Форсайт-портал СФУ (Сибирский федеральный университет)

Higher Education in Russia: Challenges of the XXI Century
Valery S. Efimov and Alla V. Lapteva
Siberian Federal University

Keywords: higher education, post-industrial transition, the crisis of education, socio-anthropological project

Annotation: There are political, social, economic and technological transformation, demographic and cultural processes, described in this article, which define the framework for education reforms in different countries. Understanding the depth and scope of the processes is a necessary basis for development strategy for Russian education. The question about the future model of the Russian higher education and socio-anthropological project in education are also described, and the correct answer – it is an opportunity for Russian education and the country as a whole. In place of the Enlightenment project – «Knowing man» – alternative socio-anthropological projects came in: «A Man-operator», «Creative Man», «Mobile Man». These socio-anthropological projects will determine the content and format of education in the world in the next 20 years. The features of the socio-economic context of higher education in Russia are discussed in this article. «Compression» of industrial sector and the expansion of trade and services sectors, as a result of reforms 90 years, made education system, designed for staffing and management of medium-and hightech industrial economy, an excessive. At the same time, entering the world’s information and cultural space formed values of «consumer society» and educational characteristic of the «information society» in society, especially among young people (including the vision of higher education as a necessary stage in life).
Different scenarios of development of higher education in Russia are also presented in the article. The main «fault line», about which scenarios of transformation in Russian higher education will be determined, is the gap between the economy (staffing requirements) and training system (in structure, content and format of education). This gap causes a high level of «fictitious» and «falsification» in education.

Valery S. Efimov and Alla V. Lapteva. Higher Education in Russia: Challenges of the XXI Century / Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 1 (2011 4) // Krasnoyarsk, 2011