NCFU Championship Partner: opportunities for schoolchildren and training of highly qualified personnel

North Caucasus Federal University has been a partner of the International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN" since 2015. University students regularly participate in the field of "Electric Power Engineering", and members of the faculty are members of the expert commission and evaluate the decisions of future specialists. In addition, NCFU offers winners and prize-winners of the School League additional USE points for admission.

The largest university in the North Caucasus is completing its second admission campaign, which was conducted in the new epidemiological conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Applicants were provided with comfortable admission conditions - documents can be submitted in person or remotely. In addition, this year the university has increased the number of budget places and training areas. In the new realities, NCFU continues not only to develop the distance learning format, but also actively works on scientific projects that play an important role in the implementation of relevant areas of development of the North Caucasus Federal District. Dmitry Bespalov, Rector of NCFU, spoke about the development of the university in an interview with Interfax.

– Dmitry Nikolaevich, for the second year now, the admission of applicants to NCFU has been taking place in conditions of countering the spread of coronavirus infection. Does this affect the quality of applicants' training and, consequently, the number of applicants who want to become university students?

– North Caucasus Federal University has done everything possible to provide applicants with comfortable admission conditions even in such a difficult time: documents can be submitted through the Online University Admission super service on Public Services, using the university's electronic information system, in person at the university, and they can also be sent by mail. Therefore, the number of applicants to our university remains at a traditionally high level: more than 30 thousand applications have been submitted from school graduates representing almost all regions of the country. Moreover, according to our forecasts, the average EXAM score of this year's freshmen will be 2-3 points higher than last year's and will reach 75 points.

In the second year, all entrance tests are conducted online. This is very convenient for applicants, because there is no need to come to the entrance exams, which saves time and money. The figures show that applicants and their parents highly appreciate the convenience of remote submission of documents: more than 70% of applicants took advantage of this opportunity.

In addition, we are taking measures to secure talented applicants in their native territory: we have opened a scholarship program for first-year students "Stars of NCFU", in which winners and prize-winners of the All-Russian school Olympiads and the Olympiads of the Russian Council of School Olympiads (RCOS), as well as graduates who have received 100 points for the Unified State Exam, can receive up to 300 thousand rubles scholarships. in the first semester. Last year, with the help of this program, we managed to attract more than two hundred high-scoring students.

– Will the distance learning experience tested during the pandemic be developed?

– The pandemic period has given NCFU significant experience in organizing distance learning, which suggests that these technologies will be used in the educational process in the future.

The capabilities of NCFU's own electronic information and educational environment are constantly expanding, which allows the educational process to be conducted in a remote and mixed format and includes several elements: the eCampus educational portal (the university's own development), the NCFU learning management system based on the LMS Moodle platform, a digital resource repository accumulating educational, methodological and scientific materials developed by the university's teachers, the electronic catalog "Foliant", in which more than 16,5 thousand educational and methodical publications are available, two external electronic library systems ("University Library ONLINE" and IPRbooks), providing educational literature to the disciplines taught at the university. Online and video courses are being recorded on the basis of a modern studio that we created in early 2021.

The practice of integration with educational platforms and information systems of the country's leading universities is expanding, allowing students to build individual educational trajectories.

Having such a multifunctional system has allowed us to maintain the quality of education at a high level. We are in constant contact with teachers and students regarding the quality of distance education services at NCFU and we see that the level of satisfaction with them is constantly growing.

– What is the number of budget places in NCFU? What are the priority areas of specialist training? Will new training courses be introduced at the university in the new academic year? Which ones exactly?

– This year, the number of budget places in NCFU has increased by almost 10%. Now it exceeds three thousand. The largest increase occurred in such areas of specialist training as applied mathematics and electric power engineering, which are necessary for the state's economy. Traditionally, there is a very high demand for education in the fields of information technology, law, economics, medical biochemistry, and pharmacy. I am pleased that in recent years, applicants have increasingly chosen engineering specialties and pedagogy.

This year, admission to three new specialties and bachelor's degree courses is open for school graduates: information security of telecommunications systems, organization of work with youth, product technology and catering, and for the first time, admission to "international relations" is being conducted in the master's program.

NCFU is a multidisciplinary classical university, we train specialists in almost all professions. In total, the university conducts training in 165 training areas and specialties of higher and secondary vocational education (SPE). 

– NCFU's international cooperation is actively developing. What are the immediate plans and prospects? Are there plans to cooperate with new foreign universities?

– NCFU is one of the leaders in Russia in terms of academic mobility of teachers and students. The University has 102 existing cooperation agreements with partners from 38 countries. The pandemic has made its own adjustments to academic exchange programs. Nevertheless, in coordination with the embassies of the countries and the Ministry of Education and Science, we were able to send 44 students in 2020.

Another export-oriented educational product is international educational programs with the possibility of obtaining two diplomas. There were 13 such programs at NCFU this academic year. We have completed the first enrollment of students in a number of areas. And at the University of La Sapienza (Italy), the Technical University of Dresden (Germany) in the academic year 2020-2021, diploma defenses with a master's degree were held. Thus, students simultaneously receive a NCFU diploma and a diploma from a European university. By the end of 2022, we expect the number of such programs to reach 43. For the first time, we will launch joint programs in 13 areas with two universities in China.

A new direction in the development of networking with foreign organizations is the creation of consortia. In 2020, NCFU initiated the creation of the Greater Caucasus International Consortium. Currently, the universities are conducting joint educational and methodological work and developing cooperation in the field of studying and teaching Russian in Armenia, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. The consortium's activities have a positive impact on the integration of the scientific and educational space of universities in the Greater Caucasus. Currently, work is underway to form the Caspian East consortium. This activity not only positions our university in these regions, identified by the Government of the Russian Federation as a priority for NCFU, but also fulfills state tasks to promote the Russian language and develop cooperation and good neighborliness with the CIS countries and the Middle East.

– NCFU scientists actively participate in grant competitions. What are the achievements in this area?

– The growth of funds raised from grant activities speaks very well about the achievements in this area. An analysis of the university's participation in competitions held by scientific foundations over the past 3 years has shown that funding from grants from the Russian Science Foundation has increased 2-fold, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research - 3-fold, and the amount of funds raised from grants from the President of Russia has increased by 60%. The university's revenues from scientific and innovative activities increased 6-fold to 300 million rubles from 2012 to 2020.

At the moment, the university is implementing 90 grants worth more than 100 million rubles, of which 58 grants have been funded from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, 8 grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, as well as 12 grants and 7 scholarships from the President of the Russian Federation.

Nevertheless, we are not stopping there. Today, 72 more NCFU applications are under consideration by Russian scientific foundations. We count on their support.

– What promising research in the field of applied science for the development of the North Caucasus Federal District regions has received grant support and to what extent?

– Scientists of our university are engaged in the most important research in many fields of knowledge and, undoubtedly, scientific projects carried out at the university play an important role in the implementation of relevant areas of scientific development of the North Caucasus Federal District.

One of the NCFU's priorities is research in the field of parallel and high-performance computing. The high scientific potential of the university's scientists, as well as the developed scientific infrastructure, contributed to the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for the NCFU's application to establish the North Caucasus Center for Mathematical Research regional scientific and educational center in 2021 with the involvement of two scientific and educational organizations: the K.L. Khetagurov North Ossetian State University and the Vladikavkaz Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The activities of the mathematical center will ensure the achievement of an advanced level of fundamental and applied scientific research, the professional growth of young researchers, university professors, and school teachers in the field of mathematics, and the growth of the quality of mathematical education at all levels, primarily in the North Caucasus Federal District. The total amount of financing for the center will amount to more than 180 million rubles.

The university is also actively involved in the implementation of projects aimed at solving socio-political, ethnocultural, ethnodemographic and economic issues of the development of the North Caucasus Federal District, which is reflected in the implementation of 8 RFBR grants.

The scientists' developments are also used in the field of optoelectronics, solar energy, construction and other industrial activities in the region. The University plans to further improve and develop such areas that are in demand in the social and economic spheres of the North Caucasus Federal District.

This will partly be possible due to the NCFU's supported application for the development of the material and technical infrastructure of the center for the collective use of scientific equipment for a period of 3 years, totaling more than 70 million rubles. Among other things, equipment will be purchased to study the properties and develop technologies for obtaining new optical, luminescent and laser active media, magnetic properties of dispersed nanosystems, and new composite magnetic nanomaterials. The result of the grant will be an increase in funds raised from third-party organizations using the purchased CCP equipment, including from organizations in the region.

– Dmitry Nikolaevich, what percentage of university graduates, as a rule, find a job after graduation, and what assistance does it provide in this work with NCFU graduates?

– NCFU implements a wide range of initiatives aimed at promoting the employment of graduates and temporary employment of students. As a result of our purposeful work in this area, the employment rate of our graduates is almost 90%. The University interacts with more than 2,000 employers in the framework of building practice-oriented education. The key ones include 55 largest enterprises and organizations in the North Caucasus Federal District, and joint basic departments have been established with four dozen of them.

NCFU meets students who decide to combine work and study in their senior years, and provides an individual study schedule, provided that the work corresponds to the field of study. The university itself becomes the first workplace for a student. We currently have 363 students, from a laboratory assistant and a document specialist to a specialist. A very effective tool for gaining first-time work experience and entry into the workbook is the participation of students in teaching and construction teams, which employ over 500 people annually.

– Tell me, how does NCFU arrange work with schoolchildren?

– Our university, being in the status of a federal university, is fully aware of its leading role in the formation of a new generation of specialists and researchers in the macro-region of the North Caucasus. Therefore, we take an active position on attracting and developing talents. In 2020, in accordance with the objectives of the national project "Science and Universities", a Specialized Scientific Training Center (SUNC) was established. This is a new type of specialized school for high school students, where they master the traditional school curriculum and study science under the guidance of our leading scientists. This year, SUNC NCFU became one of the winners of the competition held by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. The amount of grant support for 3 years will amount to over 350 million rubles, which will allow us to enroll 250 people from all over the North Caucasus.

In addition, the university is the coordinator of the project "Basic Schools of the Russian Academy of Sciences" in the Stavropol Territory (university scientists are involved with high school students), the site of the regional stage of the All-Russian Olympiad of schoolchildren included in the list of the Russian Council of School Olympiads (27 Olympiads in 30 subjects); NCFU initiated the project "Academic (scientific and technological) class" in schools of three In Stavropol cities, we hold a large number of Olympiads, contests and subject schools for talented and motivated schoolchildren from all over the North Caucasus.

– NCFU has been the university center of the Stavropol Territory for several years in three areas at once - innovative, technological and social development of the region. What developments have scientists already implemented in the region as part of this work?

– One of the most striking examples of innovative developments implemented in the region is the project to create high-tech lactose production for the pharmaceutical and food industries. By JSC teams 

Stavropol Dairy Plant and NCFU, as part of the implementation of the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 218, created a production facility that will reduce the share of imports of these products. It is also worth noting that a large number of innovative developments implemented by NCFU in the region are in the field of electric power, biotechnology, nanotechnology and new materials. NCFU has successfully implemented innovative and technological projects jointly with JSC Electrotechnical Plants Energomera, JSC Electroautomatics, JSC Optron-Stavropol, JSC STC FGC UES. In April 2021, the NCFU Innovation and Engineering Center was established at the university, which is a single coordination center where requests from enterprises for the provision of high-tech and consulting services can be received.

North Caucasus Federal University is a center for the development of social entrepreneurship in the North Caucasus Federal District. We successfully implement educational programs on social entrepreneurship, hold forums with the participation of international partners from Germany (the Center for Social Investment at the University of Heidelberg, the MitOst Association). To be included in the socio-economic development of the region, NCFU has formed a pool of broad-based experts and is working to build expert and analytical activities that respond to the requests of businesses, government authorities and local governments.

– NCFU annually produces qualified personnel for the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District. What other reserves, in your opinion, are there in the North Caucasus Federal District and how can the authorities of the subjects use them?

– The strategic objectives of the university have become the basis of the new NCFU development program, which we will present as part of the Priority 2030 project. They are primarily related to the implementation of measures in the North Caucasus in the field of the formation of Russian civil and civilizational identity, countering extremism. In this way, we contribute to ensuring stability and peace in the macroregion.

The second direction is the development of the socio-economic sphere itself. In particular, the NCFU project "Tourism and Sustainable Development of Territories", which we plan to develop in the coming years, is designed to promote the development of the tourism and recreational potential of the North Caucasus Federal District and increase the pace of development of the industry.

The project in the field of teacher education is aimed at eliminating the shortage of teachers in schools in the North Caucasus and improving the quality of training and retraining of teaching and management personnel for the educational complex of the North Caucasus Federal District.

If the previous directions relate to the so-called "third mission" of the university, then staffing and scientific and technical potential are its main activities. In this regard, the implementation of projects in the designated areas within the framework of the "Advanced Research" direction will make it possible to form a reserve of scientific and pedagogical personnel for organizations of the North Caucasus Federal District, as well as a scientific and technological reserve for a number of promising sectors of the district's economy.

In turn, work in the direction of "Applied research and technology" will form a technological basis and a reserve of highly qualified personnel for the real sector of the economy and the social sphere of our macroregion.

The Federal University fulfills another important mission – the role of an integrator of scientific and educational organizations of the North Caucasus Federal District, enterprises of the real sector of the economy and government authorities for more effective socio-economic development of the macroregion. For this purpose, in March 2021, the Consortium of Universities of the North Caucasus "Human Capital and a new Economy for multiethnic Regions" was created, which included 17 higher education organizations representing all regions of the North Caucasus Federal District.

The Consortium has very specific tasks: to ensure the improvement of the quality of the educational process and research activity, to create an environment in partnership that will allow, on the one hand, to prepare an active and motivated graduate, on the other hand, to help him realize his potential in the North Caucasus Federal District.

We see the achievement of a strategic goal in the implementation of this task. the creation of the university – the training of highly qualified personnel – and a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the North Caucasus Federal District.

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