With what program does Gorny participate in “Priority 2030”?
Alexey Dushin: Consists of several blocks. The first, on which the largest volume of research is currently being carried out, with a cumulative total of approximately 200 million rubles, are strategic projects that solve exploratory and fundamental problems for the industry. This is about the creation of new technologies for the mining industry, the study of the properties of substances. The second is research in the field of ecology, the search for mechanisms and ways to reduce the negative impact on the environment of the mining and metallurgical sectors. The third is digitalization and automation, which is developing more dynamically today and already has 18 research projects, including those already implemented.
We have also identified seven strategic directions around which the university’s entire laboratory base is built. These are areas in which Gorny occupies strategic niches and has unique competencies that only our university has. This is where we create new knowledge. Today our main vector is research policy and infrastructure development; It is these priority areas that also drive policy in the field of education, personnel development, etc.
Why is the construction of a new campus so important?
The presence of programs at the same time in bachelor’s and specialty, for example in geology, generates internal competition
Alexey Dushin: The infrastructure of the oldest university in the Urals has long been in need of global renovation: the youngest building of the USGU was built in 1972, and there are facilities built in 1913, 1916 and even 1847. There is also a catastrophic shortage of bedrooms, so we started working on this issue several years ago. On October 22, the governor of the Sverdlovsk region signed a decree on the formation of a regional working group to create an innovative educational environment on the Gorny campus. And now, within the framework of this structure, we are repackaging our project.
Will companies participate? After all, companies should be interested in the development of the university’s scientific activities…
Alexey Dushin: Of course I am interested, although the question about the campus is still open. Yes, we are preparing a series of proposals and we are looking for partners to participate in our projects. For example, they submitted an application to create a research center in the field of using artificial intelligence for the operation of mining companies using unmanned technology – these are advances with a 15-year perspective. This is generally one of the most relevant areas today: to automate the control of technological processes, it is necessary to process a large amount of data. Of course, in geology and mining, the last word will always be man. At the same time, the task is to increase labor productivity and ensure zero injuries, and unmanned technologies play an important role in solving these problems.
Yes, especially considering the shortage of personnel in the real sector.
Alexey Dushin: Today in the mining industry there is a personnel shortage of about 10-15 percent; Companies have a great demand for personnel training and, to satisfy it, we strive to increase the contingent and have incorporated that task into the development program. But the result also depends on the founder’s policies and the rules he establishes. For example, we have not had budgetary spaces in economics for 20 years.
How does it work?
Alexey Dushin: Applications are generated by the regional Ministry of Industry and sent to the regional and federal ministries of education. But we train staff for almost the entire country, not just the Middle Urals!
Are your graduates in demand in the labor market?
Alexey Dushin: We have competition among employers: there is literally a queue for Gorny graduates, which, unfortunately, is not an argument that determines the choice of the best prepared applicants. And when approving the number of budget places, the main role is played not by this, but by the average score of applicants on the exam. And, unfortunately, he is not the tallest among us. But the results of the Unified State Exam do not speak about the quality of education at our university, but only about the fact that we work with those schoolchildren who are interested in a career in the industry. In my opinion, the quality of personnel training at a university is mainly determined by the laboratory equipment and the level of scientific research of the university. But to provide the mining industry with scarce engineering staff, we are forced to compete with more prestigious training areas, such as computing.
Where is the exit? How to attract strong kids to technical universities?
Alexey Dushin: We found it ourselves in additional educational programs. We give all students the opportunity to acquire one more additional profession for free during their studies – there are 38 to choose from. We were the first in Russia to launch a system of two degrees in one diploma. Starting from 2022, all those admitted to USMU for higher education programs will be able to simultaneously study information technologies, management, etc., which are so popular today, and this is quite justified: the real sector urgently needs specialists from the industry who also understand economics or can participate in the digital transformation of companies.
By the way, a new division has appeared at the University of Mining: the “Digital Department”. What it is?
Alexey Dushin: Offers training in eight programs in the field of IT: big data, artificial intelligence, etc. Currently, 609 people study in the Digital Department. On the one hand, we give students the opportunity to acquire additional competencies that are in demand in the industry, on the other hand, we eliminate the conflict between engineering and IT areas so that talented students do not have the problem of choosing. After all, the key issue is to increase the number of students and improve the quality of training of engineering personnel.
Is there any hope that this conflict will stop in the coming years?
Alexey Dushin: This year, an experiment related to moving away from the Bologna system began in six universities of the country. This is not a return to the Soviet system, but the creation of a modern national system for training personnel with higher education, including engineering.
Since there were two parallel systems in Russia, our university had six levels of education at once: secondary vocational education, bachelor’s, specialty, master’s, as well as postgraduate and doctoral studies. However, the presence, for example, of geology programs at the same time in bachelor’s and specialties generates internal competition. The specialty program is understandable for production workers; “geological engineer” is a kind of brand. But modern schoolchildren are not interested in this rigid standard. For them we have developed bachelor’s programs related to geology: they are more flexible, they allow economics and management to be added to the curriculum, which is more attractive for children. But such duplication created internal competition between educational programs and, in some universities, even led to a move away from traditional forms. The experiment aims to bring order to this, and if it is deemed successful by the end of this year, perhaps the practice will spread to other Russian universities. It is not yet known whether the changes will affect only new programs, a new set or the entire system at once.
USGU also has a university within its structure. Is the existence of this link justified?
Alexey Dushin: Yes, and we would like to keep it. According to our estimates, approximately 50 to 75 percent of the missing personnel in the mining industry are mid-level specialists. It takes more time to train engineers, but fewer are needed. Although their shortage is also enormous, tens of thousands of people and, of course, a technician will not replace a mining engineer. But from the point of view of the structure of demand, this is exactly so: with 68 thousand vacancies in the industry, more than half of the demand corresponds to workers with secondary vocational education.
Today the State creates incentives for schoolchildren to enroll in secondary vocational education institutions and there are results. Educational institutions and training areas that were lost for three decades are being revived. We are among those who are working to solve this problem within the framework of the Professionalism program. Gorny is a partner in two faculties that have become the nuclei of professional groups in the Sverdlovsk region: in mechanical engineering and automation, the Kurochkin Faculty, and in the field of metallurgy, the Polzunov Faculty. Today, one of the main problems in this area is the shortage of teaching staff. Therefore, we, who have important competencies, are actively expanding our open source program in the mining and metallurgical area. On the one hand, this is dictated by the needs of the labor market, and on the other, by the interests of schoolchildren who calculate their educational and professional path and plan to receive a university diploma after university. We have all the conditions for it.
P.S.
While the topic was being written, it became known that the commission of the Ministry of Education and Science had summarized the results of the participation of universities in the Priority 2030 program. According to the results of the defense of the development program, USMU took 49th place and will receive 175 million for the implementation of strategic projects in 2024. In total, 118 universities from 50 constituent entities of the Russian Federation will become beneficiaries of the grants.
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