As Russia has moved closer to a market economy, radical transformations of the system of higher education have become necessary; and it needs to be oriented to the training of specialists who possess a high level of professionalism and competence. Research shows that what employers in Russia see as most valuable in young specialists are behavioral…

The problem of civilizational choice is one of the most timely and relevant problems of the entire postcommunist world. Most of the states of the former Soviet Union, including Russia, still find themselves in an uncertain zone of transition. The crisis of civilizational identity, far from being overcome, has even deepened as the Soviet past…

A higher education continues to be a significant value to young people; this is manifested clearly in the growth of the numbers enrolled in higher educational institutions of Russia. This article examines "the process by which young people achieve their goal"--obtaining a higher education--as a set of stages linked to specific kinds of costs. The…

Demographic trends in Russia make it necessary to prepare people to work beyond retirement age in an economy that is different from the one they were trained for, and younger people need to be prepared for employment in more information-driven occupations. Both trends require a strong program of life-long learning, but Russia has not yet put an…

Like their counterparts in other countries, Russian students increasingly are entering graduate schools with a view to being involved in the application of research beyond the academy. Under the conditions of the raw materials economy that has become dominant in Russia over the past two decades, however, the demand for innovation is limited and of…

Agriculture in Russia is in a dangerous state, and this is expected to worsen in the future. A modern agricultural workforce cannot be recruited to villages unless there are dramatic changes in the quality of village life, and serious consideration should be given to creating agro-urban centers that would attract people to live and work in rural…

A current trend in the process of internationalization in higher education is the worldwide rise in the numbers of mobile students. In 1995, 1.4 million foreign students obtained a higher education outside their own country; in 2004 the figure was 2.7 million. In 2008, there were about 3 million mobile students in the world, and by 2020 the number…

In the past 10 to 15 years, the wide prevalence of various forms of negative behavior among young people in college has become one of the main causes of their deteriorating health. Traditionally classified among such forms are the excessive consumption of alcohol, smoking, and narcotics abuse. Issues relating to the protection of students' health…

An analysis of educational programs in the Urals region of Russia shows how institutions may cooperate more by sharing programs and by specializing in those programs in which they are strongest. While competition is a necessary mechanism for improvements in educational quality, overlapping and redundant programs need to be avoided. (Contains 1…

The phenomenon of harassment in Russian universities creates an environment that can be both threatening to the individual and a source of poor performance by the work group. Policies need to be developed to deal with this destructive form of behavior. [This article was translated by Kim Braithwaite.]

Ecological activism (henceforth ecoactivism) in Russia, a country with a predominant European culture, has common roots with the Europe of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A process of intensive industrialization and urbanization required that unspoiled, natural landscapes be preserved for rest, recreation, and ecological education. This…

It seems evident that the prospects of the country's development lie in a balanced model of the sectors and branches of Russia's economy, first and foremost with the creation of high-technology sectors and with higher significance attached to intellectual work and services. In terms of sociology, this task is linked closely to changes in the…

When it comes to analyzing problems of mobility, most studies of the post-Soviet era have cited random and unconnected data with respect to the Soviet era, on the principle of comparing "the old" and "the new." The authors have deemed it possible (although based on material that is not fully comparable) to examine the late Soviet past as a period…

Research on the competence of Russian college and university instructors in the use of information and communication technologies shows that it can be improved through the use of online conferences if training is provided in advance. Russian education needs to devote more resources to developing this use of technology. (Contains 5 figures and 1…

Adolescents develop a sense of citizenship through the influence of the institutions of their socialization--the family, the school, the mass media, and so on. In the past few years, these institutions, along with all of Russian society, have undergone a transition to a new phase by "shock therapy," which brought about crisis phenomena not only in…