Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Fursenko, how are university admissions going? They are almost over. What results are we seeing?
Andrei Fursenko: The first of the two stages of admissions has been completed. We are faced with a problem of demographic decline, due to which the number of applicants has decreased by 10%.
Vladimir Putin: That collapse dates back about 20 years, doesn't it?
Andrei Fursenko: Yes, and unfortunately, its effects will be felt until 2020.
This year admissions went much more smoothly because the applicants had a better understanding of where they should apply, where they could be sure of getting a place, especially for government sponsored places, based on last year's experience. They were also better aware of the universities they should apply to based on their results in the Single State Examination (SSE).
Among the positive trends seen this year is an increased demand for technical vocations. Moreover, some higher educational establishments have asked us to increase the number of government sponsored places in engineering departments, as they experienced greater than expected competition for enrolment. There are some very knowledgeable applicants with good grades, and since universities are interested in admitting them, we will give them this opportunity. We have some extra government-funded places reserved and can allocate them to engineering specialisations. This particularly applies to regional universities, in those regions where there are several industrial concerns able to generate demand for a particular specialisation and also go on to provide graduate job opportunities.
Vladimir Putin: Recently we have often said that we need to support vocational education alongside academic education. Various programmes have been proposed, including providing subsidies for businesses that will place orders for innovative projects in these higher educational establishments. How is that work progressing?
Andrei Fursenko: I can show you on a chart, if you that's OK. I think this is one of the most interesting projects. If you recall, three competitions were announced. The first was for a collaborative project between companies and universities, the second was on supporting innovation infrastructure, and the third involved inviting leading scientists from different countries to come here and teach alongside carrying out research.
Under the collaboration project between companies and universities, we have received 500 proposals from 157 universities; about 200 proposals have been received for the innovation infrastructure project; and 179 universities have applied to invite leading scientists from abroad. Interestingly, there are 82 universities that have applied for all three tenders.
Thus, a core of universities has emerged even without any administrative involvement on our part.
This core group includes all our leading universities, competition winners among research universities, and federal universities. Moreover, not all the universities in this group come under our ministry. Some of them are affiliated with the Health and Social Development Ministry, the Ministry of Transport and so on. MGIMO (the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations) has also submitted a proposal that includes some very interesting projects. We are talking about universities all over Russia. Along with Moscow and St. Petersburg, which have traditionally been the leaders in the field, two other very strong university clusters have emerged in Tomsk and Kazan. In addition, there are about four or five others that come very close to them. These include Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, and Yekaterinburg. Chelyabinsk is also catching up with that group.
In other words, the resources are not concentrated in one place.
Vladimir Putin: These are impressive figures; they indicate a fairly even distribution of self-sufficient higher educational establishments.
Andrei Fursenko: Ours is, of course, a very large country, and it is not just Europe...And even in Europe they are distributed quite evenly.
We have already processed all the proposals and are considering the results of the competitions. By the way, we have received some very interesting proposals from leading scholars. Approximately half of the 500 applications are from Russian citizens. There are about forty individuals with dual citizenship and 170 foreign scholars, who have very good academic credentials and citation indices, attesting to the fact that they are indeed leading scientists. These scholars are ready and willing to come here for three years or for an extended period to teach and establish working groups.
Vladimir Putin: That's good. So essentially the project is off to a good start.
Andrei Fursenko: A certain structure is emerging, and what's important is that emerging independently without any administrative pressure. That means we can flesh it out, facilitating collaboration and coordination with our industry and economy.
Vladimir Putin: Very good. Finally, the traditional question for this time of year, it is August now and time to prepare for September 1. How is this work progressing?
Andrei Fursenko: Mr Putin. First, we have an established procedure. For several years now, we have been coordinating this work with the Emergencies Ministry and the Federal Service for the Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare. We have created a commission comprising representatives from all relevant agencies, including educational agencies, Emergencies Ministry, and the Federal Service for the Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare.
This means that schools are inspected jointly by the agencies comprising the commission. I am very grateful to my colleagues Sergei Shoigu and Gennady Onishchenko, with whom we have agreed that our commission will carry out school inspections. This allows all the issues to be addressed and resolved together, and means that headteachers do not have to shuttle back and forth between each individual agency. The work is proceeding in a satisfactory manner. The commission convened back in June and we agreed to have started preparing for the new school year by August 1 and to have finished the work by August 25. We have scheduled two conference calls on August 20 and August 30. The government commission on emergencies prevention and disaster relief will meet on August 27, chaired by Sergei Shoigu. It will finalise the preparations.
Of course, this year's disaster, the fires and other natural disasters, have interfered.
Vladimir Putin: How do you plan to organise assistance for children, whose families have been affected by this disaster, who have lost their homes?
Andrei Fursenko: First, to date we have lost only two schools - both in the Ryazan region. A secondary school (for middle and senior secondary school pupils in years 5 to 11) for 65 people burned down in the village of Kriushy, as has an elementary school for 13 people in the village of Lakovoe. No schoolchildren suffered, they were all evacuated. In other areas, we managed to save all the schools, even in Nizhny Novgorod. You visited that school, the one for 120 people, in Verkhnyaya Vyksa (link).
Vladimir Putin: I saw that school.
Andrei Fursenko: We are in communication with the regions, and are asking them what they need. Nizhny Novgorod, for example, requested additional buses to transport schoolchildren. There was a Government resolution (link) to allocate funds for the automobile industry to produce additional buses for the regions, including for educational purposes. We will submit a request for use these funds to be used to purchase buses for regions affected by the fires. This may require a new Government resolution.
Vladimir Putin: You know, everything must be done on time. In the case that you mentioned, the whole village burned down there, and the only building that survived was the school. How are you planning to use it?
Andrei Fursenko: The only way is to bus children there from the neighbouring villages.
Vladimir Putin: Let's think how we can do this. The village will be under reconstruction. We need to discuss this and consider all available options well in advance. We need to ensure that children in families affected by the natural disaster can start school on September 1 without any disruption to the beginning of their school year.
Andrei Fursenko: This is precisely why we started calling all the regions from the end of last week. There is another problem. Those evacuated from the affected regions and rescue workers have, in some cases, been housed in school buildings. In Nizhny Novgorod, for example, they are planning to vacate the schools by the end of this week for repair works.
Vladimir Putin: Please get to grips with this.
Andrei Fursenko: Will do.
Vladimir Putin: Please instruct your staff to visit these regions themselves, in person and see how it is on the ground. They will report back to you. Also, please put together an appropriate plan for September 1 preparations.