Konstantin Markelov Comments on Necessity of More State-Funded Places

Yesterday, on January 15, the President of Russia delivered the address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow. Today, ASU Rector Konstantin Markelov has shared his opinion on one of the initiatives, put forward by Vladimir Putin.

“The number of school graduates will be increasing in the next few years. In light of this, we must ensure equal and fair access to free intramural university education. Therefore, I suggest that the number of university scholarships be increased every year. Moreover — what I am going to say next is very important, the priority in this matter must be given to regional universities, especially the regions that are lacking doctors, teachers and engineers,” said the President.

During his speech, Vladimir Putin also stressed:

“Of course, we must not simply enroll more students but boost the development of regional universities with support from businesses and employers. In particular, we must strengthen their training, research and social infrastructure, as well as improve the system of training and advanced training of teachers for regional universities so that students receive up-to-date knowledge and can have successful careers in their regions.”

“The employment market is changing rapidly, with new professions appearing and higher requirements made to the existing ones. Our universities must be able to respond to these changes flexibly and quickly. I believe that third-year students must be offered an opportunity to choose a new path or curriculum, including related professions. This is not easy to do, but we must indeed do this. To ensure that talented and decent people play a major or leading role in our national development, we have launched the Russia — Land of Opportunity project. Over 3.5 million people have taken part in its competitions and Olympiads. We will continue to improve this system.”

Today, Rector of Astrakhan State University Konstantin Markelov has shared his opinion with journalists of the State TV & Radio Company “Lotus” on the President’s position concerning the annual increase of state-funded places in regional universities.

“It is a very important issue, because those state-funded places that are assigned for in-demand majors do not fully meet the needs of regions — we face severe shortage of pedagogical and engineering majors. From the total of 3,725 students that were enrolled at ASU this year, 1,700 received university scholarships. We are interested in employer-sponsored enrollment — this year saw only 83 people enrolled by this scheme. For a specialist-to-be, it’s not only about free education but also about guarantees of being employed about and a solution of HR problems for enterprises. It’s necessary to launch the system of employer-sponsored education this year; as for extra places for the next year, we are right now solving this issue for those majors that are really in-demand today. Our prospective students want to do programmes in management, engineering, economy and logistics. However, unfortunately, some of these popular majors have no state-funded places, which is wrong.”

According to Konstantin Markelov, today the RF Ministry of Science and Higher Education is changing the principle of application for control numbers of enrollment at state-funded places. The Rector explains — the application, submitted by the university, must be approved by the region.

“And it’s right that the region is involved in it. We must understand where our graduates go to work, and the system of employer-sponsored education gives an opportunity to implement such a project. It is important that the President mentioned it in his address, and it means that the public opinion had been heard. At all the meetings that were held throughout the past year — the summer and winter Island, meetings at VUZPROMEXPO2019 — rectors of HEIs many times said that to the RF Minister of Science and Higher Education. We need to change the system, and it’s good that the President heard us and gave respective tasks. I hope that it will be implemented in near future, and Astrakhan State University is ready to participate in these projects.”