Russian
November 30, 2018 in the Fundamental Library of the Moscow State University the international conference “Third University Mission” was held. Foreign and domestic experts and rectors of leading Russian universities participated in the plenary session and discussions.
According to Viktor Sadovnichiy, the rector of the Moscow State University who opened the conference, the third mission of the university is social responsibility, the role of the university in society, region and country:
Various ratings pay more and more attention to the analysis and evaluation of the relationship between the university and the society. At the moment this assessment is most fully presented in the Russian rating of the “Third University Mission”.
The head of the Federal Education and Science Supervision Agency, Sergey Kravtsov, accented that the “Third University Mission” rating is a product of the discussion of the Russian Union of Rectors, and that the agency plans to use the results of the rating in the system of accreditation, state control and supervision.
“The rating is a system of support and decision-making, ” – noted Marina Borovskaya, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. “It is a method of placing accents, an aid for managing the university and the education system as a whole."
The president of the international association IREG Observatory, Luis Costa, pointed out that any assessment system makes sense if it helps to improve the quality of education, helps the university to become better; and that the Russian Union of Rectors has done a lot of important work on creating the “Third University Mission” rating.
“Russian universities have a high prestige in Europe, but it is necessary to strengthen the promotion, try to integrate into European culture,” – said the vice-president of IREG Waldemar Sivinski. – “We have one goal: to improve the quality of scientific research and deepen the internationalization of higher education and science, because it is impossible to do science at the national level, without relating it to world science.”
“The “Third University Mission” rating opens up new approaches to the assessment of universities not only in the present, but also in the future,” – said Vladimir Zernov, Rector of the Russian New University (RosNOU). – “The world develops rapidly; new professions appear faster than people receive education. And the task of ratings is not only to evaluate what has been achieved, but also to catalyze, guide the development of universities. Therefore, it is especially important that universities interact with society; this is one of the main points that will interest us in the future.”