Russian Resurgence: Meeting of the Council for Science and Education

A Two-Part Article on the eve of the Day of Russian Science

A small collection of notable Russian scientists, Sakarov being in the center.

8 February was designated as the Day of Russian Science in 1999, since that date corresponds to the founding of the Russian Academy of Sciences or, as it was then called, the Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg, which was established by order of Emperor Peter the Great. Last year the Academy celebrated its 300th anniversary that resulted in two Gym articles (One & Two), and this year’s observance will also consist of two articles: The first being the Meeting of the Council for Science and Education and the second combining the Presentation of Presidential Prizes in Science and Innovation for Young Scientists and Putin’s meeting with the laureates. As with the institution of specially designated days that celebrate particular vocations that began during the Soviet period, it was decided to expand them in an effort to raise Russian patriotism and the same could be said of the expansion of academic competitions as part of an overall program related to the need to resurrect Russia from the catastrophic 1990s and blow to the national psyche the collapse of the USSR caused. With Russia’s national pride reestablished, there’s still a need to continue its economic resurrection that Putin and team have based on people centered development that begins with support for families and education. For those watching, a clear gap is growing between the scientific accomplishments of Russia and China versus their main rival the Outlaw US Empire, which could be an article in itself, and results from the vast differences in policy emphasis. The meeting notes you’re about to read will inform you of Russia’s policy direction, while part two will look at practical policy results:

Vladimir Putin: Dear colleagues, good afternoon!

We gathered on the eve of the Russian Science Day. First of all, I congratulate you, the country's scientists, research teams, and technology teams on this holiday, and wish you successful and productive work for the benefit of Russia and all our people.

How to increase the role of science in solving national problems was discussed in detail at the last meeting of our council. And today, the agenda includes issues of technical education. Training of engineering personnel and skilled workers in priority areas of scientific and technological development in Russia, where new national technology leadership projects are being launched.

At the end of last year, the Government and the Russian Academy of Sciences were instructed to significantly expand these issues and add additional measures in order to ensure not only the country's self-sufficiency in the most important sectors, but also the superiority of domestic high-tech technologies and products in vital areas.

I repeat, the goal is very specific: in the field of technological development, Russia must be competitive in key areas. To do this, we need specialists who are able to generate unique solutions, including for new and emerging industries, and who are ready to use advanced design and engineering methods.

I would like to add that working professions in industry and many other areas also require knowledge of the most complex technological systems and engineering competencies. Training such personnel is one of the most important tasks for all levels of education.

I would like to emphasize that in recent years we have been systematically developing schools, colleges and universities. But the situation in the economy and in global competition is also changing rapidly. Taking into account the acute and sensitive shortage of personnel for enterprises, it is necessary to take non-standard, and often extraordinary, steps right now.

The participation of the entire professional community is really important here. Therefore, an interdepartmental working group was created to prepare a meaningful agenda for our council, which included representatives of leading schools, universities, research institutes, federal subjects and businesses.

I hope that our colleagues will continue to monitor the situation with the training of engineering personnel and prepare their proposals in this area. In particular, it is necessary to adjust the existing and create new mechanisms for cooperation between regions, the education system, domestic companies and enterprises.

It is important to establish a constant exchange of best practices. First of all, we are talking about steps to create a single, end–to-end system for training technical personnel-from school to university. A significant part of regions with a high concentration of industry has such a positive and highly sought-after experience. We need to actively distribute it.

What else I think is important. In addition to solving the problems of today and the near future, we need to build up a reserve of competencies for years to come, so that today's schoolchildren, students, postgraduates, and our institutions–-schools, colleges, and universities--will be ready to meet the challenges of the time and rapid technological changes in 15-20 years, and will be among the best in global competition. This requirement must be included in the logic of our actions, and we must set such a task when developing a new Strategy for the Development of education until 2040.

And one more basic approach: in accordance with national traditions and the best international practices, which prove their effectiveness, our technical education should be primarily fundamental. The necessary knowledge base of mathematics and natural sciences is formed at school, and already in grades 5-9. Experts believe that this is the most important period for training future specialists.

The level of teaching of these subjects should be high–-not just in individual educational institutions, leading schools, but throughout the country. To do this, as has been said more than once, we need to increase the number of subject teachers and improve the quality of their training.

It is important that children are interested in mathematics and natural sciences. Now, many of them often lose interest in such subjects at the very beginning of their studies. But this, of course, does not mean that our guys do not have the appropriate talents and abilities to master this knowledge. One of the reasons, as teachers themselves say, is the content of primary and secondary school programs.

It is necessary to comprehensively update the programs in mathematics and natural sciences, balance the volume of educational material, make it accessible, understandable and, most importantly, interesting for the student. I ask the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Education, and leading Russian educational and scientific organizations to address these issues.

Dear colleagues!

In recent years, a number of system solutions have been adopted to improve the quality of professional training of engineers and workers.

This year, the pilot part of the Professionalitet project is coming to an end, which will be implemented starting from 2022 on the principles of close cooperation between educational institutions and enterprises in key sectors of the economy. I consider it necessary to establish such a model of organization of secondary vocational education-–with the obligatory participation of business–-in legislation.

Moreover, this project is seriously expanding and expanding to new industries. By the end of 2026, colleges and technical schools from all regions of Russia will participate in it, and by 2030, two million students will study under the "Professional" model.

As for the training of specialists with higher education, in 2023 it was decided to offer different training periods for all areas, depending on the specific profession, industry, and labor market requirements, while ensuring that they receive a full-fledged, completed higher education.

Of course, such transformations should be filled with real content. To do this, given the rapid technological development–-we need to seriously rethink the content of educational programs, the training mechanisms themselves, as well as the volume and structure of personnel training, including, of course, what we are talking about now, engineering.

The Government—together with the regions and employers—has compiled a five-year forecast of the need for personnel at the level of the entire economy. This is done in the context of specific territories, industries, and professions. A lot of work has been done, but this is just the beginning.

Now we need to specifically determine the additional need for personnel to solve the problems of technological leadership, to implement relevant national projects, to expand and supplement the forecast, and then using it to determine the parameters of the state order for colleges and universities. As agreed, we will carry out such work on an annual basis.

It is important that state-funded places in engineering specialties are not dissolved in the general mass but are distributed strictly for the tasks of industries and sectors, including those that will be created from scratch as part of national technology leadership projects.

Therefore, in a short period of time, it is necessary to build all the mechanisms for distributing the so-called admission control figures, and bring them to specific educational institutions. First of all, state-funded places should be awarded to universities and colleges with high results in training personnel, that is, leaders, and this is primarily a decent salary for graduates and their employment in their specialty.

It is necessary to properly set up the entire organization of the educational process in higher education. Significantly, by an order of magnitude, increase the share of practical training in modern design and construction tools that are already used at specific enterprises.

At the same time, outdated and sometimes simply archaic courses and programs that do not meet the needs of the economy should be removed. By the way, this is one of the key reasons why students lose interest in their future profession, and sometimes even drop out altogether.

Moreover, in some engineering areas, up to 40 percent of students remain with incomplete higher education. I think you will agree with me that these data show a lot, including simply nullifying all our planning for training volumes, which I have just mentioned. I ask the Ministry of Science and Higher Education to submit proposals to change the current situation.

And more. Combining study and work is now becoming the norm for a large number of students. The desire of young people to stand on their own feet, to try themselves in the real production process, certainly deserves respect and, of course, full support. There are two suggestions in this regard.

First of all, I consider it necessary to introduce individual curricula for students working in their future specialty, and use hybrid training formats, which–-I emphasize-–should not affect the thoroughness and fundamental nature of education, of course, not to the detriment of quality.

I also suggest that when developing the regulatory framework for a new model of Russian higher education, we should provide for the possibility of phased professional education. This means that at the end of a certain cycle, a student has the right to pass certification with the assignment of a certain qualification, if desired, go to work, and then continue their studies in basic or specialized higher education programs. Graduates of technical schools and colleges who want to become engineers and get a higher education in the future should have the same opportunities.

In general, it is necessary to create conditions for the continuous development of the competencies of workers, engineers and, of course, teachers of technical disciplines themselves. Technologies, equipment, machines, and software are rapidly developing and being updated, including competitive domestic solutions and systems. According to experts, from a third to a half of the engineers and technicians who are already working need professional development.

In this regard, I am waiting for concrete proposals to update and significantly improve the quality and coverage of additional professional education.

Let's talk about all these issues. If there is anything you would like to discuss further, please–-we have an open discussion.

The floor is given to Pavel Viktorovich Stepanov, representative of the interdepartmental working group and member of the Council for Science and Education, General Director of the Geoscan Group of Companies.

Please, Pavel Viktorovich.

Pavel Stepanov: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Dear colleagues!

Education, primarily in the field of engineering and technical sciences, certainly plays a key role in ensuring Russia's technological leadership. 100 years ago, our country was already experiencing a boom in interest in science and technology, and young Korolev, Keldysh, Chertok and many other great designers, in fact, created entire industries, developed the fleet, mechanical engineering, space, and aviation.

What motivated them, what fueled their interests, their dreams? I think it was because of the super-tasks that the country was facing at that time. I believe that even now we need to formulate the goals for the development of engineering education in this way. This challenge of super-tasks should be understood by our youth and laid down in the basis of national projects.

I work for a company that is engaged in the production and development of unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as small space satellites. And I look at the tasks of developing engineering education and education in general not from the side of the supplier, although I myself graduated from a strong engineering university, but from the side of the customer, who is extremely interested in qualified personnel.

The main value of companies like ours, and the main thing that we need for development is people, these are talented engineers. We need a wide variety of specialties: physicists, mathematicians, electronics engineers, programmers, designers—and all of them must be very knowledgeable and responsible, because if at least one engineer makes a mistake, then the satellite in orbit will not be repaired, fixed, and it will not work.

The task of attracting engineering personnel is relevant for every employer, and it is certainly necessary to do this from the earliest years, from the school bench. That is why I have always considered it important for me to engage in social activities, and for more than three years as part of the "Movement of the First," I have been simultaneously promoting science and technology among schoolchildren and students.

By the decision of the Presidium of the Presidential Council for Science and Education, a working group on the development of engineering education was established. The group includes representatives of business, scientific and educational communities. The group has actually worked for a year, and taking into account the opinion of our colleagues, I would like to present to your attention the main proposals for improving engineering education in our country.

At the beginning, I would like to highlight the key issues that we have identified and focus on those that have emerged in recent years, given the rapid technological development around the world.

First, there is certainly a shortage of engineering and technical personnel, especially highly qualified personnel, necessary for the country's technological breakthrough, as well as insufficient compliance of the competencies of engineering graduates with the needs of modern manufacturing companies.

Secondly, it is an insufficient level of training of applicants in physics and mathematics and, as a result, a decrease in the motivation of young people to get an engineering education.

To solve these problems and improve the quality of mathematical and engineering education, as well as conduct career guidance in the engineering environment, including the results of discussions in our working group and at the meeting of the Council's presidium, at the end of last year, the Government approved a separate comprehensive plan. For its part, the working group considers it necessary to note and propose the following solutions.

The first is the navigation of schoolchildren and students in the labor market. It is obvious that it is necessary to start full-fledged career guidance work at the stage of school education, supporting children in choosing a professional future.

In this regard, the Movement of the First, joining forces with the Kurchatov Institute, Sirius, Rosmolodezh, and the Presidential Coordination Council for Science, plans to launch a new All–Russian project "First in Science" in 2025—a platform for training and realizing the capabilities of engineers and researchers of tomorrow.

Its goal is to create a unified system of research projects and educational materials aimed at popularizing research activities among children and young people, which would bring together all key participants, including all relevant ministries and departments.

Further. For applicants, there is currently no single-entry point for career guidance during the entire year before applying to the university. For our part, we offer to inform future graduates about the personnel needs, employment opportunities and conditions using the resources of the super-service "Admission to University online", as well as the portal "Work in Russia".

We propose to update the work of career centers at universities, including taking into account the experience of modernizing employment centers, which is carried out by the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation, to give employers the opportunity to inform students about employment options, to offer internships in their specialty.

I believe that in these centers, students should be able to see the history of success of graduates, as well as see the best products that they have created, and we have quite a lot of such examples in practice. It is important to set up the most direct interaction between students and future employers.

An effective tool for the development of engineering education is the format of both adult and student design bureaus created by universities and providing for direct involvement in solving production problems at enterprises. We are implementing this practice, and it shows very high and effective results.

One of the requests of young people is, of course, employment during the training period. Combining work becomes the norm for most students, and if properly organized, this process provides an advantage in employment after graduation, having and receiving the necessary skills. It is necessary to develop the mechanics of such a combination of students ' work and training in the applied profile.

We also consider it useful to encourage cooperation between technical universities and technology companies that provide students with topics related to their term papers and theses.

The second is to improve the content of engineering education. Modern, continuous adjustment of training programs is required in accordance with the pace of technology development and the staffing needs of industrial companies. Such work is carried out in the colleges of the participants of the federal project "Professionalitet", thanks to which companies get access to students-graduates, prepared "turnkey".

We also suggest considering the practice of creating methodological platforms in technical universities and with the participation of interested employers for the development, assembly and updating of educational and methodological documentation in specialized disciplines.

The third is the regulation of additional professional education. In our country, there is a practice of regular professional development in the field of medicine, but so far there is no such experience in engineering. Technology develops very quickly, so the acquired skills and knowledge also quickly become outdated and require updating. Our doctors can be a good example for our engineers in this regard.

Willingness to learn and develop is one of the most effective and necessary qualities of real professionals. It is necessary to provide enterprises with advanced training services for engineering personnel, including on the basis of colleges and specialized universities, advanced engineering schools and engineering centers at universities.

At the same time, updating existing and creating new tools for cooperation between industry, scientific institutes and universities should become a single link in solving the problems of the engineering sphere and providing it with in-demand personnel.

Science, of course, should find its application in production and economics, and advanced engineering schools can become the most suitable platforms for this interaction. Taking into account the further strengthening of their activities, the role of industry and companies as qualified customers, this also has a huge effect on both education and industry.

The fourth is end-to-end interaction between school-college-university-employer. In places where physical education schools, technical universities, as well as public and private high-tech companies are concentrated, we suggest developing research and educational clusters, centers that ensure practical interaction between students and engineers, developing a methodology and providing the infrastructure that has often been created for this, including in the framework of other projects.

This will allow students to see where high-tech is being done in Russia, students to get practical engineering skills during their studies, and companies to get motivated and pre-trained specialists. We suggest considering the implementation of this practice in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm, Novosibirsk, Kazan and Krasnoyarsk.

In recent years, a lot has already been done in our country for the development of engineering education. It is important to consider best practices and use them when creating new support tools.

Fifth, the growth of the prestige of engineering work. We suggest developing the practice of meaningful and financial support for schools and universities from the alumni community. We have a lot of successful entrepreneurs and managers who want to invest in the development of their own schools and alma maters. Many Russian companies have already started doing this on their own initiative, supporting universities and schools where the best specialists come to them. The time has come for businesses to invest in the development of domestic education.

The practice of grant support from the Innovation Promotion Foundation is also a good example of the development of scientific, technical and engineering activities of young people. Such state support gives a novice engineer a chance to implement his idea. It was with such a grant that the history of our technology company began 14 years ago.

In addition, to restore the prestige of the profession, we propose to encourage the payment of royalties to engineers--percent of sales for the development of unique serial technological products.

Dear colleagues!

In the modern world, there is an era of struggle between technologies and industries, as well as the speed of their implementation. The winner will be the one who develops unique solutions and ensures their rapid, mass-produced, cost-effective production. This means that a talented, efficient and patriotic engineer and scientist becomes one of the main driving forces of the country's development.

I finished my report. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

I think that the era of new technologies has long arrived. We need to understand this and move forward as quickly as possible.

Please, Alexey E. Likhachev.

Alexey Likhachev, CEO Rosatom: Thank you very much.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Participants of the Council meeting!

First of all, Mr President, I would like to support the main points of your opening statement. In a sense, they are the result of the work we have done to prepare for this meeting, and you have already reflected most of the issues that concern us. I would like to focus on some of them in particular.

For us, the personnel response to achieve technological sovereignty is a special challenge, since most of our production capacities and personnel needs are located in ZATO [closed administrative-territorial entities], in "nuclear" cities.

Today, we have actually created a "two-way road". Through practical training, involving schoolchildren and students in our agenda, we bring them to us and come to schools and universities ourselves through supervisory boards, boards of trustees, the creation of specialized departments and teaching. We use the principle of a pulling production system, lean technologies in education, which begins with an assessment of our long-term personnel needs and is implemented in the kindergarten, school, college, university, enterprise line.

We are working together with our federal partners, Sirius, Rosmolodezha [Federal Agency for Youth Affairs] projects, and the Movement of the First. Of course, we also work with professional social communities. We pay special attention to teachers and parents at this stage. The Teacher for Rosatom and Parent League communities have been created. Today, family, relatives and teachers have the greatest influence on the choice of future profession.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, it is not for nothing that we speak about the importance of working in kindergartens. There is a whole range of methods through various kinds of games, puzzles, tasks to identify the most inclined to technical specialties of children and then patronize them in junior, middle and senior classes and lead them by the hand to the appropriate educational institutions.

We are holding a competition for teachers of natural science disciplines "Istok". We already have thousands of participants, hundreds of laureates. Replication of the best practices of pedagogy has developed into a separate pedagogical community. We have developed a retraining program for physics teachers at the National Center for Physics and Mathematics in Sarov in cooperation with Moscow State University, MEPhI, MIPT and the Mashuk Center.

We are working on secondary special education. We unconditionally support the idea of transferring the Professionalitet project to the system work. Now we have eleven colleges in nuclear cities, and more than two thousand students are participating in this really important new project. We are working hard and are grateful to the Ministry of Education for this.

Of course, the key element is working with universities. We have a well-known consortium of 20 core universities headed by MEPhI [National Research Nuclear University (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute)], and more than ten more universities–-not only Russian, but also foreign–-are partner universities. Each of them has a separate training program, and many of them also have a program of scientific research in the interests of Rosatom.

I would also call advanced engineering schools one of the best innovations of recent years. Only in the first wave, 10 colleges were created with the direct participation of Rosatom. We are also grateful to the Ministry of Education and Science for this initiative.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, you know about our developments and new research and educational centers. This is a special educational model-combining education at the capital level with practical work in our cities at enterprises and introducing children not only to knowledge and technology, but also to the corporate culture and values of Rosatom.

I am referring primarily to the NCFM [National Center for Physics and Mathematics] with the educational core of MSU Sarov, Novy Snezhinsk, where we practically have a master's degree campus for the best Ural and Siberian universities, and the Obninsk Tech International Educational Center in Obninsk. Here, of course, in addition to the task of training high-level foreign specialists, we solve the problem of forming friendly elites in our partner countries.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, we have good results so far. We could never have done this alone. Therefore, thank you for supporting our initiatives, and, of course, Andrey Fursenko, Valery Falkov, Viktor Sadovnichy, and all those involved in this work with higher education institutions.

As suggestions, I would like to ask you to support the following initiatives: not only to change the principles and approaches of forming the CCP [admission control figures], but also to build them in full compliance with scientific and technological development projects, national projects. As a state corporation that is responsible for a significant number of national projects and has human resources planning horizons for decades to come, we are ready to act as one of the "pilots".

We would also like to ask you to support our flagship educational projects, such as NCFM and Novy Snezhinsk. It is here that we are already implementing individual programs and training plans, directly involving children in the work at the best research facilities both in Sarov and Snezhinsk from the very first days. I would like to create a separate program under the supervision of the Ministry of Education to solve such problems.

The second task is teaching staff. In our opinion, it is necessary to form a comprehensive program for strengthening physical, mathematical and natural science education in schools in the ZATO, science cities, and single-industry towns, and include all existing projects of the Ministry of Education: "Zemsky Uchitel", targeted training in pedagogical universities, school repairs, classroom equipment, and much, much more.

And also, I will honestly say, based on my memory, as it was in Soviet times, it is necessary to make internships in schools a mandatory part of the educational process for senior students of pedagogical universities. Attract young engineers to work at the school on a part-time basis, who would be able to get additional pedagogical qualifications. Of course, this demand for modern teachers of natural sciences is currently extremely high in the country in general, in our cities in a separate way.

Of course, the international aspect. The technological leadership that Russia and Rosatom are seeking in the nuclear sector, and the challenges that the country as a whole faces, also imply leadership in education. Our education system should develop not only in the interests of the country, but also be competitive and in demand at the world level.

Many practices can be used as a basis. We offer our flagship project "Obninsk Tech", which is really becoming the most attractive point of nuclear education on the planet today.

There is a high interest in it not only from the point of view of nuclear technologies, but also from the point of view of education of foreign youth. And of course, we would also like this project to have a certain patronage of the Government, both in terms of developing the material base and strengthening international cooperation.

I would like to say that the working group has done a great job. We agree and support the overwhelming number of suggestions made by our colleagues, but we would also like to ask you to include the above topics in the development of your draft assignments.

Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: Well, thank you.

Sergey Sergeyevich Kravtsov, please.

Sergey Kravtsov, Minister of Education: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Dear colleagues!

Vladimir Vladimirovich, as you said in your opening speech, the future of training engineers and engineering personnel is indeed being laid in schools.

Motivation of students is important for the development of mathematical and natural science education. To increase children's interest in the engineering and technical profile, first of all, infrastructure, a career guidance system and motivation for in-depth study of the subject, including the development of the Olympiad movement, are needed.

As far as infrastructure is concerned, Mr President, all new schools that are being built on your instructions, and schools that are undergoing major repairs, must have new classes in natural science: physics, chemistry, biology.

Within the framework of the national project "Education", we have created a virtually new environment for additional education in natural sciences: These are "Quantoriums", "Growth Points", and "IT cubes".

This, of course, increases the motivation of children to study natural science subjects. There they can conduct projects, conduct interdisciplinary research.

As part of the new national project "Youth and Children", we will continue to develop the infrastructure, in particular the equipment of labor and drawing rooms. Vladimir Vladimirovich, you spoke in Tula and set the task of bringing drawing back to schools. So, this decision has been fulfilled: since this school year, drawing has returned, and we are equipping classrooms.

The second is career guidance, as Pavel Viktorovich has already mentioned. He returned to school last school year, and there is a special time, one hour a week on Thursdays, for career guidance, as it was when we were students. We have leading employers participating. I would like to thank my colleagues from Rosatom, Rostec, Sibur, and many others – more than 9,500 enterprises are already participating.

And what you said in Yekaterinburg, Mr Putin–-that children should not just be in the classroom, but come to enterprises and production facilities–-this is being implemented. 31 thousand excursions have already been conducted, about 640 schoolchildren have visited the enterprises. This work must continue.

But, of course, there are problems--this is often a formalism of career guidance. So, of course, by analyzing the experience that we have, we will work together with the regions to make this work as interesting as possible for schoolchildren.

And the second. Of course, we need to correlate and synchronize career guidance with the labor market forecast that you mentioned. I think Anton Olegovich [Kotyakov] will say this in order to really orient the guys to those new areas of our economy that will be in demand in the future.

The third is, of course, an in-depth study of subjects. I would like to elaborate here, Mr President.

According to Rosstat, every year more and more children choose an advanced level in natural science subjects and mathematics. For example, in 2019, 9.5 percent of high school students chose advanced science subjects, mathematics, computer science, and in 2023 there were already 14.7 percent of them, 194 thousand more. In other words, the measures that we are implementing on your behalf are yielding results.

But, of course, it is important to take into account–-I would also like to draw your attention--not the number of classes, because the number of children in a class can be different, but the number of children who choose a particular profile subject.

As for the general selection of students for the Unified State Exam in natural science subjects, we see, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, that the situation has not changed much in ten years, and even slightly improved.

In 2014, we took the data of Rosobrnadzor, the total share of elective subjects of natural science orientation was 63 points, in 2024 – 64. And we have just received data from Rosobrnadzor on the choice of physics – the number has increased: last year 14.4 percent, this year already 16.4 percent of children chose physics, that is, there is a dynamic.

It is also important to note that [earlier] less people chose physics–-this was indeed the case in 2016, but now, as I said, the trend has changed. So, why did this trend arise? It is important. Because in 2014, the admission rules were changed: instead of physics, engineering majors were asked for computer science, so there was a choice. And we can see directly from the dynamics that starting from 2016, children began to choose physics less: in 2017 – 25.3, and in 2018 – already 23 percent, and so on, up to 14.4. And now the growth has started. And more people began to choose computer science, but the share remained unchanged. Why? Because, as I said, the admission rules have been changed, and students choose what they need to take on the Unified State Exam. If you need to take computer science, they choose, of course, computer science.

Today we are working with the Ministry of Education and Science, and the Ministry is changing the rules and returning physics to engineering specialties – something that experts constantly talked about, and at the last council, Vladimir Vladimirovich, we discussed. These decisions have been made, and we see an increase in the share of students who have already decided on the choice of physics. And it is important to consolidate this trend.

The Olympiad movement is also important for motivation. The number of participants in the All-Russian Olympiad is growing every year. In 2019, there were 36 percent of children who participated, this year 42 percent. In addition, as I reported to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, together with the Ministry of Digital Development, we will introduce new promising Olympiads in robotics and unmanned aerial vehicles starting next year. This will also further motivate our guys.

But what do we see? We see that both the winners of international Olympiads and national Olympiads do not always enter our universities. Therefore, please give instructions to analyze the output of high-scoring students, our talented students, whether they enter universities and how they are employed. Please give us the following instruction: together with the Talent and Success Foundation, we will organize work to support, analyze and consolidate talented children at the enterprises of our country, especially high-scoring, hundred-point students and winners of all-Russian and international Olympiads.

Now the quality of science education is a very important issue. Mr President, in your opening remarks, you spoke about the importance of the programs. Of course, programs are important, and we have approved uniform programs in all subjects, including natural science subjects at both the basic and advanced levels.

This largely solves the problem that many people discussed at the National Projects Council last year: tutoring and the problem of overloading. Because earlier, when there were no unified programs and each school worked according to its own program, the Unified State Exam often asked not what they were taught in school.

Your assignment, which you mentioned in your Message to the Federal Assembly, has been fulfilled. Today, the results that are asked in exams are included in the standard, and those unified programs that are approved correspond to what is asked in the exam. And this will largely solve the issue of overloading, and it will largely solve the issue of tutoring.

Also, as already mentioned, a comprehensive plan has been approved. We are actively working here with Valery Nikolaevich [Falkov] under the leadership of Dmitry Nikolaevich Chernyshenko. Just the task of the comprehensive plan is a unified system for training engineering personnel, as Alexey E. [Likhachev] just said, starting from kindergarten and ending with a university. And, of course, then you need support and employment.

The issue of not only programs, but also textbooks is very important, because children do not watch the program, they watch the textbook, and it is important that the textbook is interesting. At a certain time, dear colleagues, we had 100 textbooks on mathematics. What quality could we talk about?

Today, there are uniform textbooks for basic, advanced level mathematics, but they are commercial. We need to create unified state textbooks. Please support us, Mr President, and instruct us, together with the Academy of Sciences–-we have discussed this with Gennady Yakovlevich [Krasnikov]–-to create unified state textbooks for schools in natural science subjects, mathematics, and computer science. Moreover, these textbooks, these subjects should be linked together-mathematics with chemistry, biology, physics, because interdisciplinarity is very important.

I would also like to mention the results of the Unified State Exam in Science subjects. According to Rosobrnadzor, we see an increase in the average score in science subjects. For example, in 2016, the average score in science subjects was 51.3, in 2024, 61 (an increase of ten points). In mathematics, the average score was 46.2 in 2016, and 64.5 in 2024.

My colleagues discussed a lot before the council and about the admission figures. I think Valery Nikolaevich will say more about this, but we have all the control figures for admission to engineering specialties, which is 195 thousand, selected. For example, last year 280 thousand students already took specialized mathematics, and this year 335 are planned. In other words, it is clear that it is very important to maintain this level and continue to improve it, including the results of the Unified State Exam.

And of course, the quality depends on the teacher. Every fifth teacher in our system is a teacher of natural science subjects. But, according to Rosstat, the number of vacancies in the system as a whole is about two percent, and this figure has not changed for ten years, and in natural science subjects-about three percent. The average age of teachers, which is encouraging, is 45-46 years. But it is very important for us to work specifically with the regions, and we do this work with pedagogical universities, and today teacher education is the second most popular. Therefore, we have adopted appropriate programs with the regions to eliminate the deficit – as Alexey Yevgenyevich said. We will work out these proposals separately.

And it is important to talk about this, because there is also a discussion, there is a shortage of teachers. A number of experts calculate the rates [of pay] at 18 hours. We are also fine in Soviet times, I myself worked, 24 hours a day is 1.4 rates. Rosstat gives us an average workload. Therefore, of course, if we count for 18 hours, then, of course, there may be about 50 percent vacancies, but we calculate: the rate is 18 hours, 1.4 rates are 24 Hours. Therefore, as I have already said, according to Rosstat, there are three percent vacancies in natural science subjects.

Mr Putin, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to conduct inspections. A law on reducing the bureaucratic burden was adopted, but we see that this law does not work everywhere. We have set a minimum of five required documents for teachers to fill out. We see that there are certain kinks, so please work with the relevant authorities to conduct an audit and restore the rights of teachers.

And finally, about secondary vocational education. Our colleagues also talked about this a lot today. This is where we work. I would like to thank you separately for making a decision at the legislative level to consolidate the project "Professionalism". This is really a very important project today, which allows us to train working personnel.

We see a total need for personnel in general–-74.1 million employees for 2025-2029, of which 42 million are open-source personnel, and for technical specialties, this is 19 million. Therefore, we have a corresponding program, but we need, of course, to expand the project "Professionalitet", to do it already in the normal mode, to solve the personnel tasks that the Ministry of Labor also gives us.

And it is very important–-also a request—instruction: regulation of the admission control figures for open source education and balancing with the regions at the federal level, in order to exclude the direction of the CCP [admission control figures] to specialties that are irrelevant for the economy of a particular region [specialty], and to bring the admission control figures in accordance with the labor market forecast. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much, Sergey Sergeyevich.

Indeed, after we brought the requirements for exams in line with the school curriculum, the average score in mathematics and physics increased – that's for sure, but this is also true. Why ask students to do something they didn't pass in a regular exam?

What I would like to draw your attention to. Over the past five years, the number of EXAM participants choosing specialized mathematics and physics has been decreasing. Yes, you mentioned that the number of people taking the Unified State Exam in computer science has increased. This is true: by about eight percent, but the reduction in passing in mathematics and physics was about 14 percent. That is, somewhere between eight and 14, there are still more losses for mathematics, physics, and these sciences, and this difference has disappeared somewhere. This must be borne in mind.

What else I would like to draw your attention to is geography. If you look at the territorial differentiation in the Olympiad movement, it turns out that two-thirds of the winners and prize-winners of the final stage of the All-Russian School Olympiad represented only four subjects of the Federation.

At the same time, there is a very large gap here: 43 percent of the winners and prize – winners are Moscow, 14 percent – the Moscow region, eight percent – Tatarstan and seven percent – St. Petersburg. By the way, something is really not enough for St. Petersburg. But there are still four subjects in total. It is necessary to pay attention to this, of course. Should we transfer everyone to Moscow to school? No, this is probably unacceptable. We need to improve the quality in the regions.

Okay, good. Thank you.

Falkov Valery Nikolaevich, please.

Vladimir Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia.: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Dear participants of the meeting,

In recent years, we have implemented a number of strategic initiatives aimed at improving the quality of engineering education and ensuring the country's advanced scientific and technological development with engineering personnel.

In particular, in 2021, we developed and on your instructions, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, launched a project to create advanced engineering schools based on universities and high-tech companies. The implementation of the project already has a significant effect on the modernization of the entire system of training engineers. Today, 50 schools have more than 250 partners, including Rostec, Rosatom, Roscosmos, Sibur, Gazpromneft, KAMAZ, Tatneft and others. The amount of co-financing on their part is 42 billion, which, by the way, is 12 billion more than the state gives.

We will improve this program for the new selection process and focus it on solving the problems of technological leadership. We will provide new tools for interaction with employers, strengthen their involvement in school management, in the process of training and applied development.

Another program supported by you is Priority 2030. It also works for a general shift in the training of engineers towards a new technological order. According to experts and partners, the system of replication of best practices among universities, organized within the framework of this program, has shown its effectiveness.

A striking example here is the St. Petersburg State Maritime Technical University, which you visited, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich. Thanks to the programs I mentioned, Korabelka has become a major scientific and technological center, and its material and technical base has been qualitatively updated. The technologies developed in it are implemented at the enterprises of shipbuilding, nuclear industry, power engineering, engine building and metallurgy.

Further. We have consistently increased the volume of engineering admissions control figures, and paid admissions are also growing. As a result: in comparison with 2020, the total admission to engineering programs increased by 21 percent, in 2024 the share of first-year engineers in the total admission structure reached 41 percent, and the leading universities in the country in terms of admission quality are MIPT, MEPhI and the young Innopolis University. The average score of those enrolled there is almost 100.

The main conclusion, as a result of the large-scale work of universities and their industrial partners, is that citizens' confidence in the prospects of the engineering profession is slowly but steadily growing, including their willingness to invest their own funds in engineering education.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

We have worked out and propose to take a number of new systematic steps to develop engineering education.

First, and this has already been discussed today, there is a need to update the planning mechanism and set target figures for admission to state-funded places. In accordance with your instructions, we will plan budget places this year, taking into account the forecast of personnel needs prepared by the Ministry of Labor, and the needs of specific technology leadership projects.

In addition, when planning, we will also take into account the inevitable dropout during training. You mentioned it. In some specialties, the dropout rate is really quite high.

Different factors are the reason for this: there are personal circumstances, someone made a mistake when choosing a specialty, and someone could not cope with the requirements of the program. We believe that universities should not be punished with rubles for being principled in assessing students ' knowledge.

In this regard, we are working on the transition to financing educational programs based on the allocated number of budget places without annual adjustments for the actual contingent, but at the same time increasing responsibility for the final result – for the release of specialists of the necessary profile, their employment and further salary analysis.

The mechanism of distribution of control figures between universities also needs to be changed. Today, this is done exclusively on the basis of competition, which leads to instability in the number of budget-funded university places from year to year. What is the essence of our offer?

We suggest that up to 70 percent of the budget places, primarily in priority specialties, should be allocated to universities without competition, based on the average figures for the last three years. At the same time, of course, it is necessary to take into account the strategic priorities for the development of regional industries, the quality of admission, the quality of employment, jobs, salaries of graduates and other factors discussed today.

We propose to submit another 25 percent of budget places in non-core areas to the competition, and keep five percent in reserve in order to quickly and flexibly respond to changing personnel demand.

We have already twice had a successful experience of this maneuver – the experience of allocating additional places directly in the year of admission. The first time was in the Covid-19 year-in 2020, the second time – in 2023-to meet the current needs of the economy and social sphere. We suggest making this practice a regular one.

Second suggestion. The acute shortage of personnel in the labor market and, most importantly, the shortage of engineers urgently requires regulation of paid admission to universities. It is now dominated by economics, management and law. Paid admission should also be aimed at the state's tasks.

We ask you to instruct the Government to work out the possibility of giving the Ministry of Science and Higher Education the authority to coordinate plans for paid admission of universities, regardless of their departmental affiliation.

And two more suggestions for paid admission.

First, the mechanism of a preferential educational loan at a rate of 3 percent should be available only for applicants to priority specialties, primarily engineering. And today, more than a third of loans are issued for paid training of economists and lawyers, which clearly does not meet the demand for personnel.

Secondly, the amount of tuition fees on a contractual basis should not be lower than the actual cost of training students.

The third proposal. You mentioned this, and I would like to add a few words to it. The system of additional professional education in universities requires a major transformation. Traditionally, higher education institutions focus on higher education, while additional professional education is significantly less important. However, in the conditions of today's labor market and shortage of labor resources, universities should place much greater emphasis on short training programs, retraining, professional retraining and advanced training.

I would like to emphasize that not only applied skills are becoming obsolete, but fundamental knowledge is also being updated, and new methods that are important for the real sector are emerging. This is precisely the strength of universities and, accordingly, their programs of additional professional education. Of course, when universities offer new products and technologies to the industry, they should simultaneously offer training of specialists of companies on these technologies, products and services in a package.

Finally, one more, perhaps, key suggestion. We are working on this. We are talking about the transition to a new model of higher education.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, in accordance with your decree, we are currently implementing a pilot project to test the new model. In less than two years, we have gained significant real-world experience in transforming engineering education. We are now using all this experience to form a new model. I recently reported on these approaches in relation to the unmanned systems industry.

To summarize: from bachelor's programs without a specific specialization with the result in the form of a generalized "bachelor" qualification, we should move on to training full-fledged engineers, qualifications that are understandable to the employer and with different training periods, as you said, for example, for the qualification of a mining engineer, a metallurgical engineer, a civil engineer, and so on. So that, when opening a diploma, the employer immediately understands which specialist the university has prepared for him.

In addition, together with universities and the employer community, we are developing a new list of specialties that meet the challenges of technological leadership. Life is changing very rapidly, and there is a fundamental request for fundamentally new specialists. Therefore, we must respond with fundamentally new programs, such as the design and operation of unmanned mobile systems, the design and operation of high-speed traffic systems. These programs are aimed at developing our new industries and major significant projects. In this case, the need for a master's degree is sharply reduced, it becomes a way to obtain specialized in-depth knowledge for those who have practical experience.

Under the new model and a new list of specialties, we will update the system of state educational standards. A mock-up of such a standard has now been developed and is being discussed. The new generation standard will be based on three main principles.

The first one is a key, fundamental one, and it has been called the fundamental nature of higher education. For us, this means a single core. On the one hand, part of this core should be professional, natural science, usually for engineers, and mathematics. On the other hand, the most important part of this core, of course, should be the humanities, such disciplines as philosophy, history and a number of others.

The second important principle, and this will be laid down in the standards, is practice-oriented, a significant increase in the volume of practical training, and what is no less important is the quality of this practical training. Our universities participating in the pilot show today that there is a really high demand for it.

Finally, the third principle is flexibility, including the possibility of obtaining additional qualifications, including pedagogical ones. And of course, different terms of study, based on the fact that students should not only study today, and many of them are not only studying, but also working.

New approaches will be enshrined in the law on education and other regulatory legal acts. We are actively working on preparing changes. We propose to reflect all these initiatives in the Education Development Strategy, which is currently being developed on your behalf, and implement them systematically.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Our work in close cooperation with industry will allow us to fulfill the task of providing technological development with highly qualified personnel in accordance with the national priorities of the country. Thank you for your attention.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Valery Nikolaevich, you all know what I'm about to say, and many of my colleagues know it, but I still want to emphasize it.

The All-Russian Popular Front, together with one of the online recruiting platforms, conducted a survey. You know the result, right? Four thousand respondents: university and college students, employees of enterprises, and business representatives from 80 regions.

The majority of respondents–-65 percent--believe that higher education does not provide them with the necessary practical skills for real work. 38 of the respondents said that their education was not useful to them. The share of dissatisfied people with their education is especially high among young professionals under 33 years of age.

Here's what's interesting: if 77 percent of respondents were ready to work in the specialty in the first year, then by the end of their studies only 56 percent were ready. And our enterprises, our companies, they take, of course, any specialists in the profile they need, but they are very happy and willing to take specialists who have from one to three years of experience and give preference from three to six years. Therefore, it's not just a matter of students or graduate students being able to earn extra money. This is right and good. But we must also proceed from building their work in such a way that it will benefit their future work and future profession. I would like to draw your attention to this.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Kotyukov, Krasnoyarsk Region.

Mikhail Kotyukov, Acting Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Dear participants of the meeting,

National goals for ensuring technological leadership, of course, are not achievable without an advanced system of engineering education. The State Council commissions are now actively involved in the issue of working out the mechanisms for training relevant personnel. We work together here: the Technology Leadership Commission, human resources, youth and children, industry and other colleagues.

In the first version of the national projects approved by the Government, the total staffing requirement for technological leadership exceeds 830 thousand people. And of course, what the ministers have just said, those tools will certainly provide this mass training in one way or another.

At the same time, Mr Putin, you said that work is currently underway to prepare additional measures that will be included in these national projects, and will ensure that domestic technologies and products will be superior to their foreign counterparts in priority areas.

In other words, this implies significantly higher requirements for training specialists. It is very important now to determine the qualifications that will meet these requirements, the volume of specialists needed quantitatively and the structure of the relevant educational programs, making the necessary adjustments to the tools that we have.

I would like to focus on three considerations in this area.

First. How can you get quick results and find the very teams that can be involved in solving these very ambitious tasks in the near future? Valery Nikolaevich spoke about the results that were achieved in the framework of the implementation of the previous version of national projects. These results are indeed there.

We have good teams to support the scientific foundations of Russia, programs of youth laboratories and advanced engineering schools, development programs of leading universities, and, of course, the database of the Talent and Success Foundation. I am sure that by analyzing this data set, you can already find ready-made teams of specialists who have shown high results in their work.

I can say from the example of the Krasnoyarsk Territory that we have such youth associations. For example, in 2019, a youth laboratory was created within the framework of the Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center of the Academy of Sciences in the direction of scientific instrumentation. And then there were only 12 young people in this laboratory, and the annual grant was 17 million rubles.

To date, this organization has already grown fivefold in size and has only for 2025 the number of confirmed extra-budgetary contracts for 800 million rubles, and the partners of this laboratory are leading enterprises of the Russian space industry, enterprises of Roscosmos and Bureau 1440. The second team turned from a university-based virtual startup into one of the manufacturers of high-end Russian unmanned aerial vehicles.

The second direction concerns a more medium-term perspective and, most likely, should work within the framework of training new teams. Vladimir Vladimirovich, I suggest that all new competitions of Russian state research funds, competitions of advanced engineering schools, youth laboratories, leading universities, including campuses, focus on the tasks of technological leadership, so that the infrastructure is created that will allow achieving these very results. This will make it possible in the medium term to ensure the influx of those necessary specialists with the highest scientific and engineering qualifications.

The third task is probably the most difficult, and it involves working with those who are still in school today and in our technical schools and colleges. This is certainly the task of the regions. Of course, the regions should be included in the technological leadership agenda today. Much has been done within the framework of the previous national project "Education", the material and technical base of schools has been significantly improved, engineering classes have been created.

It is very important, Mr President, that you have made a timely decision to return the lessons of work and the issues of early vocational guidance for schoolchildren. The guys have an interest in these areas. I meet them in the classroom, the kids confirm this, but they really want to see not only a modern factory where they will work, but it is very important, they say: "We want to see a technical school, a college, and a university." It is very important for us that these meetings do not cause children to be disappointed, and they do not change their first interest in mastering basic engineering specialties.

Therefore, it is a very important decision to expand the Professional Development program. We in the region made the decision last year, having received the first experience of implementing such programs by our technical schools, when they fundamentally changed, and today employers are waiting in line to open their divisions and audiences in these technical schools. That is why the project "Professionalism for All" was launched in Krasnoyarsk this year, where all our regional institutions of secondary vocational education are already preparing such development programs together with their key employers, and we will support these programs on a parity basis, because we see results from them and a great demand from schoolchildren.

I am sure that with the federal support that Sergey Sergeyevich mentioned and you said at the beginning, we will be able to achieve these results much faster, and these results will be more ambitious.

The second thing that is very important is, of course, working with today's schoolchildren, and first of all, training teachers in natural science subjects: physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology.

I believe that we need to identify pilot regions, and perhaps identify specializations for these regions, so that special programs are prepared that would concern both teacher training and retraining, and the development of motivation systems that would ensure the constant updating and content of educational programs, and teaching methods, so that children have a positive experience. and there was a constant interest in mastering these natural science subjects.

Today, the Government of the Russian Federation, on behalf of Dmitry Nikolaevich Chernyshenko, has identified 20 regions that are preparing a pilot program for scientific and technological development. Perhaps these programs should be supplemented with just such a section with a school component, a teacher's one, and submitted to a federal competition. I think that additional support would allow us to get a corresponding impetus for development.

In conclusion, I would like to support Pavel Viktorovich, who spoke a lot about combining the efforts of production and various fields of education.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, Krasnoyarsk is a region with a rich sporting history and traditions. Here a certain parallel suggests itself, it may not be quite related to the topic of our Council, but nevertheless. We identify children who show sports talents at a very early age and, in parallel with their school education, guide them, developing their sports training from the first sections of children's to schools of higher sports skills and centers of national teams.

For engineering training, it seems to me that such a system of parallel support and development of skills, cultivation would give its own result. As a suggestion, perhaps we should recall the good Soviet experience of the system of centers for scientific and technical creativity of children and young people, which could provide such additional support, support and implementation of the necessary engineering skills from the very first children's designers through school classrooms, classrooms to research institutes and design bureaus. companies.

Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. You have noticed some very important points.

What I would like to focus on. See, according to the five-year personnel forecast, by 2029, the total demand for personnel in both the economy and the social sphere will exceed 74 million people. This is almost a million more than in 2024. But at the same time, the main demand, as now, will be for specialists with secondary vocational education, which is more than 60 percent. Mikhail Mikhailovich is right here, and I draw the attention of my colleagues to this.

You also mentioned teacher training. One way or another, each of the participants of our meeting today speaks about this. But the governor also spoke about the training of teachers. What would you like to draw your attention to here?

First. We have about 6.2 percent of teachers aged 65 and older in our schools, and there is nothing special about it. But in mathematics it is already 9.2 percent, in chemistry-10.9 percent, in physics-11.9 percent, count 12 percent. I don't want to comment on anything right now, I just want to draw attention to it and ask Sergey Kravtsov to keep this in mind.

And another very important thing related to the demographic processes in the country. We have a corresponding forecast, according to which after 2025, the decline in the number of students in schools will primarily affect primary schools, but in grades 8-11, on the contrary, by 2032, students are expected to grow by almost a million, from 4.8 to about 5.5 million people.

Why am I saying this? In order for us to look ahead in advance, we have taken the most careful approach to regulating the number of teachers. In no case should there be a shortage of rates for the relevant categories of teachers. I am now addressing both the heads of relevant departments and the heads of regions – we need to take a close look at this.

Thank you.

So, let's move on. Mikhail Mikhailovich, I have already spoken about your public opinion polling activities. I hope you can add something else.

Please, Mikhail Kuznetsov, People's Front .

Mikhail Kuznetsov: Thank you very much.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Dear Council members,

In your 2023 Address, you instructed the People's Front to conduct an analysis of improving higher education. Since then, we have regularly interviewed employers (more than 500 companies), schoolchildren and students, teachers and university professors, as well as parents. In total, we interview about 100 thousand people a year.

I will focus on some problems.

First. Today, all the speakers said that, indeed, the foundation of engineering education is laid at school. We are in discussion here with Sergey Sergeevich [Kravtsov], we continue to record a certain shortage of subject teachers, which, in our understanding, affects the interest of students in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and also contributes to the fact that so far the level of requests to tutors is at a consistently high level. We report that 71 percent of parents in the 11th grade turn to tutors. Sergey Sergeyevich said that the adoption of unified programs will reduce this figure. We are happy to watch it every six months together with the Ministry of Education. It will be very important for people if it goes down.

About a third of the school principals we surveyed confirm that there is a shortage of math teachers, and one in seven schools lacks a physics teacher.

Teachers themselves name three main reasons, the combination of which prevents the influx of new teachers to the school. This is partly the level of wages, in the second place—a high non-core bureaucratic burden. Sergey Sergeyevich also mentioned this, and more than half of the teachers note it. In third place, unfortunately, 20 percent of teachers have experienced disrespectful treatment from their parents' children. In other words, this is a consequence of many years of mistaken perception of education as a service.

Based on the priority of engineering education (the topic of our discussion today), we suggest asking the regions to find additional measures to encourage the influx of physics and mathematics teachers to schools based not only on an analysis of the vacancy rate but also taking into account the real burden on subject teachers and non-core part-time work. It is not always the math teacher who teaches math, but sometimes it is the responsibility of teachers of a different profile, and this, it seems to us, is a definite problem.

Second, make a mandatory regular independent assessment of the level of non-pedagogical workload, taking into account the opinion of teachers, and monitor its constant reduction. Sergey Sergeyevich said that it should now begin to decline.

The second problem is that graduates of the Professalitet program do not always have time to consolidate their engineering skills after two years of training in the open source. We have come to the Ministry of Defense with this issue and are discussing it with them. Now the story with the scientific companies of the Ministry of Defense seems to be a possible option: that is, so that the guys from the “Professionalitet" mainly go to scientific companies and do not lose their skills, but, on the contrary, increase them. Business, of course, will ask for a postponement but Mr Putin allow us to continue this dialogue and, with the consent of the Ministry of Defense, look for some solution so that, if they approve it, we can also look at it and meet the business that invests in "Professionalism".

The third. Vladimir Vladimirovich, you mentioned figures about the decline in interest. Our survey shows that only a third of students work, while 66 percent, or two-thirds of them, work outside of their profession. Simply put, they are forced to earn money for themselves.

We suggest that we take this indicator as a starting point and annually increase the practice of paid work in the specialty for students; you also mentioned this in your introductory speech.

Fourth. According to our surveys, only 15 percent of employers confirm their participation in the improvement of engineering education programs and 24 percent in the formation of CCP applications. Surprisingly, three-quarters of these companies signed agreements with universities. In other words, there is an agreement, but constant annual interaction on CPI figures and improving programs for the labor market is not enough yet. It seems to us that there is a great unrealized potential for synchronizing employer requests and training programs. The ball is not only on the side of universities, but also on the side of business.

The fifth is an imbalance of support for IT engineers and specialists in other engineering professions. I'll give you an example. Yekaterinburg is home to one of the drone production facilities that we support and develop together with our military: the guys make the well-known Upyr drones. Next door is an IT company. There is a constant outflow of engineers from the production of UAVs to the IT company due to the availability of benefits. We understand the importance of the IT industry, but it seems to us that it is very important to avoid this imbalance, including so that there is no outflow of graduates from the best technical universities (for example, MIPT) to the IT industry, because these people are the future directors of our most serious design bureaus.

And one last thing. Today, tens of thousands of our soldiers are undergoing accelerated engineering training in the special military operation zone. Electronic intelligence, the manufacture of electronic warfare equipment, the operation of drones; this is an incomplete list of the skills that our guys receive. We think that in the future they will be able to find jobs in the best Russian companies and, what is very important, raise the prestige of the engineering profession, because today they are our heroes. Some of them, it seems to us, will go to the military departments of civil technical universities in order to train our generation of Kulibins in the future. But now, for example, together with the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, we can begin to employ children who have received this basic engineering training in our best companies. If you do, we will be happy to work on such a track. There is a feeling that this is the best "Professionalism" that only they could get.

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, thank you very much. The report is finished.

Vladimir Putin: Mikhail Mikhailovich just spoke about the research carried out by the Popular Front . I also want to confirm this with research conducted by the Federal Tax Service of Russia. You know that the Federal Security Service has its own structures that deal with these issues. The Federal Tax Service conducted a survey of parents in 2024. According to parents, most often there are not enough math teachers. If in 2018, 14.9 percent of respondents answered the question about the shortage of mathematics teachers, then in 2024 it was already 33.2 percent. In the same year 2018, 16.5% of parents said that there are not enough physics teachers, in 2024 it was already 24.1%. It seems to me that this clearly shows the problematic issues that we all need to solve together, and first of all, of course, the departments.

Please, Sergey Chemezov, Rostec.

<…> [I’d really like to know why Chemezov’s words were stricken since he heads the most important Russian public utility.]

Vladimir Putin: Will we finish it?

I would like to thank everyone for working together today and for a meaningful discussion.

It is obvious that many of the proposals made today cannot be implemented by individual ministries; the solidarity work of the entire Government is important, with the obligatory participation of the professional community of the regions and businesses.

I think we should pay special attention to this.

First. The basis for the country's technological leadership is formed, of course, primarily by the teacher, which means that it is necessary to seriously increase the requirements for applicants entering pedagogical universities in such areas as mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, and in general to achieve a high level of pedagogical and subject training for future teachers.

As you know, pedagogical modules are now being introduced into the programs of classical universities. I agree with the proposal to introduce the same courses in all technical universities as early as 2026, so that future mathematicians, physicists, and engineers can additionally master the profession of a teacher if they wish and on a free basis. At the same time, for such students, it is necessary to provide for the payment of increased academic scholarships.

It is extremely important to strengthen students' interest in science and engineering, support such initiatives of the scientific and professional community, public organizations, including the most popular youth movement–-the Movement of the First. Our colleagues told us today, shared their suggestions, and we need to provide them with the necessary assistance.

Second. I ask the Government to update the five-year forecast of the economy's human resources needs. I just said this in a smear; we need to understand this issue more closely and take into account our plans to increase labor productivity and robotization.

And, of course, the task of national projects of technological leadership, programs of the state and business aimed at the spatial development of the country. Each event of these important documents should be provided with personnel, which means that clear tasks should be set for specific colleges, universities, and higher education institutions in general.

With the participation of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, a new model for planning the volume of admission control figures will be formed. Applications of vocational education institutions for budget-funded places should be justified and supported by the regions and key employers. And if a university or college has high results in preparing for employment, as I have already mentioned, it trains personnel in specific technological areas of national projects, budget places should be provided to them on a priority basis, including on the basis of a direct state order.

The third. I ask the Government to adopt an exhaustive package of decisions aimed at improving the quality of paid admission to universities. Already in 2026, it will be held according to the new rules. They should eliminate excessive recruitment in professions that are not in demand from the economy and the labor market–-we have already said this many times—and even more so prevent training in such professions in non-core universities and their branches. Now I will not go into [the details; it sometimes just looks ugly, to be honest, and a very low level of quality of training of specialists, who in the end do not need anyone.

I agree with the suggestions of Valery Nikolaevich Falkov. This means that preferential educational loans at a three percent rate subsidized from the federal budget should be provided only in priority areas of training and specialties for the state. Such a decision should definitely be made.

Further. Today we talked a lot about the experience of leading universities and corporate educational centers. All best practices must be summarized so that advanced knowledge and techniques are available to teachers of other technical universities and faculties, their students and postgraduates.

In this regard, I consider it necessary to develop reference training programs for engineering specialties, to ensure the exchange between educational institutions and the best lectures on fundamental and special disciplines. In other words, we are talking about creating a kind of intellectual foundation of Russia in the field of engineering education.

In general, it is impossible to act haphazardly in this area. I agree with those who said that we need to join forces and create an environment in which continuous development will be the norm and a vital necessity for every student and specialist, and we need to create appropriate opportunities for this.

Among other things, we need to build a system of internships in the real sector of the economy–-as I and my colleagues have said many times today—and organize special platforms throughout the country so that engineers and practitioners can meet and find ways to solve complex technological problems.

Of course, the resource of additional professional education should be fully used to overcome the shortage of engineering personnel. It is necessary to create a comprehensive system of professional development not only for engineering and technical specialists, but also for teachers of special disciplines, to do this on the basis of universities, colleges, as well as corporate universities and industry centers.

I would like to emphasize that I have mentioned only a few areas of work to be done. I ask my colleagues from the Presidential Administration to work out all the proposals made today and form an exhaustive list of instructions in the next two weeks.

And one more thing: we have a Forum of future technologies scheduled for February 20. It will be devoted to such an important, cross-cutting topic as chemistry and new materials. We will definitely return to the issues of personnel training in detail once again.

I would like to thank you all for your participation and suggestions. As Mikhail Valentinovich [Kovalchuk] suggested-this is certainly true in the field of personnel training - it is necessary to grow personnel using all modern means to achieve the final result.

Thank you very much. [My Emphasis]

A very large blueprint for enhancing all segments of education, not just science and engineering as many of the problems addressed affect all teachers. The shortage of teachers in key areas is also a big issue. Happily, money doesn’t appear to be a problem or land on which to build facilities. It appears that the task is all related to the human components and the need to design functional systems that multiply all efforts. I must assume that Mr. Chemezov’s words echo those of Mr. Likhachev since the Rostec conglomerate is involved in very similar tasks that share similar needs and employee expertise. This meeting also shows the advantages of how Russia’s federalist nature aids the management of education as policy can be set for the entire nation versus being a mixed mash of 50 different plans and levels of funding as with the USA—essentially a well-oiled machine versus anarchy. Since technological expertise will continue its increase as a marker of national competence, higher educational outcomes will be required to rise steadily upward, which will require a system that’s flexible enough to modify itself as time passes.

*
*
*
Like what you’ve been reading at Karlof1’s Substack? Then please consider subscribing and choosing to make a monthly/yearly pledge to enable my efforts in this challenging realm. Thank You!