Elena Zagaynova: "Lobachevsky University is moving towards schools"
Last week, Lobachevsky University hosted school principals and teachers from Nizhny Novgorod. The meeting centered around the search for new forms of interaction between the higher education system and schools. The prospects for cooperation in the training of school students and university entrants were also discussed.
UNN Rector Elena Zagaynova welcomed the participants:
"Lobachevsky University is moving towards schools. We understand that schools provide the basis for preparing future applicants. You can steer our younger generation towards quality higher education in the right way. The schools now have a very difficult task: on the one hand, to provide deep and good knowledge, and on the other hand, to try to ensure that children from our region stay to study in Nizhny Novgorod. Lobachevsky University and the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region do a lot to encourage young people to stay here. UNN has a number of projects aimed at improving the education base, stimulating interest in learning and finding new forms of work. These include advanced engineering schools, projects under the "Priorities 2030" programme, and our famous IT campus, which will provide new comfortable living conditions for students, including those from Nizhny Novgorod. We are always ready to help and go hand in hand with the schools."
This year, Lobachevsky University’s Department for Work with Applicants has significantly restructured the format of its interaction with schools. A new vector of work in this direction has been outlined, aiming to attract school students to receive a quality education. In addition, new structural units have been created and new programmes of study are being implemented at UNN.
"A month ago we opened the Higher School of Arts and Design. This is a new structural unit where we are trying to develop creative industries along with natural sciences. We have already designed a number of master's programmes as part of this School: Media Art and Artificial Intelligence, Innovation and Design Management, and Culture and Museum Management. Apart from that, much is being done in the field of medicine. A new institute for clinical medicine has now been established, which brings together all clinical specialists. At the same time, there remains the Institute of Biology and Biomedicine, which will focus on training biologists and researchers for fundamental medicine. Our new institute will continue to train doctors in dentistry and general medicine. In addition, work on federal projects is underway. Under the Advanced Engineering Schools project, we will develop radiophysics, physics, chemistry and information technology. The project aims to develop the engineering workforce for the region and for Russia as a whole. By 2030, 16 degree programmes will be in place to train professionals in these areas," said Alexander Knyazev, UNN Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs.
Training highly qualified engineers is a very important task not only for Lobachevsky University, but also for the whole system of higher education in Russia. Under the federal project of Advanced Engineering Schools where UNN is one of the winners in the area of Aeropace Engineering, the university will train engineers with an early specialisation in high-tech fields of space communication, radar technology and navigation, which are the basis of telecommunication infrastructure for the exploration and use of outer space and airspace, the world ocean, the Arctic and for ensuring national security.
"We have a great responsibility as this is a government programme. The issue of training engineers has come to the forefront recently, especially in the era of import substitution. Factories and industrial enterprises are in dire need of qualified engineers - designers, operating and process engineers. Industry needs to be restored and developed, and new technologies need to be introduced into production. Engineers with appropriate qualifications and competencies will be worth their weight in gold in the near future. This means that higher education should contribute to solving the problem of personnel shortages as effectively as possible, and such work should start from the school bench," said Vladimir Chuvil’deev, Director of the UNN Physics and Technology Research Institute.
A discussion between representatives of the schools and Lobachevsky University also took place during the meeting, where the participants asked their questions, received answers and discussed new formats of interaction.
