Interview of editor in chief A. K. Kluyev with the experts: B. C. Meskhy, rector of Don State Technical University, S. M. Dmitriyev, rector of Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after R. E. Alekseev, O. V. Pilipenko, rector of Orel State University named after I. S. Turgenev

2016 witnessed the first stage of implementing development program of pillar universities of the first wave of competition selection. The article presents a short description of the program, pillar university models and quality analysis of the results of program development implementation results in 2016 based on monitoring results. Conducted analysis allows for concluding that besides performing plans in terms of efficacy indicators and road map implementation, pillar universities in 2016 obtained real results in the field of changing their position in the region and forming proactive position in facilitating social and economic development of relevant Russian Federation regions. This allowed pillar universities for initiating processes of forming regional innovation infrastructure: opening techno-parks, business - incubators, collective use centers, etc.; initiating absolutely new formats of interaction with the region aimed at developing local communities, municipal and regional environment; intensifying the work with strategic partners in the Russian Federation. This article addresses project teams of Russian universities.

The material is presented as a conceptual article. The aim of the article is to define the development pattern of flagship universities that take particular place in the national system of higher education both in Soviet and post-Soviet times. The research design includes analysis of historic materials, regulative documents reflecting the peculiarities of higher education development in the Soviet times and in modern Russia. The research identifies three main stages of flagship university development. The first stage is characterized by flagship university development in the context of direct administration of the state whereas university «flagshipness» was restricted to a particular place in the educational system. The next stage suggested decreasing roles of flagship universities in the context of university autonomy and sharp decline of state involvement (1990s). At present flagship university development happens in the context of state participation with the aim of creating new educational network structure (2000 till present). At that moment two types of flagship universities are arising: multi-profile universities combining research mission with the mission of mega-region development and infrastructure universities driving regional development. In future it seems reasonable to conduct a series of interviews with representatives of flagship university administration in order to identify quality characteristics of these universities development in the context of national educational system development tasks.

This research article describes the best practices of different countries in initiating and maintaining international networking activity between universities. The main purpose of this research is to analyze how educational institutions’ networks can be classified depending on their models. According to the authors of the article, revealing criteria and types significant for the classification will facilitate the creation and promotion of networking activity in educational institutes. The authors described the criteria for classification of network interaction, taking into account the analysis of existing network international strategic partnerships. Analysis of the activities of joint universities network showed that favorable educational legislation, as well as state support to national universities that initiate and develop network activity enable their development and expansion. Development of network interaction and joint teaching programs has become a part of university internationalization all over the world. For the first time network universities that appeared in the last decade of ХХ century and joint teaching programs function at most international universities and their number is growing every year. Federal law «On education in the Russian Federation» N 273-ФЗ of 29.12.2012 for the first time introduces norms regulating functioning of joint teaching programs and network cooperation of universities. At the same time practical implementation of joint universities and programs as well as their creation leave many questions unanswered in the field of regulative, organizational, content and financial aspects. Therefore the research in the field of successfully functioning network cooperation models and joint teaching programs seems a relevant topic. The article can be useful to those Russian universities that develop network communication or plan to work in different fields of network communication in future.

The main aim of the research article is to analyze the social and economic position of the regions where pillar universities are under the process of formation. At present there is a growing discussion about the feasibility of forming pillar universities. On the one hand, there are opponents of such a reform who believe that mergers are useless. On the other hand, there are supporters who believe that the new university system allows for eliminating ineffective regional universities and for making educational system more effective for the regions. The article is aimed at justification of creating pillar universities considering statistic data presented by official sources and analysis of real situation in the regions. Gathered analytical data allows for forming stable opinion on the necessity of creating pillar universities and suggesting field orientation for universities for each region depending on the analysis results. Such monitoring allows for choosing the most perspective directions of university development and opportunities for accumulating resources for territory development. The present article uses analysis and comparison methods. It covers the following aspects: intra - country region ratings; strict reporting documents; social and economic performance indicators of the regions; pillar universities’ websites; analysis of self-evaluation reports of pillar universities; pillar universities development strategies. The results of the research prove the need for forming pillar universities. The conclusions are based on the conducted analysis of social and economic indicators of the region (migration growth, population numbers, number of employable population, population income structure, GDP structure in the region, organization liquidation/creation coefficient etc.), wherein a pillar university is formed. This article can serve as a methodological material for pillar universities executives in the field of forming trajectory and further development according to the regional needs, as well as understanding problem areas and creation of favourable conditions for development (e. g. entrepreneurial sphere). This research should continue in the field of creating and developing pillar university and its influence on territory development. At present only first steps on the way the pillar university creation have been made and this is the main hindrance to conducting performance results analysis. The main task of this article is to conduct such data analysis that would demonstrate the need for creating pillar universities at the level of numbers and help universities realize their important role in territory development. This article is particularly important for those pillar universities that have necessary resources and aim at becoming territory development drivers for their regions. The originality of this article is in the detailed analysis of the social and economic indicators of the region, in the analysis of the main university indicators. The article is of an informational character and helps in defining development directions and perspective areas for the university and the region where it is situated. This topic has not been researched in detail yet, the latter fact showing the relevance of the research given.

This research article is devoted to the development of methodology for evaluating efficacy of regional economic systems and higher education sphere. The aim of the research is to justify the indicators of evaluating influence and input of universities into the regional innovation development. Analysis of the instruments measuring innovation development level the most wide - spread of which is the index of regional innovation development leads to the conclusion that with all their analytical importance we need to formulate special indicators for evaluating efficacy and quality of innovation development, monitoring and evaluation of investment perspectives, aims and results of state innovation policy. We suggest evaluation of university input into innovation development based on the methodology of Data envelopment analysis, which allows for comparing complex economic systems using analysis of Inputs and Outputs and indiscreet parameters of all these systems’ functioning. Regional innovation system and university as an actor in this system represent a complex organized ecosystem which transforms variable parameters of input and factors of innovation development into obtained variable parameters of Output - results of innovation activities. Activities of studied complex object with many inputs and outputs are analyzed in functioning environment and compared with other actors. Based on DEA it is possible to build a matrix spreading data according to three categories: resources, results and rigid parameters using the Malkmist Index and obtain conclusions on regional innovation system efficacy and evaluate university input into regional innovation development using the thesis of higher level of activity of those regions that obtains more results with relatively similar number of resources. Input of universities into innovation development of the region to which they belong is determined by a set of factors the most important of which are: level of regional innovation development; level of regional innovation potential; level of university intellectual potential for regional development. To evaluate publicly available Rosstat indicators describing university activities and innovation development of Russian regions using statistic evaluation of technological development of economics, innovations, technologies and science the growth of which can be interpreted as an indication of positive level of innovation development of the region. Above mentioned positions were classified according to input and output indicators, system efficacy criteria were defined. Development of such methods for evaluating efficacy of reginal innovation system and input (involvement) of universities into regional development allows for studying different aspects of regional university activities creating instruments for evaluating their potential in the field of supporting regional innovation development. It seems reasonable to use above mentioned approach for analyzing the role and potential of social institutions of regional development and innovation regional systems, activation of innovation activities of its subjects, as well as for evaluating and formulating mechanisms of upgrading efficacy of universities and ranking regions. This is important for strategic planning of innovation regional strategies and allows for more effective implementation of innovation policy in the regions.

The article is prepared based on materials of the research on competitiveness of Russian universities with different status: 5-100 Project participants, federal universities, national research universities, classical universities of Privolzhsk Federal Area, pillar universities of the first and the second wave. At present state of development of higher education system of Russia there is already practical experience of upgrading efficacy which is important for involving potential for modernization of regional pillar universities activities in the process of effective regional development. The aim of this research article is to evaluate competitiveness of different groups of pillar universities of the first and second waves on the basis of benchmarking analysis using the data of National university efficacy monitoring - 2017 conducted by Interfax group. The results of the research allowed for identifying problem areas decreasing competitiveness of pillar universities at the national higher education market. According to the results of research it was defined that after the first year of the pillar universities development program implementation we witness lower average scores of overall and individual ratings formed within the National university rating. Correlation analysis results demonstrated that first year results of first wave pillar university development program show strengthening of modernization activities effect on the position of universities in the National university rating and their competitiveness. Conducted research demonstrates insufficient competitiveness of second wave pillar universities group in comparison with other university groups. Research conducted by the author does not claim the full representation of all potential pillar universities of Russia as it covers only winners of competitions for becoming pillar universities in 2015 and 2017. At the same time it allows for formulating main directions for improving competitiveness of pillar universities. Novelty and originality of the article is as follows: a) task -setting; improving university competitiveness management mechanisms based on external management reserves, including regional ones, b) suggested approach to solving it on the basis of generalizing best practices of interaction between regional innovation system actors, including pillar universities; c) suggested conceptual model of modernizing pillar universities main activities directions in the context of upgrading their efficacy. Practical importance of the research is defined by the fact that pillar universities managers obtain mechanisms for evaluating and upgrading competitiveness which should be supported by harmonization with mechanisms of region’s competitiveness comparative evaluation (with the aim of upgrading efficacy of university strategic projects management, modernization of educational activities on the basis of implementing project - oriented study, modernization of educational, research and innovation activities using the potential of private - state partnership), introducing mechanisms of value - oriented approach (for upgrading efficacy of university and region human capital involvement), development of mechanisms of interaction with regional innovation system actors (with the aim of maximal use of regional innovation and economic systems potential). The article is an attempt to evaluate competitiveness of national pillar universities and define the ways of improving it. It can be of interest to higher education system researchers in the context of improving approaches to university management.

Within this research article, we tried to adopt the existing methods of break-even analysis (applicable for modern enterprises) to the methods of managing higher school institutions. The urgent need for this tool is based on the crisis events in the universities’ economy, on the annual shortage of student contingent caused by the demographic situation of the country. The authors suggest the effective usage of the multi-component break-even analysis, as the modern universities perform the wide range of educational services and forms. The basic instrument of multi-component break-even analysis includes the usage of assortment shifts and their influence over the location of the point of zero-profit. The important aspect (idea) of the article is understanding the fact that it is necessary to manage not only a single parameter, but the group of indicators simultaneously. The application of this tool in the future will create a number of integrated indicators to characterize the conditions of the break-even activity of universities. Only in this case it will be possible to achieve the effective management of higher schools with the help of the break-even methods. The using of the approaches suggested allows the management team to preserve the university’s property, educational and technical base, human and scientific resources, and in some case to upgrade the social infrastructure. The area of applying the results of the study is planning the financial and economic activities of the universities.

The article presents conceptual grounds and practical actions of Kostroma State University strategy of becoming an entrepreneurial one. It is demonstrated that key type of activities in such a case is adaptation and transfer of technologies. Based on analysis of social and economic position of Kostroma region districts key technologies and products to be in demand in Kostroma regions are defined; process of transforming main university activities is described with the aim of transition to entrepreneurial university model The article describes models of different types of university activities developed according to the results of strategic planning and aimed at transforming Kostroma State University into an entrepreneurial university. Obtained models can be used by other universities. Complex of models and practice - oriented recommendations based on them allow universities to pass transformation with the aim of meeting modern higher education development requirements and are of interest to practitioners and researchers working in the field of higher education modernization.

The given article is of research character and aims at identifying the problems and development mechanism prospects of commercialization of university intellectual activity results through the establishment of small innovative enterprises. The research is based on the analysis of small innovative enterprises creation and functioning mechanism carried out on the basis of empirical data of Don State Technical University. The applied methods of systemic and situational analysis increase the objectivity of the results obtained. It is demonstrated that the main problems of small innovative enterprises functioning have organizational and financial character. The prospects of small innovative enterprises are seen in university innovation ecosystems development allowing creating the necessary environment for their functioning and, thus, improving their attractiveness. The results obtained can be useful to the heads of the universities and public author ment programs and strategies.

The case presented in the article describes the experience of Petrozavodsk State University as a largest pillar university of Northern European part of Russia in the field of searching for the mechanisms of broadening its participation in strategic development of Arctic region of Russia by means of training staff in relevant specializations/ fields of training. Nowadays there is a deficit of highly qualified specialists in several professions important for the Arctic region of Russia which will grow in future together with the development of Arctic projects. This leads to the necessity of training specialists for Arctic region not only at the universities situated there, but also at the universities from other regions. The research is based on comparative analysis of existing list of arctic professions which are in demand now and require higher education as well as personnel training structure at Petrozavodsk State University as a Sub-Arctic university with a potential for solving staff problems from several regions of the Russian Federation. Results of the conducted evaluation are presented in the terms of classification “deficit (a lack of labor resources) -balance (a balance between supply and demand for labor resources) - proficit (an excess of labor resources)”. According to the results of research the specializations/ areas of training in which PetSU can train graduates for meeting the demand in highly qualified specialists in Arctic region of Russia. Based on that information materials were developed on potential and perspectives of the university with detailed information about those specializations and areas of training that are in demand. Suggested mechanism is universal and can be used in organizing management of universities in other regions including pillar universities as well as the direction for network cooperation between the universities of Arctic and sub - Arctic regions. This research obtained information from the following sources: results of post - graduates‘ employment monitoring; documents on strategic development of territories in Arctic region of Russia; questionnaires results from leading employers of Arctic region of Russia; monitoring of employment agencies vacancies; list of specializations in demand on the Federal level of Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation; forecasts on demand for personnel in the Arctic region economy

The article provides an overview of the state of the regional higher education. The authors examine the role of the Khanty - Mansiysk Autonomous Area - Ugra higher education system in the development of innovative processes. The authors propose variants of interaction of the University and Business, of the University and the Region. Following the logic of systems analysis, the authors show the inevitability and naturalness of innovative changes in the economy of the Autonomous Area. The analysis points to the need for building a system links of the University and the region. The article is addressed to a broad range of specialists representing state authorities, regional authorities, companies, education and research institutions.

This article is devoted to a review of approaches and practices of applying macroeconomic methods of prognosticating demands of economics in qualified personnel. In order to manage university activities, prognostication of demand for qualified staff with higher education within the region is the basis for forming the graduates recruitment policy, including via forming control enrollment numbers. Academic periodical contain many original publications but there is no review article on this topic. The article presents a complete overview of Russian and international publications for the period between 1990 and 2016 devoted to the topic of personnel prognostication of economic demands. Theoretical and practical scope of review article covers the analysis of the «economics - labour market - education system» interrelations. «Annual additional demand for personnel in economics» is described as well its differences from «vacancy» notion. The authors provide basics of macroeconomic prognostication methodology with high detalization of personnel demand calculations (to the type of economic activities, professions in economics, professional education training programs. The article presents matrices of professional and qualification compliance which allows for shifting from quantitative prognostication evaluation according to economic activities types to demand for professions in economics and educational specializations. Publications analysis demonstrates that macroeconomic method of prognostication is commonly acknowledged and is used for planning enrolment in higher and medium level education institutions both at federal and regional levels. Employer polls are supplementary and allow for tuning coefficients of macroeconomic method model. Despite the fact that macroeconomic prognostication method has been under development for many years there is still a number of unsolved questions related to different stages of prognostication algorithm implementation. These questions are analyzed in the section «Problem areas for future research». Particular importance of the macroeconomic prognostication methodology is in practical activities of federal, research, and flagship universities, as they are responsible for personnel support of federal areas, industry branches and regions respectively. Novelty and value of the article is in the fact that this is the first publication in Russian academic periodic literature which contains both personnel prognostication methods analysis and their practical implementation for ensuring balance at the labour market in terms of professional and qualification content.