Modern Problems of Interaction of the Higher Education System and the Labor Market in the Russian Federation

• Author: E. Karavaeva, S. Zapryagaev
• Pages: 399-403

International Relations in the Contemporary World. Geopolitics and Diplomacy

399

Modern Problems of Interaction of the Higher Education System and the

Labor Market in the Russian Federation

Evgenia Karavaeva1, Sergey Zapryagaev2

Abstract: The EU initiative to create a unified European system of higher education (as a response to the dominance

of US universities in the field of education and to the need of integration the dissimilar systems of individual European

countries education) has initiated a significant process of rethinking the notions of higher education in both individual

countries and globally. The Russian education system was involved into the European process of reform and

modernization by the own initiative, trying to find answers to the new challenges posed by the market economy and by

the new socioeconomic structure of Ru ssia. However, even after 20 years of continuous transformation, the current

higher education system of the Russian Federation still remains before a real list of unresolved problems and challenges.

Keywords: Higher Education System; Labor Market; Russian Federation

1. Introduction

The EU initiative to create a unified European system of higher education (as a response to the

dominance of US universities in the field of education and to the need of integration the dissimilar

systems of individual European countries education) has initiated a significant process of rethinking the

notions of higher education in both individual countries and globally. The Russian education system

was involved into the European process of reform and modernization by the own initiative, trying to

find answers to the new challenges posed by the market economy and by the new socioeconomic

structure of Russia. However, even after 20 years of continuous transformation, the current higher

education system of the Russian Federation still remains before a real list of unresolved problems and

challenges.

Outside of the customary planned economy, the traditional higher education institutions have given rise

to considering themselves as the not modern structures that ostensibly lag behind the demands of the

labor market. At the same time, the European and world criteria for un iversities became as the main

criteria for the definition of a “modern university” in RF. The quality of education and the relevance of

graduates to the labor market have become among the main criteria for assessing the activities of Russian

universities. As a result, a noticeable difference manifested between the existing content of the Russian

Federation higher education, based on academic standards and actual requirements of employers to

graduates. (Pilipenko, Zhidkov, Karavaeva & Serova, 2016, pp. 5-15) This difference was most

noticeable in the group of classical universities that created during the Soviet period. They found

1 PhD, ACUR, Moscow State University, Russia, Address: Vorobiovy gory, MSU, main building, A-1006, Moscow, Russia,

119991, Tel.: +7 495 939 25 05, Corresponding author: karavaeva@rector.msu.ru.

2 Professor, PhD, Voronezh State University, Russia, Address: University pl.1, Voronezh, Russia, 394006, Tel.:

+79036529105, E-mail: zsa@main.vsu.ru.