominant technical and economic structures; the specificity of the human capital and the national culture and, consequently, the social and cultural codes contained in each national culture, which are the distinctive benchmarks for the university development model.

The above-mentioned prerequisites clarify the presence of existing models of the university development and condition the emergence of new promising models corresponding to today’s realities. In this regard, it is obvious that the contemporary Russian education should meet the realities and challenges in era of globalization.

Key models of Russian university development in the 21stcentury

The purpose of the study requires us to identify an approach to describing the existing institutional diversity of models and categories of universities in relation to the Russian reality. The analysis of university education in a number of countries reveals that one of the most common approaches to the institutional differentiation is the criterion of the universities’ participation in research activities, which determines their research potential, which, in the authors’ view, is the most justified for achieving the purpose of the study.

According to the current Russian legislation, three categories of universities are officially recognized: classical universities, national research universities, and federal universities (Federal Law…, 2012).

Meanwhile, we should note that in addition to the above categories, there are also categories not listed in the legislation (regional, international) whose emergence is conditioned by the necessity to respond to the challenges and educational needs of the individual, society and state in the 21st century. According to the researchers (Efimov, 2016; Zapesotsky, 2003), there are now reasonable prerequisites both for the development and transformation of existing universities and for the emergence of a new type of a university. The analysis of the current sources (Pan’kova, 2007; Zaharov, 2015) regarding the available models shaping the educational landscape of the Russian education allows us to state a general pattern, which is manifested in their diversity and evolution and describes the educational landscape in the era of globalization and technological transformation. A brief review of the models presented below confirms the above thesis.

Traditional university models centered on the educational improvement tend to focus on training for science, education, industry and services, as well as on liberal principles of higher education provision.

National research university models constructed on the basis of a classical university and focused on meeting the criteria of this national model: the amount of research and development at the university; the number of PhD theses and doctorates completed at the university; the number and the range of educational programs offered; the number of full-time and postgraduate students; the number of researchers and higher education teachers; the impact of the university on the higher education system.

The project-based university models incorporated the provisions of the research and entrepreneurial models of universities, focus on a project-product approach aimed at fulfilling one-off orders for the education and research market.

Models of research universities targeted by a number of criteria: a certain number of grants the university receives, availability of undergraduate programs, being in the list of the best universities in terms of the level of the federal financial support for research and development work.

Regional university models designed to meet the region’s needs in science, education, services and production.

Corporate university models involving a well-developed training system for the staff of a particular company, which can combine both modules delivered by company experts and adapted modules from external training providers.

Given the diversity of emerging models of the university development in the 21st century and the experience of their evolution, it can be argued that the modern Russian academic society is engaged in the search for a new model of the university development, which is adequate in the context of the new technological stage. The search for a new model of the university development, which is typical for the Russian Federation, is caused, in the authors’ point of view, by the expansion of higher education institutions’ spheres of activity and the need to compete for leadership in the global market of educational services and innovations.

Considering that the new technological paradigm fundamentally alters social and labor relations and the instruments of labor market regulation in general, as well as the fact that the concept of education is grounded in global values derived from the understanding of the unity of man, nature and society in their diversity, following (Efimov, 2016; Zapesotsky, 2003) we propose that higher education system should be modified by supplementing innovative processes with humanistic (Pan’kova, 2007) and culture-transmitting (Efimov, 2016) functions.

In addition, it should be noted that in the context of a changing formation, where post-industrial society is centered around knowledge for the purpose of a social control and management of the innovations and alterations generating new social structures and relations, there is an emerging imperative to change the approach to the training of Russian specialists in the 21st century.

One can suggest that such an approach to the training of Russian specialists in the 21st century could be the hermeneutic approach. In the opinion of the authors, it is the latter that has a great potential for comprehending the phenomenon of man, for such an approach can 1) set the required guidelines for the development of society and become the ground for many technologies and techniques designed to provide an adequate understanding of different disciplines; 2) be an irreplaceable component of an intellectual activity arrangement, characterized by dialectical thinking, ensuring the integrity of world outlook and the creative person development.

In the context of the neural-net technological revolution of the 21st century, when the technological progress and the development of information and communication technologies inevitably facilitate the dominance of exact and natural sciences, the model of the innovative academic university can be regarded as a promising one for the modern Russian university development in the framework of the hermeneutic approach.

Such a model can be outlined as a complex self-organizing system in terms of which the fundamental education of a traditional classical university and research activities are complemented by the vision of transforming the university into an innovative, entrepreneurial structure, integrating the idea of entrepreneurship and autonomy, freedom in the organization of educational process and pluralism of educational models and taking into account the value, humanistic and cultural-translating functions of the university.

In the light of the emergence of a new model of the university development, the question of what type of university is the most suitable for training Russian specialists who would ensure progressive and scientific and technological development of society and preserve humanistic values in the new technological order is of particular importance. Since this question touches upon the problem of an unavoidable generational change of universities, it appears appropriate to consider it in the context of the societal phase transformation.

University of tomorrow: from “the first-generation university” to “the fourth-generation university”

Relying on the argument of Zapesotsky (2003) who claims that the formation of different models of the university education is a historically conditioned process with a cyclic nature, the authors consider cyclicality of this process as a natural and historically predetermined phenomenon.

Given that the essence of each cycle is shaped, on the one hand, by actual contradictions arising from the inertia of educational systems and, on the other hand, by the dynamic development of reality, changes in the particular social and cultural situation corresponding to pre-industrial, industrial, post-industrial and cognitive social and economic development phases of society, this cyclicity results in changes in both educational content and university type.

This brings the authors to the idea that the changes currently taking place in universities should be interpreted in the terms of the phase transformation of society and, accordingly, to state that there are four generations of universities corresponding to different phases of societal development. In this regard, the pre-industrial phase of society development corresponds to the first-generation university; the industrial phase – “the second-generation university”; the post-industrial phase – “the third-generation university”; the cognitive phase – “the fourth-generation university”.

The identified generations of universities, as institutions of society, perform different functions in the context of the phase transformation of society. Whereas “the first-generation university” has mainly an educational function; “the second-generation university” supplements the latter with a research function; and “the third-generation university” complements the function of technology transfer to the end-users as well.

As regards “the fourth-generation university”, the functions of a provider of knowledge about the future and the capitalization of its own knowledge are added to the functions listed above (Efimov, 2016). The transformation is aimed at integrating a new type of university into the market relations and increasing the level of impact on the social and economic society development; the amount of a meaningful and a high-quality research carried out for society.

As for the key features of “the fourth-generation university”, in view of the fact that the conceptual apparatus is only being formed, the latter can only be described in general terms as a university characterized by: firstly, openness, implying absence of age, class, gender, geographical, time and other restrictions, as well as strictly regulated organization of the educational process for all who wish to obtain higher education; secondly, virtualization; thirdly, diversity of educational trajectories; fourthly, delocalization, implying learning in a convenient place thanks to digital technologies of distance learning, etc.

Transformation of the Russian higher education proves to be inevitable

The identified prerequisites for the emergence of conceptually new models of the university development in Russia in the 21st century suggest an inevitable transformation of the Russian higher education, taking into account the specific nature of the new technological paradigm.

The development of the Russia’s educational system is occurring in the framework of social and cultural transformations, mirroring the contradictions of social and economic, spiritual and moral processes ongoing in society in the era of globalization. A study of the historical experience of the development of universities shows that the university model stems from complex evolutionary processes that go hand in hand with the development and phase transformation of society.

Emergence of a new type of a university and its model of development appears to be a historically conditioned phenomenon

The new type of university and the alteration of its development model is a natural, historically determined process caused, on the one hand, by the contradictions arising from the educational systems’ inertia and, on the other hand, by the dynamic development of reality, the change in the specific social and cultural situation, accompanied by the technological paradigm change.

The transformations happening today regarding the emergence of innovative universities should be interpreted in the context of the phase transformation of society, allowing us to distinguish four different generations of universities corresponding to different phases of social development. The university of the future is the so called “the fourth -generation university”, which can only be described, as its conceptual and terminological apparatus is still in its formative stages.

Innovative academic university is likely to be the most promising model of university development in the 21st century in the context of current and foreseeable realities

The process of shaping the institutional diversity of the Russian higher education system can be represented as a combination and interaction of a liberal approach, focusing on fundamental education and research, and a pragmatic one, implying transformation of the university into an entrepreneurial structure producing highly qualified specialists in demand in the labor market.

Considering that technological progress and development of information and communication technologies inevitably promote the dominance of exact and natural sciences, it can be stated that it is the model of an innovative academic university that can be regarded as the most promising for a modern Russian university. This model requires further study within the framework of the hermeneutic approach.

Hermeneutic approach turns out to be the most far-reaching approach in the context of training specialists for the Russian digital economy

In training specialists for the Russian Federation in the light of the challenges of today, it is advisable to rely on the hermeneutic approach, since the latter, thanks to its tools and its emphasis on the openness of theoretical foundations, can provide a continuous build-up of working tools, allowing any knowledge to be seen both in separately or multidisciplinary.