The article presents the results of comparing aims and objectives of acting social and economic development strategies with the development programs aims and objectives in the regions within the North - Western Federal area of the Russian Federation. Comparison demonstrated that in several regions strategic development tasks related to educational system are not adequately reflected in the regional development programs aims and results for educational system which calls for improving the methodology of formulating documents of such type. Presented results can be used by the authorities in the process of formulating social and economic development programs and education development programs.

This article is of philosophic and methodological nature and is aimed at understanding the content of society development stages and relevant university transformation. Philosophical categories «activity-related - social - anthropological» are used as an instrument for analysis. Characteristics of four presented generations of universities are related to different stages of society development: pre-industrial - University 1.0; industrial - University 2.0; post-industrial - University 3.0; cognitive - University 4.0. Transition from one university generation to another is analyzed with the help of «overcoming - suggestion - development» scheme of activities, cognition and thinking, understanding of the world, institutional forms, etc. University changes taking place now are interpreted using the logic of phase transformation as an aspect of post-industrial period. Authors discuss peculiar features of cognitive phase - University 4.0. Obtained results allow for new understanding of changes taking places at universities and define university development perspectives. This article is the second of a series of publications presenting philosophic and methodological grounds of analyzing university transformation as a social institution, characteristics of university generations, description of University 4.0 contour.

The article formulates the tasks facing leading universities of the Russian Federation and related to upgrading their competitiveness and presents the experience of Perm National Research Polytechnic University in developing long term program of upgrading competitiveness in priority areas among the leading Russian and international academic and research centers. The article defines competitive advantages of PNRPU and priority academic and educational areas. The basis for successful development consists of professional and creative teaching and academic staff, managers, as well as young and motivated students willing to get engineering education. Authors look into concrete mechanisms of achieving strategic aims in main areas: academic and teaching activities modernization, formation of innovative ecosystem, personnel potential development, creation of effective university management system, improvement of social and cultural sphere. The article presents main principles of open university creation, forming PNRPU as a recognized Russian and international center in the field of developing high-tech technologies, mastering natural resources and space. Social and economic effects related to new university development program implementation are also evaluated. The article looks into Russian and international best practices in the field of improving global university competitiveness adapted for national research university working in the field of engineering. Attention is given to the aspect of forming modern university management system that would ensure university intensive development in the context of limited available resources. The article can be of interest to other Russian universities engaged in formulating or altering development programs and strategies.

The article is devoted to the analysis of main trends and aspects of the interaction of territories (regions, cities) and universities as subjects of foreign student recruitment process. The article formulates main social and economic effects and factors of attracting foreign students to the regions (individual territories of the country). Basing upon B. Clark’s coordination triangle transformation authors describe a regional model of foreign students recruitment system in the form of “regional authorities - regional business - regional academic community” and point out the most important parameters defining its efficacy considering the interests and efforts of all the regional stakeholders. This model is presented on the example of one of the Russian Federation regions - Republic of Tatarstan and Kazan Federal University.

He article represents the results of a research into international educational activities of Russian Universities. The aims of the research were to identify university groups with similar international educational Activities indicators in certain areas (based on data cluster analysis) and analyze university characteristics for each cluster (foreign students characteristics, university size, specialization, territorial position, university selectivity, teaching and research staff internationalization, international research). The research included 301 universities from all regions of the Russian Federation. We conducted hierarchical agglomeration cluster analysis on the following indicators: student internationalization, development of incoming academic mobility, teaching programs internationalization, internationalization of university income from educational activities, amount of fees paid by foreign students and commercialization of foreign students training. Cluster analysis identified five groups with similar characteristics that got the following names: «internationalization leaders», «leaders», «recruiters», «newcomers», «outsiders». The research demonstrated that most universities diversify the content of foreign students implementing both basic and supplementary teaching programs, offering different formats of training for the students from different countries. The size of the university does not predetermine the scope of its international activities. Each cluster includes universities with less than 1000 students and large universities with several thousand students. High performance clusters usually include multi - profile universities offering a broad spectrum of educational services for foreign consumers. Moscow and Saint Petersburg universities lead in terms of international educational activities. Universities from high performance clusters are the most selective in choosing students, have a large number of foreign teaching and research staff, high international quotation rating of academic publications by university researchers. Obtained results of the research are of interest to university administration as they form an overall picture of the current state and main trends of international educational activities at the Russian universities. Suggested university classification can serve as the basis for analyzing the position of a university in an international educational market and altering strategic plans on obtaining and strengthening positions at different segments of this market. The classification presented in the article does not reflect all the diverse ways Russian universities take to develop and broaden their international educational activities. At the same time research results allow for identifying several general models of the Russian universities’ behavior at the international educational market. Further research in the field of international educational activities of the Russian universities is required that would allow for a more detailed analysis of its current state and its main development trends for the recent years.

The aim of the article is the research in the field of university characteristics influencing the price of educational services and enrollment selectivity in terms of minimal entrance scores. We use statistics on 9600 bachelor programs collected by «Russian education» portal in order to define which charateristics of the region, city, specialization and university define entrance scores and the price of education. Using general linear model we can conclude that a) majority of variations in terms of prices is defined rather by the university characteristics (localization, age, size), than specialization; b) variation is largely defined by the difference of price levels in the region, and the regions with higher salaries (e. g. Moscow) prices are much higher than in poorer regions as it is, but in poorer regions the price for education is much higher in terms of average income; c) large cities have significant advantages as compared to smaller ones; d) university size and number of students of the program are important in determining prices; e) age of a university and academic potential in terms of lecturers with academic degrees which are used as the main variables determining the university status in American literature are practically insignificant. To support that we analyze the spread of minimal entrance OSE in the same programs. OSE are more varied in terms of specialization than in terms of university characteristics, though university characteristics are important too with two major differences: 1) in terms of city size good economic position of the region leads to lower entrance scores; 2) academic strength becomes statistically important. We believe it happens because outcoming educational migration is more pronounced in the regions with a relatively high level of life and academically successful students are oriented towards academic achievements of the university. Limitations of this research are related to the fact that it uses data only about state universities, excluding remote branches. In general results demonstrate that successful competition for income and talents at the educational service market is largely defined by characteristics beyond the control of university administration. Main practical conclusions are related to university efficacy evaluation: majority of indicators directly or indirectly depending on student demands are strongly and not always evidently influenced by contextual factors.

The purpose of the article presented is to consider features of application the programme and project technologies of managing a complex of interdisciplinary research in the educational institutions. The article considers the main approaches to the definition of the specificity of interdisciplinary projects, the role of universities in the system of economic development of the country, especially the use of programme and project technologies. On the experience of Southern Federal University, there are presented the results of their use in the management of interdisciplinary research complex. The study formed an idea of the mechanisms and tools of project management process of convergence of interdisciplinary research and development. Identifies and presents the main forms and mechanisms of application programme and project technologies of management in the educational organization. There was systematized and justified the practice of programme and project technologies of managing the complex technologies of interdisciplinary research and development organizations on the materials of Southern Federal University. The study made it possible to get a number of results of suspected scientific novelty - the proof of the feasibility of program-project technologies for managing interdisciplinary projects, justified the role of universities in the intensification of convergence of research and development, defined interdisciplinary project management tools (for example, Southern Federal University).

The article discusses the problem of interdisciplinarity of education as a reflection of social and professional activities interdisciplinarity. The author considers interdisciplinarity (transdisciplinarity) of university and engineering education, the formation of master’s degree programs of different profiles on the basis of interdisciplinarity. The article emphasizes the special role of selection tools and mechanisms for achieving educational programs interdisciplinarity. The article analyses the features of creating evaluation system for interdisciplinary educational programs, performing the final state certification, which includes the state examination and graduation qualification work.

The article is problem - oriented and is devoted to the modern state and trends of changes of university roles in social and economic development of the region. Economic crisis accompanied by sanctions from Western states worsened the situation of regional economies, in which universities traditionally played a significant role both in terms of personnel training and (particularly in the recent years) innovation development. The problem of university efficacy in interaction with real economy sector has once again become the top priority for higher education development. Within the framework of the RAF grant «Formation of nonlinear Russian higher education model in the region in the context of social and economic uncertainty» the authors conducted expert interviews with heads and teaching and academic staff of the universities, covering the challenges of interaction between universities and enterprises in the region. The results of these interviews demonstrated several gaps and limitations for university efficacy in this sphere caused by inert activities of the universities and contradicting interests of actors of social and economic development of the regions. The articles unveils key difficulties in interaction between universities and companies and suggests ways of overcoming them.

The article presents the results of analysis of information support of the Russian education system in general and higher education system received during research conducted by the Center of continuous education RPANEPA. Preparation of information and analytic materials related to comparative evaluation of the state of educational systems and organizations required the use of information resources presented at different sources: websites of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, RosStat, universities and education administration bodies of the Russian Federation. During this work several problems were identified related to obtaining and using required information which was the reason for conducting analysis and preparing suggestions on eliminating these problems. In order to prepare suggestions on improving information support we systematized requirements for information resources given in the active legislation documents. The results of studying information sources in the context of these requirements allowed for making a conclusion that resources containing information about universities do not fully meet requirements to openness and accessibility and also for formulating the challenges of using information for preparing analytical materials concerning the state of educational system, its subsystems and elements. Conducted analysis allowed for formulating suggestions on improving information support in the field of unifying the structure and format of information keeping as well as access interfaces, adapted to the needs of the main users target groups.

The aim of this research article is the detection of university administrative potential gender peculiarities on the basis of the analysis of women - executives position in the intra - university management system, defining trends and practical recommendations on its development. The research covers higher education institutions of the Russian Federation. The objects of the research are the women taking executive positions at Russian universities. The research demonstrates that higher education has a tendency towards vertical influence of gender characteristics. Just like state authorities, business and manufacture, universities give les influence to women as compared to men. Yet there is a tendency towards growing number of women - executives in higher education. For the last fifteen years there has been a growth of the number of women at all levels of intra - university executive positions: department deans - 18 %, vice - rectors and heads of chairs - 15 %, rectors - 8 %, which suggests an activation of women’s involvement into the university management process. It has been found out that a necessary prerequisite for enhancing women’s role in in intra-university managerial activity is the formation of managerial potential which acts as a system phenomenon and is an integrated performance criteria of managerial skills implementation depending on accumulated managerial resources (qualities and features), degree of existing managerial abilities actualization (motives and skills) and presence of managerial reserves creating prerequisites for further implementation in future. Achieving gender equality in higher education management requires academic support and defines the necessity and perspective of conducting special gender research. Novelty and originality of this article is in a clearly pronounced gender aspect of research in the field of developing Russian university managerial potential. The authors analyze women’s position in the system of intra - university management. Peculiar feature of this research is that it offers and explains measures aimed at effective formation, implementation and development of managerial potential of women - executives at higher educational institutions.

The article presents a review of existing Russian universities typologies. Lately we have witnessed considerable interest towards this problem arising from the current changes in the field of higher education in Russia, including introduction of USE, transition to two-level model, overall use of rating system of student knowledge evaluation, etc. The sechanges are reflected in all aspects of society’s life which in turn makes universities of all types work harder to meet the requirements of all population groups. Dividing educational institutions according to the role they play in the macro-region is the ultimate aim for organizing university typology. Therefore practical significance of a typology is also manifested in supporting right decision making in the field of higher education management. The aim of this article is to study existing university typologies and possibility of their application in the Russian educational space. The review presented in the article is built on the analysis of national university typologies appearing after 2012. Considering the fact that international educational systems have their own typologies [1], ours can supplement foreign experience taking into account Russian specifics. Analysis of Russian universities typologies presented in the article is built on a methodological approach of modern Russian higher education nonlinear development [2, 3]. Nonlinear model of higher education suggests existence of close network interaction between universities of different types. According to this model all educational space subjects should interact in a horizontal dimension. Therefore there is a need for a brand new university typology that allows for describing national educational space as a unity of macro-regional educational systems each functioning effectively on its territory in a horizontal dimension. By macro-regions we mean Federal areas, by regions - subjects of the Russian Federation. Russian education is a combination of many educational systems, practically autonomous clusters. According to that any typology applied to all educational space of Russia will have its limitations. Therefore the article speaks of a possibility to apply typologies to educational space using the example of one macro-region - Ural Federal area. The choice of this particular region can be explained by its geographic, economic, social and cultural peculiarities. The novelty of the article is in the attempt of using existing approaches to university typology in order to analyze macro-regional system of the Ural Federal area. Applying existing university typologies to macro-regional educational space has demonstrated that at present they are difficult to use as the current situation requires using nonlinear approach. The review has resulted in forming a database forformulating author’s criteria system and a matching typology that would work effectively for a macro-regional educational space.