Session Information
22 SES 11 B, Teachers and Students Perceptions about Learning Processes
Paper Session
Contribution
In this paper we address the context of universities that are located in Russian single-industry/company towns and make an attempt to answer the following research question: “What is the mission of universities in the place, where the whole city’s life is connected with the main industrial company?” The second aspect of the paper is actualization of a field trip as a research tool in higher education research, because this method can be discussed in a new reality of restrictions and epidemiological safety.
Our research case is rather peculiar. It includes features of the contemporary higher education system in Russia and the post-soviet heritage in urban and economic planning, specifics of Ural region, industrial regions generally, and single-industry or company towns themselves. Nevertheless, exactly this focus lets us problematize issues of university’ mission, the university's contribution to regional development, relations between universities and the labour market, and finally, the specifics of governance in contemporary universities.
Russian higher education and political system is one of the many kaleidoscopic contexts that is mainly characterized by multiregionality and its hugeness. Russian higher education system is not only large, but highly differentiated as well. Higher education institutions enjoy different legal statuses: state/non-state, head/branch universities. The number of branches is almost the same as the number of head institutions. Another aspect of differentiation is the participation in governmental programs that imply universities with obligations and advantages (mostly financial) in the same time. Among these programs are the so-called Federal Universities, National Research Universities, Project 5-100 (2012) – Russian excellence initiative (21 universities), and the Flagship universities, standing for sustainable regional development (33 universities). Finally, although the Ministry of higher education and science is the key state regulator of the higher education system, specialized, line ministries can supervise some HEIs.
A special set of challenges is present in the so-called single-industry towns (“monogoroda”), the total number of them is 317, and approximately 10% of Russian population live in there. In places like this the whole city’s life is connected with the main industrial company. Urban development, secondary schools and libraries, healthcare system, community centers, entertainment industry, and social projects depend on the local industry. In case of problems of the industry all the systems fall into decay. Because of this single-industry towns are often associated with the brain drain, ecological problems, lack of the cultural activities, and general depressive environment. Such a situation is actual for company towns in many countries of Europe, in China, in the United States, and in Russia. Even successful single-industry towns have the same difficulties with ecology and outgoing migration.
There is also a context of Soviet urban and industrial heritage in Russia: historically universities in single-industry towns were organized following plant construction. Some universities in towns on the route of the expedition were established after the plants were evaluated during the World War II. Thus, the main feature of our case is that single-industry towns are not pure company towns, i.e. the initiative to set the industry and the town itself was not private, but the state one.
At the moment, development of the single-industry towns is one of the most popular topic for research and discussions between urbanists, demographists, economists, and even artists (e. g. Ural industrial biennale). There is also a governmental program “Fund for single-industry towns development”.
Method
Our research is based on a research expedition of NRU HSE, which purpose was to find out how universities work in single-industry towns. The Sverdlovsk region, located in the Ural region, a boundary between Europe and Asia, was chosen for the research. Metallurgy, mechanical engineering, chemical industries, oil and gas extraction historically have determined the regional development including tertiary education system. During the expedition we visited a campus of the Ural Federal University in Verkhnyaya Salda, Ural Federal University itself in Yekaterinburg (a capital of the Sverdlovsk region), Nizhny Tagil Technological Institute, Polytechnic Institute in Kamensk-Uralsky, Private university of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical company in Verkhnyaya Pishma, Educational center in the Pervouralsk Tube-Rolling Plant. In addition to it, data was collected at the local industrial organizations, in city halls, and in the secondary schools. The ethnographic group work was chosen as a main research strategy. During the expedition the main research methods were observation and interviews. Interviews were conducted with secondary school and university students, with university professors and university administration, with representatives of the local industrial companies and city administrations. To clarify some aspects of educational migration in the region, interviews with students from single-industry towns originally, studying in a capital of the region, were also conducted. The guides of interview with university, industry, and city administrators included questions on formal and informal communication of educational and research organizations with industries in single-industry towns. Interviews with university teachers, school and university students were devoted to the educational choice and ambitions, educational migration in the context of company towns, and the content of educational programs. Everyday group reflection was organized to compare data from different sources and discuss observations and difficulties in the research. In addition to the direct results of the study, we discussed such aspects of qualitative educational research as the position of power, age, and gender in interviews, as well as researchers’ own role in education.
Expected Outcomes
This research depicted the main models and the key features of higher education organization in industrial towns, i. e. on the territories, where economic and social development is historically tied to a large enterprise. Several mechanisms of university-industry relation exist. These are industry commission R&D in universities, special university departments in the industries, combining educational and research activities; special scholarships and agreements on future employment between the university and the industry. From the perspective of education, industries have an impact on the curricula. Universities and industries have common professional orientation programs as well. So, universities become an institution that holds youth in town and works in tandem with the industry and public authorities, building school-university-job market trajectory. Universities become vertically integrated in industry’s production process. Thus, human development is the main university contribution to the socio-economic development of the town and the region. The other contribution are research activities in interest of the industry: all students in single-industry town universities work on their diploma theses and other qualification projects in the industry’s interest. In this way universities become satellites of local industry, and if short-term tasks of workforce production are fulfilled, long-term goals of regional development are at risk. Universities hold youth, and towns sustain themselves, but people are attached to towns that are usually at risk of instability. And thus, university’s own agency is hard to emerge. Another finding is an approbation of the expedition as a tool of learning, teaching, and research. This type of the research can highlight such problems of higher education research as social desirability bias of university administrators, hierarchical relationship in educational organizations which can influence qualitative data collection, and dualistic position of a higher education researcher, where an academic or a teacher studies other academics, teachers, and students.
References
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