Dolgoprudny (Moscow region), March 3, 2009

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!

Dear colleagues!

More than 60 years ago the leading soviet scientists proposed a principally new system of personnel training. Like today, a more close interaction of education, science and industry was needed for solving principally new tasks of increasing defense capacity and development of new directions in industry.

In face, the matter concerned a two-level system of training of specialists, which gave the opportunity already in the process of education, besides the fundamental base, to master skills of work in a concrete segment of industry or in the sphere of scientific researches.

Such a system firstly was rejected by a traditional higher school, which blamed the initiators in refusal from fundamental approaches in education. That is why the original idea of a physics-technique faculty of the MGU did not succeed. This idea was kept only due to titanic efforts of the group of these leading scientists and general constructors. And in practice it has proved its vitality and high efficiency.

At the MFTI students, starting from the third year, within the educational course perform a research work directly at scientific centers and constructive bureaus together with experienced specialists, taking their skills and knowledge. And here is the key instrument of interaction - the control from the side of the customer for the quality of training of specialists, which significantly simplifies the problem of job placement, at this as for graduates, as for employers. The principal in today conditions anti-crisis component of the problem of job placement for young people!

And economy for business! It is known that the search of a simple specialist with the help of a recruit agency costs more than $10 000. In addition to it there are expenses for retraining, motivation and loyalty. Approximately the same is the price of educating a person "for themselves" for 3-4 in a leading university, and at this the issues of retraining and loyalty do not appear, because the employer and employee to this time know each other for 3 years already!

Consequently, today the example of a high integration of the MFTI with industry and science is a perfect pattern of the efficient model of a higher school. No randomly, the development program of the institute, which let it win already in the first contest of innovative universities, was concentrated directly on training specialists for ensuring innovative cycle of creating science intensive products and technologies, the system of its support of management mechanisms.

Besides, success and fame of a higher school of Phystech are connected with the strict entrance control, high requirements for students, objective evaluation of their knowledge. Only the strongest, perfectly trained young people traditionally pass the selection, for whom the form of entrance control does not matter in fact. To this university young people always go not for "a core", but for knowledge. All entrants understand that in front several difficult and hard years await them, but it is that necessary "tempering", which will let in the future be successful not only in profession but in life in general.

Today the leaders of the university, relying on successful and traditions checked by time, in full measure use such innovations of education, as two-level system of higher school and entrance admission as by results of the Olympiads, as by results of the USE. By the way, I would like to underline that progress of students in the process of study rather earnestly correlates their USE results.

I believe, that for solving personnel problems of the Russian economy the experience of the Phystech on creating base chairs on the leading enterprises and scientific centers of the RAS, which lets unite educational, scientific and productive activity to one system, is utterly useful.

Further developing this direction with keeping at this the principal approach - the stake on leaders, we plan in the nearest future already to announce a contest of national research universities.

The idea of creating national research universities is a logical continuation of the process, the start for which was the mentioned contest of university innovative programs within the national project "Education".

A research university is a higher educational institution, equally efficiently performing educational and scientific activity on the basis of principles of science and education integration.

On the analogy of the contest of university innovative educational programs, the status of NRU will be given on the basis of the contest procedures. At this in the obligatory order there will be maintained the evaluation of the university on a number of criteria and expertise of development programs of scientific and educational centers of universities, which passed the preliminary selection within the first stage. The main principle of such a selection is "money and status for obligations". And keeping this principle will be controlled by the system of stated indicators of efficiency of realization of development programs.

In 2009 for the purposes of creating a network of scientific-research universities, there will be about 15 of them, we well send assignations in the volume of 3 billion rubles. These means are provided by the budget for the Federal education agency in the article "introduction of innovative educational programs". In 2010 and the following years the annual financing to the address of a university will achieve 400 billion rubles. At this means for 2010 will be found at the expense on introducing changes to federal target programs, the customer of which is the Ministry of education and science. And for support of NRU in 2011-2013 at elaborating the Federal target program of education for 2011 and the following years in its contest there will be provided the corresponding activities.

It is proposed that co-financing of activities of development programs from non-budget means will be not less than 20%.

The contest of development programs of NRU we plan to hold in the middle of the current year.

Simultaneously with solving marked tasks NRU are demanded to play a key role within anti-crisis mechanisms elaborating by the Government. They will help to solve problems of the quality of personnel training and will produce demanded specialists for the new economy of the country, which forms in crisis and after-crisis period.

In this plan one more instrument of anti-crisis influence can be revival of the institute of probationers-researchers, which was very efficient at the time when me and Nikolai Nikolaevich started our scientific activity, and let attract and motivate young and giving hope young people to do science.

The start of this mechanism will let us not only create a significant number of new workplaces, but will create motivation of attracting young people to scientific and educational sphere, will fix some part of probationers in these sectors. Means for support can be given within the existing budget assignations, firstly, by target way for NRU.

I consider that the question of efficient use of labor of probationers-researches will demand from universities and state academies of sciences the necessity to develop various mechanisms of interaction with industrial enterprises of Russia, to create a market of scientific-research and experimental-constructive works in the interests of our industry, to maintain target training and retraining of high quality personnel.

Creation of small innovative enterprises on the basis of leading universities will promote to the development (not to the keeping, but to the development of innovative sector of economics), which will ensure a multiplicative effect when organizing new workplaces. The further development of innovative infrastructure of universities will let us provide transfer of new technologies to the industry of Russia, and to create the market of science intensive technologies around the leading universities.

Thus, the existing economic situation means for us not only problems, but also some certain opportunities. Especially opportunities for industrial enterprises to look at the efficiency of their work in a new fashion by means of forming order for demanded specialists, who have a number of competences and are able to answer the needs of the real economics sector.

And, in the long run, the center of integrated system, where limits of responsibility of educational, scientific and business sphere on producing qualified personnel are wiped, is the student. A citizen of Russia, who has the constitutional right for education. And the task of the state and society is in creating conditions, at which a person, realized his/her right for education, could in full measure use his/her knowledge and apply it in practice in a maximally efficient for Russia's economy. This is the specialist demanded by the economy.