Astrakhan State University Raises Attractiveness of Agricultural Education

Konstantin Markelov, the ASU Acting Rector, presented a report at an enlarged meeting of the Council for implementing activities, aimed at development of the Astrakhan agro-industrial complex, on the industry outcomes of 2018 and development prospects for 2019.

A panel discussion, which involved economic entities and representatives of local self-government bodies of the regional municipal entities, was attended by Sergey Morozov, the Astrakhan Governor ad interim. The speakers, including Aleksey Galkin, the Acting Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Astrakhan region and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, as well as heads of subordinate bodies — stressed many times the need for providing the agricultural sector of the region with highly-skilled human resources.

This issue was considered in a report of Konstantin Markelov, the ASU Acting Rector. He noted that the university has been training specialists for the agricultural sector since 2001, and currently it runs 6 BA programmes, 3 MA programmes and 5 Ph.D. programmes, involving about 550 students.

Systems thinking, developed organizational skills, deep knowledge of IT, biotechnologies and alternative energy are important competences of an agrarian specialist. According to Konstantin Markelov, it is already clear from meetings with heads of agricultural enterprises that there is less demand for highly-specialized specialists and, on the contrary, all-round professionals are highly-prized. So, Astrakhan State University is ready to address this modern challenge and revise its programmes with regard to training multi-skilled engineers.