On May 19, in the St. Petersburg branch of the National Research University "Higher School of Economics", a scientific and practical conference "Education and World Cities" started. “The third mission and students” was the key topic chosen this year for discussion within the framework of the program for the eighth time. According to Sergey Kadochnikov, Director of the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, more than 700 people took part in the conference: each of them has chosen a preferred format for themselves - online or offline.
The central event of the first day of work was the plenary session "The third mission of Russian universities: experience and prospects", at the opening of which a greeting from the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Valery Falkov was read.
- Today, along with educational and scientific activities, international universities are implementing the third mission. This direction allows the university to be a center of relevant competencies, to participate in the socio-economic development of territories and to work on the formation of strategic leadership skills, - noted V.N. Falkov.
The audience was addressed by HSE Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov, Vice Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Knyaginin, Head of the Presidential Directorate for Public Projects Sergey Novikov, Deputy Head of Rosmolodezh Andrey Platonov.
The rectors of Russian universities spoke about the experience of implementing the third mission. One of them is Valentin Pugach, rector of Vyatka State University. Valentin Nikolayevich stated that the largest university in the Kirov region has accumulated vast experience in implementing various projects, large and small - for convenience, they can be combined into thematic blocks "Territorial development", "Culture creation", "Public initiatives".
Valentin Pugach thanked HSE Vice-Rector Valeria Kasamara for the informative lecture on the implementation of the third mission at HSE, delivered to VyatSU staff a few months ago in a remote format. Comparison of the conditions of activity in a large metropolitan university with the situation in which the university operates in the region revealed a number of significant differences. Subsidization of the region; different, sometimes low, degree of business and industry development; the absence of head offices of large companies - all this creates significant problems for the regional university, in particular, related to attracting important partners for cooperation. In these conditions, the responsibility increases, the burden of which is borne by the regional university while fulfilling the third mission.
- Against this background, the third mission looks more like an answer to the question: who, if not us? Who, if not us, will develop the Strategy for the socio-economic development of the region? Who, if not us, will conduct various dictations, historical, geographical, economic, and other educational actions? Who, if not us, will work on the development of the art space, the urban environment? - such an emphasis was made by V.N. Pugach.
The rector of one of the leaders of the completed program of flagship universities also made a number of proposals aimed at creating more favorable conditions for the implementation of the third mission in the Russian regions. A large number of special grant programs, the allocation of state assignments to universities for the implementation of the third mission would have a favorable effect on the scale and quality of the most important activity for a modern university. In addition, Valentin Pugach suggested discussing the issues of motivating students and teachers involved in participating in events in relevant areas.
The speaker's speech attracted the interest of the meeting participants: the questions and proposals that were voiced testified to this. Among them is the cooperation of universities in the implementation of the third mission, supported by the rector of Vyatka State University.
Translated by Artemij Sizov
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