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FORMATION OF RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR ROLE IN THE INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN
A. M. Mamyrkhanova
G. B. Esembaeva
In the modern conditions, research universities ensure the processes of development and dissemination of knowledge, new technologies, and innovations, while at the same time they create conditions for integration of research and education processes in higher education.
Key words: Research University, the National Research University, innovations, science, research.
In the modern conditions, universities, ensuring creation and dissemination of knowledge and new technologies, become the key factor of innovative development of the education system, which, in its turn, is a prerequisite for formation of innovative economics and improving the competitiveness of goods and services. Problems of management of scientific and innovative processes at HEIs become particularly relevant: development of innovative activities of universities becomes a priority; commercialization of the results of scientific activities; refocusing on the creative and innovative character of work on training specialists. At present, the world educational sphere is predominated by major universities, which are university complexes, including not only educational but also research subdivisions, as well as structures ensuring innovative activities of universities and their close cooperation with industry. Such structures are the tools for realization of the so called "third mission" of a university - satisfaction of certain social needs in addition to education and research. Such universities are called research universities.
Research universities take the first places in ratings of world universities ("Times" in Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and Academic Ranking of World Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University). Starting from the middle of the 20th century, the concepts of "elite university" and "research university" were united. To date, these two university philosophies almost linked together. Three complementary factors form the basis for prominent results of elite/research universities or world-class universities: (1) a high concentration of talents (teachers and students); (2) abundance of resources for creating favorable conditions for education and scientific investigations; (3) the structure of HEI management, which promotes the development of a strategic vision, innovations and flexibility, allowing the HEI to take decisions and manage resources without administrative barriers [1]. Most universities, recognized as world-class universities at present, are concentrated in several countries. These HEIs make a substantial contribution to dissemination of knowledge through scientific research, and teaching based on new education plans and pedagogical methods under conditions which are favorable for these processes. At that, scientific research becomes an integral part of the learning process, and alumni achieve success both during the study and after graduation from a HEI. They train highly qualified specialists, who are
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competitive on the market, and conduct the most relevant scientific research, the results of which are published in prestigious scientific publications, and HEIs with scientific and technical orientation make a significant contribution to the development of cutting-edge technologies and innovations though patents and licensing of their developments.
The following characteristics can be singled out as the main ones, which are typical for a modern research university: (a) higher-education teaching personnel participates at educational programs of the research university and scientific research (on average, 25-75% of working time is dedicated to teaching). It should be mentioned that the key distinction of formation of higher-education teaching personnel of the best American universities is turnover of staff, covering areas of education, science and business. There are no artificial barriers among them, moreover the payment scheme at the HEI, as well as at the company, promotes such rotation; (b) education at a research university became diversified and includes preparation of elite specialists (awarding PhD degrees), as well as getting basic higher education by students who plan to be professionally engaged in scientific and educational activities; (c) a research university continuously maintains a high level of investigations being conducted, including investments of financial resources into development of its scientific research base (library resources, informational support, laboratory equipment and other);
In the world practice, as a rule, innovative projects with high economic return are usually realized by university laboratories and centers. In particular, there are twenty well-known universities in the field of research in Great Britain, the so-called " Russell Group". This is an elite collaborative group consisting of the twenty best universities of Great Britain. In the field of science and engineering the universities of the Russell Group provide a strong base both for research and teaching. Universities also act as enterprises, having total annual production amounting to £22,3 billion and providing 243,000 working places. In 2015-2016, 20 universities of the Russell Group plan to spend 235 million pounds sterling on grants, and payment for education of students who can't pay for their study [3].
In the USA, the Ivy League, an association of eight private higher educational establishments located in the north-east of the country, is the most well-known. This term implies the exclusivity in terms of education and research, rigorous selection in enrollment, and belonging to social elite. Universities of the Ivy League always enter the top 15 colleges and universities of the USA according to the rating of News and World Report. The 100 leading research universities of the USA get 95% of federal budget funds for research and educational purposes. Preparation of specialists of the highest calibre is also concentrated in research universities: 60% of all doctoral candidates of the USA are educated in 50 research universities. These universities have a larger number of students studying in the master's program, and better teachers-to-students ratio (~ 1 : 6), whereas in contrast this ratio in usual HEIs is (~1 : 12) [4]. Research universities have the strongest ties with industry. Thus, the largest American research university -Massachusetts Institute of Technology - has ties with approximately 300 corporations (more than half of them are the biggest corporations of the USA).
Research universities actively participate, mainly on a commercial basis, in additional postgraduate education, and offer multilevel programs of further training
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and additional training. As opposed to narrowly focused commercial educational institutions, universities have the opportunity to implement various programs, based on an interdisciplinary approach. These universities are characterized by multiple financing sources: federal and local budgets, grants, charitable and trustee funds, business, earnings from educational, research, production and consulting activities. Thus, in the USA 13.3% of all financial resources come from the federal government, 30.3% from the state government, 2.7% from local authorities, 4.9% from the private sector, and 33.1% from students. Another 15% of funds of the higher school budget are provided by HEIs using their funds and incomes.
In the Republic of Kazakhstan, the State Program of Education Development for 2011-2020 set tasks for real integration of higher education within the science and innovative processes [5]. For this purpose, the new law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On science" introduced the new concepts "research university" and "national research university", and formed a new model of science management providing for its active integration into the system of innovative development [6]. This is the Law which introduced new forms and principles of research funding -basic, grant and program-oriented ones. The research university independently develops and realizes standards of educational programs of higher and postgraduate education. The university can set additional requirements to the profile, while accepting students according to the programs of higher and postgraduate education. Creation of research universities in Kazakhstan promotes the release of the country from export and commodity dependence, and ensures high dynamics of growth in processing, intellectually oriented and science-intensive industries.
The first example of s research institute in Kazakhstan is Nazarbayev University, which was assigned this status in 2012. This is international-level HEI, founded at the initiative of the President for the purpose of integration of education, science and production, creation of an effective academic environment, and conditions for integration of national scientific structures into international scientific space. Leading universities and scientific centers of the world are involved in the work of the University. 10 innovation-oriented HEIs operate based on the experience of Nazarbayev University . These HEIs are provided with targeted support of the state for development of science and innovations, commercialization of research, and attracting talented youth. Kazakh National Technical University after K. I. Satpayev was created in December 2014, the activities of which are to provide educational services in the field of higher, postgraduate and additional education, conduct fundamental and applied researches for the generation and transfer of new knowledge, create modern scientific infrastructure and introduce new scientific developments [7].
Research universities will promote resolving problems of industrial and innovative development of the country in terms of activation of higher education and scientific and research environment development for support of national clusters, as well as formation of modern infrastructure in terms of incubation and development of innovative entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, including institutes for support of national clusters, engineering centers and systems of technology transfer. The main directions of innovative activities of a research institute must be: (a) using innovative educational programs, forms and teaching
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methods allowing to prepare highly qualified specialists, who are direct mediators of scientific innovations into real production; (b) development of scientific and research activities of HEIs, including commercialization of the results of scientific developments and technologies; (c) strengthening of scientific infrastructure -laboratory facilities, as well as performance of scientific research and development works by laboratories of HEIs by order of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises; (d) creation and functioning of small innovative companies based at universities, with scientific developments of HEI used as the basis for such companies.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
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