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Home page > Engineering Education > The National Doctrine of Engineering Education. Basic principles Download the whole document (DOC, 389K)
THE NATIONAL DOCTRINE OF ENGINEERINNG EDUCATION
2. Education as part of the national development strategy of Russia Engineering education is now the largest subsystem of higher vocational training in Russia (Fig. 1). In 1998 the number of students, studying in universities at engineering departments reached 843,300, which accounted for 30.6% of all the university students; the number of successful graduates in the same year increased, it reached 128 800, which accounted for 30.2% of all the successful university graduates; the number of students at engineering departments, enrolled in that year, was 194,000, which accounted for 29.2% of all the enrolled university students.
Fig. 1. The recent years have seen the increasing school-leavers' demand for engineering professions. So in 1998 the entry competition rates (number of applicants div. by number of places available) for different fields were as follows: industry - 1.83, construction - 2.06, transport - 1.9, communication - 2.77, compared to the average entry competition rate in Russia equal to 1.99. It is noteworthy that the number of applicants (and thereby the entry competition rate) in 1998 was higher than in 1996. However, in spite of the scale of engineering training in Russia, the development of its technological potential, the implementation of high-tech, and the transfer of technologies are still limited by the insufficient level of education of able-bodied citizens. The number of university graduates among able-bodied citizens is approximately 18.5%, while in developed countries this figure has reached the level of 30 - 40%, and yet in certain economic regions it is as high as 60% (California, USA). At the beginning of the century, all the leading countries of the world anticipate an increase in the demand for engineers in the intellectual labor market and raise the alarm about the fact, that national systems of vocational training cannot completely satisfy this demand both quantitatively and, especially, qualitatively. Over the last ten years the number of working places in the USA increased by 15%, and the high-tech employment almost doubled. Half of the industrial employment in the USA today requires staff, which received a higher education. The deficit of high-tech specialists in the USA is 200,000 people. American experts say that if the present level and scale of the national engineering training remains the same, the deficit of high-tech specialists will be more than one million people. In the beginning of the century the Japan's demand for high-tech specialists will double and reach the level of two million people. South Korea has increased the number of its high-tech engineering students by ten times in order to satisfy the demand for high-tech specialists in future. It should be mentioned that in developed countries the salary of a high-tech engineer is constantly growing. In the USA, for instance, it reaches 70-80 thousand dollars a year. The forecast by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, presented by the bank's experts in September 1997, contains the following statement:
Almost all the developed countries as well as many developing ones had to go through a crisis situation at some point. It has become a truism, that a successful overcoming of any social and economic crises is achieved by prioritizing the development of professional education. Over the period between 1950 and 1990 the USA, for instance, faced 8 serious setbacks in production, caused by different internal and external factors. The adequate solutions to those problems were largely based on a competent policy in the sphere of education. This was also true for Marshall Plan for Europe and Southeast Asia. In the postwar Russia of the 50s the growth of the expenses on education was greater than that of the expenses on the reconstruction of the national economy. It is extremely important for our country to accept the fact that education today is an integral part of the national development strategy. The content of the doctrine of engineering education should be based on the belief that it is only by means of education that we are able to create a basis for new practices, new strategy, and a new policy to help our country overcome the socioeconomic crisis and develop better working conditions for people and come to a better life. Today, the world is solving the strategic task of transition to a technological pathway of development, transition to an "anthropoeconomy". Sound systems of national education and public health are being developed to establish an educational society, a society that saves money to ensure good health of its people.
The basis of the doctrine should contain the successful experience, the existing values and traditions of the Russian universities and the higher engineering school of Russia, as well as the experience of the most prominent overseas universities. The traditions of the higher technical school of Russia have been developing for more than two centuries now. Between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century the approach to engineering training in Russian universities implied a high-quality theoretical basis with a lot of practical training. In the USA and Germany of that time the higher technical education still had a stereotyped and mechanical nature. The development of the national higher engineering school was closely connected with the work of the departments of natural sciences in Russian universities, which allowed enhancing the theory and avoiding a narrow practical approach to engineering training. The graduates thus had the necessary encyclopedic knowledge. The most important feature of the higher engineering school of Russia is the special balance between the theory and practice. The practical approach is performed through a network of workshops, a resource package for laboratory and experimental work, and special teaching methods. In the 19th century, English, American, and German specialists recognized the leading position of the higher engineering school of Russia. Russian principles and methodology of engineering education were a major source of the development of higher schools in these countries. Thus, the Russian system of engineering training is not regarded as an empty space, which can be filled with the elements of American, Japanese, and German educational systems. Russian engineering training is first of all a set of successful traditions, fortified by the experience of the countries, where these traditions developed along different pathways. Any foreign innovations, introduced in the Russian system of engineering training, need to be thoroughly adjusted to the Russian reality and mentality.
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