"This year is unusual for us": Minister Falkov - on the impact of coronavirus on higher education and communication of scientists

- Valery Nikolaevich, what can you say about the readiness of our universities for the new academic year and the remote format of interaction with students?

- Our higher educational institutions are ready for the start of the new academic year.

The admission campaign has just ended, admission to budget places for full-time education.

Admission to correspondence courses will continue.

This year is generally unusual for us.

The Day of Knowledge will, of course, be celebrated in a slightly different way this year; for obvious reasons, mass events will not take place.

Almost 700 universities begin their education from September 1, and only 25 universities - with a slight shift.

This will be a full-time academic year.

Although it must be said that the face-to-face format is now completely different, various kinds of remote technologies are used more than last year at the same time.

I think that even if there were no restrictions now, having gone through this, we, universities, would still use distance learning more where it is justified.

- What solutions have been developed to protect teachers and students in universities?

- We thoroughly prepared for this academic year with Rospotrebnadzor.

Variations or options were different: only in distance format or only in face-to-face format.

And if in person, how to organize the observance of social distance in an audience with 150, 200 or 300 people?

As a result, there were special guidelines for higher education institutions for this year.

The main one is the mask mode.

• Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation

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In addition to this, the temperature is measured at the inlet and twice a day.

There are recommendations specifically for those who are at risk - for people suffering from chronic diseases.

Moreover, both for students and teachers.

An individual training schedule is recommended for students, and teachers are recommended formats that are not directly related to live communication.

It is clear that during the lectures teachers can not use a mask.

If these are classes in creative universities, then the corresponding restrictions are also made there.

Students, teachers, and all employees must take these recommendations seriously and show a completely different level of attitude towards each other and towards their own health.

- Russian education is popular abroad.

This applies to both the near abroad and distant countries.

And we have hundreds of thousands of foreign students.

How to deal with them?

- Let's get a look.

Our number of students is constantly changing, as of the end of the year there were about 300 thousand.

Some 160 thousand left the Russian Federation last year for obvious reasons.

The rest stayed.

Since they are here, there are no difficulties - they will start the academic year in the same way as students from Russia.

• Foreign students remaining in Russia during the pandemic will be able to continue their studies at Russian universities

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Students from countries with open borders can enter according to the established procedure.

They are undergoing a 14-day quarantine.

On day 10 or 12, they take a coronavirus test by PCR.

And after that they are allowed to attend classes.

In turn, universities provide accommodation, allocate special rooms or whole dormitories for the so-called observators in order to ensure the quarantine regime.

For those foreign students who cannot arrive at the place of study by September 1, training using distance technologies will be organized.

- How did the teachers master new computer technologies?

What does the loss of a living connection between teacher and student lead to in distance learning?

- Still, when we were immediately forced to switch to a distance learning format, it was very difficult, and a huge burden was on teachers and students.

The teachers made a huge step forward in improving their qualifications almost in combat conditions, ensured the educational process, did their best to ensure that the quality of education did not suffer.

There are, of course, pros and cons.

In general, we can see in school and in universities that distance education will not replace live communication.

And there are such formats of teamwork where distance learning is impossible.

This is especially true for joint creative projects, work on scientific installations, practice in engineering universities or with doctors.

• Part of interaction between students and teachers has been moved online

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At the same time, there is an understanding that some part of the interaction can be transferred to the online format.

This makes life easier for both the teacher and the student, does not affect the quality.

- Indeed, I wonder how it is possible to organize distance learning in specialties, where one cannot just do with one theory?

- Last year, when universities were faced with the fact that certain types of work could not be transferred to the remote format, it was decided to move them to the beginning of this year.

This, in my opinion, is the right decision.

Given the experience that universities have, both teachers and students are better prepared for the new academic year.

It starts off in a traditional face-to-face format with much more live communication.

And now everything depends, in fact, on students, on teachers, on us.

How we will follow those norms.

- Valery Nikolaevich, I would like to talk about changes in tuition fees.  

- Do you mean the cost of training?

- Yes.

- Back in late April - early May, this story was very actively discussed.

And in the press, and there were many appeals.

As a result, we, together with the universities at the site of the Russian Union of Rectors, made a difficult decision to keep the cost of education for 2020 at the level of 2019.

This was a recommendation, since the Ministry does not set the cost of education in universities.

When they found out that universities in one way or another deviated from these recommendations, they always held negotiations and reminded of what they had agreed on, asked to adjust the cost to the level of 2019. 

Naturally, by the beginning of the new academic year, we monitored all 724 universities, and the All-Russian Popular Front provided us with great help in this.

In particular, they looked at almost 140 universities in more than 40 regions, analyzed and found that the cost has slightly increased in a number of universities.

We held negotiations with them and with their founders.

By September 1, in all Russian universities, the cost will be adjusted in accordance with the agreement that I spoke about.

At the same time, of course, I want to remind you that we focused universities on a balanced, very attentive attitude to the situation of each student who is experiencing problems with payment.

We agreed on this in the spring, and I know that all universities did just that.

Many have used endowment funds.

Someone responded and gave an installment plan, and quite a long one.

Somewhere they met halfway and enrolled students at the expense of the university.

A variety of tools were used to support.

The government has decided on unprecedented conditions for educational loans.

Today there are unique opportunities for obtaining higher education either on a free basis or on a paid basis, but with the maximum support of the state or universities.

- I would also like to discuss international cooperation.

How is the work with foreign colleagues organized?

- Our universities have extensive international connections.

And, despite the coronavirus, relations with foreign partners have been preserved.

This is fundamentally important - being included in world research networks.

Higher education today and science require the flow of people and knowledge, the exchange of best practices.

This is especially important for science.

Plus foreign students and ours leave for internships.

It is clear that the history of the pandemic did not pass without a trace neither for Russian science, nor for science in the world as a whole.

A simple example is megascience-class facilities, huge synchrotrons, or a whole series of other facilities like CERN, where access for our researchers was restricted.

Unique scientific installations in our country did not work for a long time.

It is clear that this will affect scientific performance.

Even later, but it will affect.

It is clear that archaeologists have great difficulties, because the excavations could not be carried out.

Sea and land expeditions - they also had great difficulties, although now we have restored this work as well.

At the same time, I do not think that this situation is critical from the point of view of international relations.

All are actively using means of remote communication.

They also hold online conferences.

Research teams work by harnessing the power of technology to communicate remotely.

- Can we say that the pandemic has become a driver of reforms in the field of digitalization, distance education?

- I think it is too early to talk about it, because too little time has passed.

Of course, the pandemic, like an X-ray, enlightened the entire higher education system, each university.

And we saw society as a whole, all the advantages and disadvantages of the traditional form of education, all the advantages and disadvantages of online education.

It became clear that online courses are not a panacea for all ills, that one must be very balanced in promoting distance technologies.

• In the opinion of Minister V.N., Falkov, it is necessary to promote remote technologies very carefully

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From the point of view of some serious, global trends that change the essence of universities, their mission, the pandemic has not seriously affected.

Because the university remains a university.

His mission has three main tasks.

This is training in intellectual professions, it is conducting scientific research, and, in a broad sense, the transfer of culture - the impact on the economy, on the regions where universities are located.

After all, universities are intellectual corporations that are more than a thousand years old.

It's hard to knock them off course in six months.

This is perhaps some kind of adjustment.

- The beginning of the epidemic almost coincided with the beginning of your work as minister.

Do you feel like a crisis manager?

How can you evaluate your work at the moment?

- Times are not chosen.

No one knew on January 21, 2020 how events would develop.

Two months later, we found ourselves in a pandemic.

I think the experience of working in universities helped our entire ministry team a lot.

At that time, we staked on an open dialogue with colleagues.

Since we have always been online, in a broad sense, our working group consisted of rectors, vice-rectors, deans, students, of all universities.

I would not give enthusiastic assessments, because it was hard for everyone.

But overall, the higher education system has coped with this challenge.

We saw lagging zones, we saw outsiders, we saw where we were underperforming.

In a pandemic, you cannot make the same decision today as you did yesterday.

The situation is very dynamic and needs to be adjusted every day.

Many began to help each other.

Leading universities began to broadcast their best practices and open online courses.

I very much hope that we will move this year in the same way, carefully, carefully, thoughtfully.

For the full interview, see the RTD website.