Extracts from Rector’s interview

What a research-intensive university needs to do so that its scientific developments reach the stage of mass production? How to form a new entrepreneurial mindset among students and what will make a graduate to apply for postgraduate programme, even if s/he is offered a lot of money outside the university without earning a research degree? — These are the questions posed to the Rector of National Research Mordovia State University — Dmitry E.Glushko.

It is important not to miss on the chance

Changes are a dramatic process, because — what to hide — traditionally universities are externally involved in various projects, but in fact they are engaged in satisfying the scientific interest of small groups, and the gain fr om this turns out to be controversial for the market. Universities in Russia have much in common. There is a considerable number of teaching staff who have not done any more research for 15−20 years after they presented their PhD theses. They have taken time to gain their breath and by inertia or force of circumstances missed on earning the next academic title in career ladder: associate professors, full professors and are not going to move into that direction, they do not take part in scientific activities, let alone at the national level — even at the university level. But I don’t blame them. We should understand that some are good at teaching, some at researching and just the other way round. People who are capable of doing research are a few just as those who are capable of being an entrepreneur. In order to convey scientific knowledge, including someone else’s, one’s got to have some talent, so it is impossible to evenly distribute the same amount of work to all university employees just for the sake of meeting performance indicators. Formal attainment of indicators means no attainment, no gain in such a case. «The task of the university administration together with the directors of the institutes is to understand the motivation of colleagues, the level of their involvement in the work, to help them see their benefits and effectiveness.»

The path from the university to the consumer

The most important thing in all this work is to interact with industrial partners. I don’t like it when companies or enterprises are called employers or «work-givers». In my opinion, they do not give anything to anyone, but on the contrary they receive. They are buyers of technologies, processes and quality professionals who are ready to perform complex tasks. My team and I decided to talk about our strong points not to the management teams of companies/enterprises that could become our industrial partners, but directly to business owners. That is why created an industrial council with their participation and asked the head of the Republic of Mordovia to chair it. We need this structure to help us assess the correctness of the university’s development trajectory in terms of research and not to get engaged in research that no one needs. Our strongest points, with which we solve production tasks for industrial partners, are associated with 2−3 research areas. First of all, it is pharmaceutics with biotechnologies. I am proud of my colleagues from the Medicine Institute and the Institute of High-End Technologies and New Materials, who participated in the process of creating and running clinical trials of a number of medicines. Recently, we have opened new production lines at the «Biochemist» plant in Saransk, an ultra-modern enterprise in terms of technology, wh ere our graduates work and are demanded by the employer. Students are engaged in research at the production site with our teaching and research staff at the expense of the company and the company is interested in their contribution and professional growth. Another area that is extremely important for us and wh ere we can definitely help the industry is fiber optic production technology.

New Entrepreneurial Thinking

«If a teacher imparts exclusively someone else’s scientific knowledge all his life and at the same time does not generate it himself, does not implement any projects or entrepreneurial initiatives, then how can you expect a startup fr om his students? How can we develop entrepreneurial skills among students if we are void of them ourselves?» «The University is not a consumer of humanitarian aid, it is an expensive enterprise, an equal market participant and a full-fledged player in various economic processes. We have to compete for the best learners, the best teachers, researchers, partners and orders.»

IT postgraduate studies

In the field of IT technologies, there are whole areas wh ere it is very difficult to become a good specialist without research experience — this applies to everything related to artificial intelligence systems, mathematical modeling, life cycle support and digital twins. We are currently working with the Russian Federal Nuclear Center on one software. So the development, operation and follow up of such solutions requires a specialist with a PhD degree minimum. And there are many areas wh ere only a professional with extensive research efforts can achieve results. And the prospects for such specialists are much wider. For example, a team of graduates of our Faculty of Mathematics and Information Technology, who completed a special order for the development of a software for law enforcement agencies, was simply bought up by our partners from Moscow, because they (our graduates) learned how to create a good product.

Do you have any special plans for 2023 that you can share?

There is a lot of tasks at the University, but I would single out two that are such «locomotives» — engines of development. The first is to establish our own pharmaceutical engineering school. The second task is at the nationwide level: together with a number of fiber-optic manufacturing companies, to develop the technology of creating fiber preforms. I am sure that by the end of 2023 we will have something to crow about.

Read the full interview in Russian «Университет — локомотив науки» (rectorspeaking.ru)