Doctoral Studies in the Context of Global Trends: Problems and Key Factors of Development

The article focuses on the analysis of the current state, problems and key factors in the development of Russian doctoral education in connection with its transition from 2022/2023 academic year to the implementation of a new model in the context of global trends. As a result of analyzing and evaluating statistical data for 2010-2021 and summarizing numerous publications of researchers, the authors conclude that the trend of steady decline in the efficiency of doctoral education over the past decade is a systemic problem. It is proved that the transition to a new model of implementation of doctoral training programs for scientific and scientific-pedagogical staff aimed at improving its effectiveness, strengthening the scientific component and the quality of PhD dissertations is an important and necessary condition, but not sufficient to solve the existing problem. This study is an attempt to systematize the factors affecting the development of doctoral education in Russia, which determine the possibility of creating necessary and sufficient conditions for the effective functioning of the system of training highly qualified personnel. The authors identify three groups of key factors: dynamic changes in the development of the state policy aimed at improving management in the field of training scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel; developed ecosystem of educational and scientific organizations that provide doctoral education, including infrastructure, information, financial, organizational resources and scientific potential; doctoral students with interest and abilities in research activities, possessing a set of competencies necessary for the development of doctoral education. At the same time, such prospective tasks are considered as increasing reputational responsibility of organizations, which offer programs for training scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel; forming effective system of targeted training in doctoral education; developing mechanisms for integration of science, higher education and industry by means of creating consortiums, the incentives for which are laid down in the “Priority 2030” university state support program

Criteria for classifying economic entities as small and medium businesses: russian and foreign practice

The article presents the results of the analysis of the criteria for classifying business entities as small and medium on the basis of legal acts regulating their activities in Russian and foreign practice. It has been shown that there are no uniform approaches to the classification and definition of small and medium-sized businesses in the world practice. The most frequently used indicators include: number of employees, financial indicators (assets / turnover / investment), industry affiliation. The values of quantitative indicators also vary considerably. The lack of a unified system of classifying business entities as small and medium businesses makes it impossible to generate comparable statistical data, and, accordingly, the impossibility of performing a correct comparative analysis of development problems, as well as the performance of this sector of the economy at the global level. In this regard, it seems appropriate to develop a standard of uniform principles and criteria for classifying business entities as small and medium businesses, taking into account development features of individual countries and regions. At the same time, harmonization of approaches to defining the criteria of «small and medium business» should be considered as an important factor in ensuring the comparability of competitive advantages of business entities, as well as the use of best practices and international experience of state support and development of this economic sector

RANKING RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES: HOW TO MEASURE?

The authors propose to use vector representation of university areas of activities for ranking universities. Two novel indices reflecting UN experts’ recommendations are introduced. Based on expert estimates, a priority vector of weights enables to represent the university activity

WHAT KIND OF UNIVERSITY RANKING SYSTEM WE NEED

Taking recent international university ranking trends into account, an analysis of requirements to a ranking system for Russian higher educational institutions was conducted. These requirements were considered in the context of the increase of the competitiveness of Russian universities while retaining the national identity of higher education

Modern Russian Universities: Positioning, Development Trends, Potential to Enhance Competitive Advantages

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