Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during the meeting that in keeping with programmes that he already approved, the Arctic, North-Eastern and Ural Federal Universities will each get 5 billion roubles in government appropriations before the year 2014. Mr Putin added that a development programme for St Petersburg State University had been given the go-ahead on October 7 and that this institution would also receive 5 billion roubles from the federal budget in the 2010-2012 period. Also, the prime minister recalled that a programme for Moscow State University through 2020 had been approved earlier. Five billion roubles will be sent to the university under this programme over the next two years, he said, adding that the total amount of money earmarked was 80 billion roubles.

Introductory remarks by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:

Ladies and gentlemen,

I have signed a number of executive orders adopting development programmes for our leading universities. I've recently met with Mr Viktor Sadovnichy [Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University] to discuss the development programme for the university. Today I signed an executive order to launch a similar programme for St Petersburg State University. These programmes will be implemented at two national universities, Moscow and St Petersburg Universities, and seven federal universities. Today I'd like to focus on their development plans.

The main objective of the government's modernisation strategy for higher education is to form the pivot of a strong, comprehensive and competitive system through support for renowned leaders in this area and the creation of new strong educational centres.

As you know - and I have mentioned it today - the government will use specific support mechanisms for Moscow and St Petersburg Universities and seven federal universities. In addition to Southern and Siberian Universities, this year we established Arctic University in Arkhangelsk, Ural University in Yekaterinburg, Volga University in Kazan, North-Eastern University in Yakutia and Far Eastern University in Vladivostok.

I'm sure you have seen independent ratings [of universities]. No matter what opinion one may have of them, the fact is that such ratings exist and different universities with a long and glorious history are given different ratings. I am not going to discuss the reliability of these ratings today. My point is that the programmes we will focus on are intended to improve the situation at the universities regardless of their ratings, and I hope we'll meet this objective successfully.

I'd like to emphasise that these development programmes will be given a priority status. I repeat, the selection of universities was not based on ratings but on their potential to bolster academic science across the country.

These programmes have been approved by the government and will receive additional funding from the federal budget. This money will be allocated for specific, clear and realistic projects to integrate education, science and the economy, introduce contemporary educational standards and management practices, modernise research centres and laboratories and get them involved more deeply in R&D projects. We expect that the universities you head will set a new benchmark for Russian higher education developing new standards to be followed by other universities across the country.

As you know, the government has approved the development programme for Moscow University up to 2020 and will allot five billion roubles for it in the next two years. But the plan stipulates attracting far more funds, up to 80 billion roubles, from different sources, which I discussed with Mr Sadovnichy. The funding scheme suggests that these funds can be invested in high priority projects immediately upon receipt, which is crucial for triggering a sweeping change in education.

As I said, Mr Nikolai Kropachev [Rector of St Petersburg University] was also happy to learn that his university will receive a total of five billion roubles between 2010 and 2012 - 300 million roubles in 2010, 2.7 billion roubles in 2011 and two billion roubles in 2012. I'd like Mr Kropachev to tell us in detail how this money will be spent.

Turning our attention to federal universities, in September the government adopted a development programme for the Volga (Kazan) Federal University. Today I signed executive orders adopting development programmes for three more universities, the Arctic, North-Eastern and Ural Universities. Each of them will receive five billion roubles from the federal budget between 2010 and 2014.

Each university should pay special attention to the issue of training specialists in demand in the region where it is based. The universities should become innovative platforms for launching high-tech projects and developing regions. This is why it is so important to get local authorities and businesses involved in their activities, including through supervisory boards.

I'd like the rectors of universities to touch on this issue today and speak about the way they have been developing these relationships and how the Ministry of Education and Science and the government could help them here.

Moving on, this year we will complete the first leg of the pilot projects for Siberian and Southern Federal Universities, for which we allotted from the federal budget some 13 billion roubles between 2007 and 2010.

The Ministry of Education and Science should review the experience gained here to find how efficiently the human resource and academic potential of these universities has been used and develop mechanisms to monitor the performance of the development programmes for other leading universities. In my opinion, detailed reports on progress made on these programmes should be submitted to the government annually.

I'd also like to touch on one more government decision. It is my pleasure to introduce the new rector of Far Eastern Federal University. Mr Vladimir Miklushevsky is an experienced manager well-known in academic circles. I'd like to remind you that Mr Miklushevsky held the post of the provost of National University of Science and Technology MISIS, a leading Russian university with international renown, which has contributed a great deal to the development of the economy and the defence industry. More recently, Mr Miklushevsky has been Deputy Minister of Education and Science.

Far Eastern Federal University and the government of the Primorye Territory should draw up a development programme for the university and submit it to the federal government by December 1 so that we can begin to fund this project starting next year through the scheme we have used for the rest of the universities whose heads are present here today.

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Concluding remarks by Vladimir Putin:

Now I would like to say a few words in conclusion. I've already mentioned that today's meeting was called in order to sign documents approving development programmes for a number of higher educational institutions - two national universities (in Moscow and St. Petersburg) and a number of federal ones. The issues we have touched on are of interest to the educational community as a whole, and in fact are not limited to the educational community alone.

Before coming here I met with trade union leaders from St. Petersburg and the north-west of Russia, and some of the issues that were raised here today were also discussed with them - wages and salaries for example. The union leaders claimed that in some cases tutors working in higher education are paid the same as and sometimes even less than school teachers. It is good to see that wages and salaries in schools, and education in general, are on the rise: in the first nine months of this year education seemed to be doing well in this respect, reporting 9% growth, followed by science, which was at I think, 7% to 8%. But we are perfectly well aware that when we decided to give universities and colleges more powers in distributing the resources available to them, we believed these resources could, in part, be used to increase pay. This is indeed what is happening. Mr. Kropachev, what is the average monthly salary?

Nikolai Kropachev: About 40,000 to 44,000 roubles.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, about that. But this is the first point. Now for point two. We will also continue to implement the development programmes in areas seemingly having no relation to education, in order to support education. Mr Gafurov (rector of Kazan (Volga) Federal University) has told us that his university is well provided for in terms of student dorms and sports facilities. What helped them achieve this? It was because in the past we backed the suggestion made by the president of Tatarstan that they host the world student games, and we have already invested federal resources in building accommodation for future participants and guests.

Ilshat Gafurov: Mr Putin, if I may interrupt, the president of the republic decided to build a block of flats for university tutors.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, that's fine. But all this is being done because an impetus has been given to development and more educational system's objectives have been fleshed out. We will follow through on this as just we have been doing in the Far East.

The decision was made to hold an APEC summit there. That did not just mean building up infrastructure for it and then handing it over to administrative agencies or selling it off to the private sector. Instead we decided to use this massive complex, which is quite unique both for the region and the country, for educational purposes. That is what is taking place.

I very much hope that it will be used efficiently. I would also like to remind you of something else we discussed today - the fact that we will solve all these problems by giving higher educational establishments additional rights in deploying their basic funds and by leasing out their facilities to their own enterprises at low rates (as we discussed in Krasnoyarsk). We expect this to give a good boost to innovative efforts and to create additional incentives for people working in this sector.

But the bottom line is this: our efforts will serve one main goal, that of preserving the very best that was achieved in Russian education in, say, fundamental research (as has been mentioned here), and therefore in preserving the very best that has been achieved in decades past. Doing so we will ensure that our education system is up-to-date and that it meets not only today's requirements but also those of the future.

We hope very much that the national higher educational institutions and federal universities will play noticeable and important roles as engines driving us forward in this vital sector. Today's discussion is just a first step in such consultations. I would like to thank you for the suggestions made in our discussion today. Thank you very much.