At the end of 2024, the Russian Government began developing a new Strategy for the Development of Education until 2036. More than 650 experts from the field of education, representatives of public organizations, the business community, development institutions and government bodies are participating in this work. The preparation of the Strategy is planned to be completed by March 1, 2025. The Free Economic Society of Russia dedicated the Abalkin Readings scientific forum «Model of Economic Education: Development Strategy» to proposals for the reform of higher economic education in Russia. Forum participants presented proposals and recommendations on how economic education should develop.
Developing standards
At the end of last year, a congress of rectors was held, at which representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science reported that they were recording a significant surge in interest from applicants and students in economic education, but the economy does not need such a number of specialists. Budget places in economic universities will continue to be reduced. In part, this situation is due to the fact that many universities graduate specialists who do not meet the requirements of the economy. Federal state educational standards (FSES) in economics are too formal and allow universities great freedom in choosing a program, which is why it is impossible to bring the education of economists in the country to a certain unified basic level, says Stanislav Prokofiev, Rector of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. As a result, graduates with the same qualifications in their diplomas are very different.
«We believe that the FSES should be uniform for both universities that are required to adhere to federal standards and for those that develop their own educational standards. In this regard, it is necessary to combine the efforts of both the academic and university communities, and such authoritative organizations as the Free Economic Society, in order to concentrate on developing the fourth generation of FSES. First of all, it is necessary to clearly define the core of economic education, formulate it as clearly and systematically as possible. I am absolutely convinced that it will be difficult to do this without the participation of scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences, so I see the immediate main task within the 38th group of specialties (Economy and Management) as combining efforts to clearly develop a new standard and discuss it with the professional community,” says Stanislav Prokofiev.
In 2024, more than half a million applicants applied for admission to economics departments, and just over 14,500 budget places were available.
«One of the priority tasks of creating an updated model of economic education is synchronization with the national qualifications system, which, of course, will require reworking the content of professional standards, qualification requirements, the emergence of some professions and the disappearance of others. Harmonization of the higher education system and the national qualifications system is the key to the successful implementation of this reform. And here, of course, it will be necessary to seat an even greater number of actors at the negotiating table, because interdepartmental work and interaction between different departments are needed,» said Ekaterina Kharchenko, Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education and Member of the Board of the Russian Higher Economic Society.
The draft law on the creation of federal educational and methodological associations (FUMO) in the system of higher, general and secondary vocational education, adopted by the State Duma in the first reading in the fall of 2024, is aimed at developing a single educational space in Russia. «Students who are transferred from one university to another today are faced with a variety of educational programs. This does not allow maintaining the unity of the educational field of Russia. The draft law provides for the improvement of the system of scientific and methodological support for personnel training in order to strengthen the unity of the educational space, and also obliges the inclusion of representatives of employers and their associations, federal and regional authorities in the composition of educational and methodological associations in the system of secondary vocational and higher education. The adoption of the draft law will allow FUMO to become a platform for uniting all actors in the educational process and will consolidate its role as a participant in these relations,» noted Ekaterina Kharchenko, calling on experts to actively join the discussion of the draft Strategy for the Development of Education until 2036.
Best Practices
A major reform of higher education will directly affect both the quality and content of educational programs, including the major group 38.00.00 «Economics and Management». Now the expert community is waiting for the results of the pilot experiment, in which six leading universities are participating, recalled Ekaterina Kharchenko.
«We see that, without waiting for the results of this pilot, many leading universities and leaders in economic education are taking responsibility for developing a new model of economic education, creating their own transformation trajectories and offering unique models of economic education that will be useful for the entire sector of economic education,» the State Duma deputy noted.
In particular, the Financial University created pairs of specialties: Economist — Lawyer, Economist — Digital Specialty, Economist — Foreign Language and some others.
«These educational products are in demand, students are interested in studying them, employers are actively looking for such students. We are currently graduating the first class in these paired profiles, and almost all of them are already employed in their third year,” said Rector Stanislav Prokofiev.
Another innovation of the Financial University is network programs with leading engineering universities. The program Economist-Engineer has been implemented with Bauman University, a similar scheme is used with the University of Land Management Engineers, and the program Economics and Finance in Healthcare is planned with the Sechenov Medical University.
Network cooperation is also being implemented by Plekhanov University. “We are developing a program for training economists-engineers in the field of mechanical engineering with MISIS, in the field of transport technologies with the University of Transport, and in the field of Bioeconomics with the Biotechnology University,” said Rector of Plekhanov Vitaly Minashkin.
Rector of the State University of Management Vladimir Stroyev spoke about the experiment that his university is conducting. 100% of students participate in project work, as the university is a federal innovative platform for project-based learning. Authorities will study the methodology, description of processes, their pros, cons and bottlenecks. “Now we can say that project-based learning has allowed us to attract prospective employers much more actively, that is, to involve them in the educational and prospective processes of practice from the first year. I will say just a few words about what this looks like. We attract prospective employers to the programs of construction management, transport management and other of our former engineering and economic areas. He assigns a curator to the groups, which include the guys, and the curators lead these groups until graduation. Instead of coursework and a diploma, they have project work. Different numbers of people are in the groups – depending on the prospective employer. One day a week is completely dedicated to project work. In the course of such work, a lot of interesting and difficult things happen, but in the end, by the time they graduate, the guys are usually already employed in one way or another,” said the rector of the State University of Management.
Stanislav Prokofiev reported that the Financial University is developing an industry program for training niche specialists through the mechanism of creating basic departments. The program’s partners are banks, corporations and government bodies. In particular, the university is launching an educational program for the master’s degree in Economics and Finance of the Construction Sphere in collaboration with the Kazan State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering under the leadership of the new basic department of the Ministry of Construction of Russia.
Specialization, textbooks and programs
One of the areas of reforming domestic economic education should be updating the content of educational programs. Preparing textbooks for future economists is a serious task, believes Vice President of the Russian Economic Society, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Glazyev. “The modern economy is qualitatively more complex than what students see in textbooks. Theories of scientific and technological progress, innovation processes – what real economic development is built around today – remain outside the scope of economic education. We also need to move away from linking teaching to certain types of economic equilibrium, clearly explain to students that equilibrium is good, but it only exists in theory, and in rare cases – in practice. Life is much more complicated,” the scientist noted.
According to Georgy Kleiner, Deputy Scientific Director of the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Presidium of the Russian Economic Society, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the key challenges of the time is the fragmentation of economic reality, the lack of connection between its various components. Economic education must find an answer to it. «We need a systemic economic education that will allow future economists to see the economy as a set of interconnected individual subsystems. First of all, we need to teach the connection between economic theory, economic policy, economic management and practice. This is not happening today. Modern education presents economic systems as «stripes»: here are taxes, there is personnel management, and so on. They do not form a three-dimensional structure. I propose combining different disciplines in the form of so-called duet classes, when, for example, both tax specialists and business management specialists work in one department,» the scientist says.
In order to develop recommendations for improving economic education in the country, it is important to ensure the consolidation of efforts by representatives of the educational community, business, public associations, and government bodies, experts from the VEO of Russia are convinced.
The proposals voiced at the Abalkin Readings scientific forum were reflected in the forum resolution, which will be presented to the working group on the development of the Strategy for the Development of Education until 2036.
Author: Olga Remova
