Is there life in monocities and how to export educational services?

10:36, November 29, 2017

Experts discussed the role of regional higher education systems in the development of regions

At the XII International Conference «Russian Regions in the Focus of Changes», experts discussed what connects a region and a university, and how to find new points of contact.

Monocities and the role that universities play in them have become one of the key discussion topics. The director of the Nizhny Tagil Technological Institute - UrFU branch, Vladislav Potanin shared his successful experience. The Institute develops in close connection with the enterprises of the city. Most of the student's work is practice-oriented. An example of this is the development of a remote control panel for a combat vehicle.

«We have a whole range of technical majors that could satisfy our customers. Joint programmes are realized both in the military-industrial complex and in the area of civilian industry, the director of the Nizhny Tagil Technological Institute — UrFU branch Vladislav Potanin said. Recently we have licensed "Mechatronics", "Heat Power Industry" at the request of enterprises».

Next year in Nizhny Tagil and other monocities of the Sverdlovsk region there will be a joint student expedition of UrFU and the laboratory «Development of Universities» of NRU HSE. Researchers are interested in what the mission of the university in a monocity is and whether universities in such cities can keep and attract young people.

The participants of the symposium were interested in the report of the young researcher from Iran, junior researcher of the laboratory «Problems and Models of University Development»

of UrFU Iman Hosseini. It was devoted to the application of methods of machine learning to study such an actual problem as global educational migration. The proposed model implemented in the software has both a scientific result and can be used for practical purposes to expand the export of educational services.

In total, 18 experts from Ekaterinburg, Khanty-Mansisk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, as well as Serbia, Iran and Colombia took part in the symposium. The organizer was the laboratory of «Problems and Models of University Development» UrFU.

Reference

XII International Conference «Russian Regions in the Focus of Changes» (November 16-18, 2017, Ekaterinburg).
Organisers: Ural Federal University, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Analytical Center «Expert», Expert Ural Business Magazine.

For many years the conference has been one of the biggest discussion platforms in the Urals covering issues of regional development and involving representatives of executive authorities, academia, medium and large industrial business leaders from different regions. Every year leading Russian economists take part in the conference.