TOMSK, Mar 6 – RIA Tomsk. Participants of the "Big University" being created in Tomsk have completed the first third of the development of this project and plan to formalize the structure and key decisions by the summer of 2020, the acting rector of Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) Victor Dyomin told reporters on Friday.
It was previously reported that the "Big University" project involves the unification of all universities and research institutes of Tomsk into a single scientific and educational consortium with the preservation of the legal autonomy of all participants. The main goal of the project - is to obtain a synergy effect from the addition of scientific, educational and infrastructural opportunities for full-fledged competition with world university centers.
“I think the first third of this process has completed. The stage of developing some kind of understanding, a common conceptual framework, terminology. This is perhaps the most important and most difficult thing - to decide what we want to create. Next, I hope, the matter will move faster. I believe that by summer we will come to the formalization of key decisions on tasks, structure, and areas of work for the coming years", - Dyomin said.
He added that several working groups are involved in the project at the same time, while it was supported at the level of the Russian government, the Ministry of Education and Science, and the governor of the Tomsk region.
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“The working groups work carefully, weighing all the pros and cons, calculating all the consequences. But the process has already crossed a certain line, denoting the boundary between just conversations, intentions and real practical implementation”, - the acting rector of TPU said.
Joint breakthrough
Dyomin recalled that the need to create a "Big University" in Tomsk was caused by several circumstances.
“Firstly, the leading Tomsk universities faced certain challenges and restrictions for further growth in their development. This affects the progress in world rankings, extra-budgetary income of universities, quality of admission of applicants and other indicators. The analysis shows that it is almost impossible for our universities to achieve any significant breakthroughs alone”, - he said.
According to Dyomin, universities have reached a certain level and to overcome it, new solutions are needed, for example, combining efforts, opportunities and resources.
"The second incentive circumstance - is the formation of the Tomsk REC project (research and educational center) within the framework of the "Science" national project, which implies a higher level of interaction between the research and educational complex of the Tomsk region with the largest Russian corporations", - the acting rector of TPU reminded.
He added that within the framework of the REC there are appearing megaprojects that no higher education institution can master alone - "Global Earth Changes", "Oil and Gas", "New Chemistry", "Nuclear Medicine" and others.
“For the implementation of megaprojects is needed cooperation between universities and academic science, they can be implemented only together. Plus, if serious companies come to Tomsk for megaprojects, they would like to go here through one “window” so as not to waste time figuring out which university will undertake what part of the tasks", - Dyomin summed up.