Valery Falkov welcomed the participants of the Sixth Professorial Forum

The Head of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia Valery Falkov spoke at the plenary session of the VI Professorial Forum “Science and Education as the basis of Russia’s development: Personnel for the innovative economy”. The event brought together more than 2.5 thousand representatives of the scientific community, rectors and university staff, leaders of business associations.

Welcoming the participants, Valery Falkov recalled that in his Message to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a number of conceptual proposals for updating the higher education system, taking into account the preservation of all the best that was in the Soviet education system and the experience of recent decades.

In the first part of his speech, the Minister spoke about the tasks of updating the higher education system, which from this academic year is being tested in six leading universities of the country. The first of them is the training of highly qualified personnel for the labor market.

“Along with preserving the fundamental and interdisciplinary nature of knowledge, it is also important to ensure the rapid withdrawal of specialists to the labor market, the opportunity for their continuous professional growth. Educational programs should be more flexible, providing comfortable conditions for employers to participate in their development,” he stressed.

Another important task for all universities is to ensure Russia’s technological leadership in the international arena. According to the Minister, in this regard, it is necessary to pay special attention to the training of engineering and technical personnel. Including in terms of deeper interaction of universities with enterprises of the real sector of the economy.

And the third function that universities have faced at all times is the education of students, the formation of a certain picture of the world in rapidly changing conditions.

At the end of his speech, the Head of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia congratulated his colleagues on the upcoming Day of the Higher School Teacher, which is celebrated on November 19.

“More than 200 thousand teachers work in our country. More than half of them have the degrees of candidates and doctors of sciences, a significant part have the academic title of professor. Dear friends, I want to wish you happiness, health, well—being and, most importantly, grateful students,” the Minister concluded.

Every year the forum discusses the key issues facing science and education, determines the priorities of their development, analyzes the best practices in this area.

“We will prepare concrete proposals to a number of ministries and departments at the forum venues. It is necessary to discuss the training of engineering and technical personnel for the new innovative development of Russia, including starting from school. It is also necessary to constructively consider those innovations that were created within the framework of the Higher Attestation Commission under the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia,” said Vladimir Filippov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Professorial Assembly, President of the Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Chairman of the Higher Attestation Commission under the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia