On September 20 in Sochi, heads of universities and representatives of big business held a direct dialogue on the prospects of partnership and discuss the future of Russian education.

 

Speakers included leading Russian education experts, government officials and international participants.

Olga Dergunova, Deputy President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank and Director of GSOM SPbU, spoke at the panel discussion ‘What skills are needed for students of the Alpha and Beta generations?’ together with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Education, HeadHunter and FutureToday.

How are educational institutions being transformed to meet the needs of future students? And what does the new generation expect from a higher education institution?

Olga Dergunova drew attention to the fact that in modern education the emphasis is not only on the qualities that students should possess, but on the ways to develop them:

‘There are three qualities that we cultivate in GSOM SPbU students:

1. Consciousness of choice, which is followed by involvement in education as a business process.
2. Responsibility for the result. Students are young adults, and everything that will happen to them is their area of responsibility.
3. The environment and skills with which the student enters the labour market. This includes digital educational environment and tools for learning and communication’.

At the same time GSOM SPbU as a business school has a unique experience of successful involvement of its graduates in the Community. According to Olga Dergunova, it is the alumni who become the best employers and mentors, as well as provide important feedback on educational programmes.

Olga Alkanova, Director of the Centre for Teaching Excellence in Business Education and Associate Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Management SPbU was also a speaker at the Alfa Bank Summit.

Current and future trends in education were the topic of the panel discussion ‘Digital Technologies and Education: Learning at a Qualitatively New Level’ with representatives of the Skoltech AI Centre, Sber, ITMO University and the School of Education.

Experts discussed how the concepts of artificial intelligence and digitalisation of processes have become part of the education industry. What is needed today for effective changes in educational processes?

Olga Alkanova noted: ‘Throughout history, education has changed according to what society, the economy, and the market needed: what kind of specialists, to what extent, and why? Universities are adapting, but the more complex universities become as systems, the more difficult it is for them to respond quickly to market demands. And we and the participants of the summit want to synchronise and find a common pace of development. If we talk about trends, it is obvious that generations are changing. Technology is significantly changing our capabilities and our activities, and this is reflected in what we need to teach students today. And it is important to remember that any technology is first and foremost a tool that people use to solve their tasks’.