OREANDA-NEWS. The 2nd Global Forum of Universities, Global Competitiveness, was held. The Forum was arranged for by 'Expert RA' rating agency. The Forum focused on university ratings, education improvement and cooperation between universities and employers.

"It took 'Expert RA' two years to build up a coherent frame of reference for assessment of Russian and foreign universities," noted Mr. Alexey Khodyrev, Executive Director, University Ratings, 'Expert RA'. "We have published ratings of Russian and CIS universities and the global rating of universities in terms of demand for their graduates by the world's top employers. Ratings of Russian and CIS universities identified to the gap between the needs of employers that are badly in need of engineering experts, on the one hand, and the selection of the prospective students that prefer liberal and economic professions, on the other. However, our global rating suggested that the world's leading corporations hire Russian university graduates willingly."

Victor Sadovnichy, M.V. Lomonossov Moscow State University Rector, highlighted the importance of comprehensive university scoring when the ratings are drawn up and voiced the main university development areas, "The more pixels a picture contains, the higher its quality is. The same is true about ratings - the more aspects are taken into account, the less biased a university rating is. A university quality is the combination of scientific work with its practical application. For me, the essential thing is to ensure renaissance of the creative and scientific environment in the university, but we must remember about the quality of the school leavers seeking admission to universities."

Mikhail Eskindarov, Rector, Financial University at the Russian Government, specially noted the significance of Russian ratings, "There is no point in hoping that governmental funding will help our universities get into Top 30 of foreign ratings. They have different rules of the game. We will be able to find ourselves at the top of these ratings in 20-30 years, rather than in 5-7 years. It's not a problem, yet we need domestic ratings that will show a true picture of Russian universities' performance."

Victor Koksharov, Rector of the Urals Federal University named after Mr. B.N. Yeltsin, Russia's First President, emphasized the importance of new funding sources for universities, "As concerns financing, all of us rely on the state to some extent. No doubt, all of us should look for alternative funding sources, including engagement of contractual students. However, attraction of students on contractual conditions should not become the core line of business for a university. Off-budget funds account for approx. 40% of our university's total funding; we think this share is still low and will increase it."

Valdemar Sivinski, Vice President, IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence, spoke about the specific features of regulation and selection of university ratings, "Initially, IREG represented a group of rating makers. Then we understood the need in discussing and regulating ratings. Finding information for making any rating is easy now; the key for a rating is to win trust. No rating makes sense in case of no confidence in it. So we are active in creating different databases, in particular, those of premiums in education and science, so that ratings are based on them."

Mikhail Strikhanov, Rector, National Research Nuclear University of MEPhI, commented on the balance between education affordability and elitism, "The issue of branches is multi-faceted. If all top students study in 3-4 major Russian cities, nothing good will come of it. Sociological surveys suggest that a majority of Moscow-based university graduates stay in Moscow. We took over the task of regional education development and we do not regret about it. We see interested employers already. Keen on having qualified personnel in the regions, they support us."

Fernando De Melo, Head of the Representative Office of the European Chamber of Science and Industry in Russia and CIS, touched upon university relations with employers, "European employers' primary desire is to get a university graduate used to the technological process as soon as possible. A great number of programs aimed at rapprochement of employers and future employees have been developed so far. Such programs should be developed in Russia and CIS. Both universities and employers play a major part in this issue."

Several discussion participants raised the topic of excessive university regulation. In particular, Victor Sadovnichy, MSU Rector, proposed that universities should be granted greater autonomy. It is very difficult to engage business community representatives in university teaching, because half of the working time is spent on paper work, rather than on research, as the case is in the West, stated Sergey Myasoedov, Vice Rector, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Service at the Russian President.