Vladimir Litvinenko, Rector of Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University, stated the need to increase the differentiation of monthly payments to students and teachers. He called encouragement of those who honorably show themselves in their work and extracurricular activities, including material, an integral part of the university's ideology. Forpost decided to find out the details of the innovations and understand their conceptual meaning.
- Vladimir Stefanovich, you say that differentiation of teachers' salaries and students' scholarships is a part of the university ideology and a tool to achieve the goals of the higher education institution. What does this mean?
Vladimir Litvinenko: As you know, ideology is a set of views, concepts and values that express the interests of society. Its presence contributes to the realization of the fundamental principles of conscious human activity, to the achievement of the final goal or, if you wish, the supertask facing the society as a whole and each of its representatives, in particular.
For the University, as well as for the teachers who work here and the students who study here, this super task is the training of a new generation of professional engineers, scientists and teachers motivated to work in production, laboratories and classrooms. It is based on the fundamental basic knowledge of the module of disciplines: general education, general technical and narrowly focused on the profile of the specialty, as well as production skills and additional competences.
At the same time, it should be understood that an integral part of the educational process is the formation and development of personality. Moreover, Konstantin Ushinsky said, and I certainly agree with him, that "education of the spiritual side of a person is the main thing in modern pedagogy". Our graduate, and we have repeatedly emphasized this, should be not only a qualified specialist, but also a physically strong, humanized person, a patriot of his country, ready to defend both personal and state interests. He should have an analog thinking, be able to draw independent conclusions, read books, not "stick" 24 hours a day in a smartphone, be, first of all, a creator, not a consumer.
This is an integral part of our ideology. As well as the fact that the best teachers and students should be rewarded, including for their active life position, retransmission of our views and values among the young people who are still in their infancy. The introduction of incentive bonuses is one of the components of the formation of a competitive environment, which is a market mechanism of development. We have no doubt that if every teacher and student will work and study based on the principles of reasonable competition, we will be able to improve the quality of university education in the interests of production and industrial economy of our state. That is, we will achieve our goal.
- How will this happen in practice?
Vladimir Litvinenko: It is already happening. We take into account the existing balance of teachers' salaries and students' scholarships and proceed from the current state of affairs. That is, we are talking about bonuses. Their size, if we are talking about teachers, is from 10 to 80 thousand rubles monthly or lump sum, based on the results of work aimed at obtaining this or that effect. The total amount of such additional payments reaches up to 40% of the total salary.
We evaluate, first of all, personal achievements in the course of implementation of the individual study plan, participation in social life, scientific research aimed at the generation of new knowledge, the availability of publications on the results of these studies. We pay special attention to mentors, supervisors of study groups. Their work, aimed at cultivation of certain value orientations in the youth environment, partly lost in recent decades due to excessive fascination with liberal ideology, today becomes even more important than before.
It is they who are engaged in educational work with students, including explaining to them the true reasons for the special military operation, revealing the relationship between the prosperity of the country and personal success, explaining that it is in Russia, not abroad, that children have every chance for self-realization.
There is a wider range of incentive supplements for students. For example, for participants of the pilot project to improve the system of higher education in Russia, i.e. for first-year students who have "good" and "excellent" grades, there is an increased monthly stipend in the amount of 5 and 10 thousand rubles, respectively. Plus compensation for travel home during vacations for non-resident students, which is made exclusively at the expense of the university's own funds. Its amount is 20 thousand rubles. If we sum up our expenses, this semester the total amount of payments to first-year students will exceed 40 million rubles.
Scholarship for second and higher year students who passed exams on "excellent" and "good" - 5 and 4 thousand rubles. But for leadership abilities, which they show in scientific activities, social work, sports competitions there is increased funding - 10 thousand rubles per month. For a separate category there is a surcharge for renting a place in the dormitory.
There are also other bonuses, including one-time bonuses. For example, at the end of the fall semester, before the last New Year, more than 2 thousand students of the university received additional payments from 7 to 45 thousand rubles each. At the same time, the social scholarship is available to all, it is paid in accordance with the Federal Law and makes from 3 to 20 thousand per month. Based on the decision of a special commission, a one-time material support can also be provided - from 10 to 200 thousand.
From my point of view, the strategy adopted by Mining University fully correlates with the President's theses, which were voiced by him during his recent address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. The focus on training personnel ready to work in the economy of the 21st century, on young people is a priority task not only for our university, but also for the entire higher education system of Russia.
