July 7 – Workshop of rectors of Federal Universities was headed by the Minister of Education and Science of Russian Federation Dmitry Livanov. The meeting was concluded by the signing of the agreement which had been negotiated for over a month. The Agreement on Establishing the Network of Federal Universities will facilitate the effectiveness and quality of academic and innovation undertakings.
The signing was preceded by the discussion of current state of affairs at Federal Universities and perspectives of their further development. Rector of the Northern Arctic Federal University Elena Kudryashova outlined the results of the conference “Development perspectives of Federal Universities” that took place at the beginning of June and highlighted four main projects in the network of Federal Universities.
Rector Ilshat Gafurov officially requested the Ministry to support incentives of business structures to invest in higher educational institutions as well as allow regions to finance federal universities directly and set up joint companies with large enterprises. Ilshat Gafurov also stressed the importance of state order in humanitarian research.
The Minister outlined that the funding strategy will not change and it will be based on the current activities of each university. He also asked the rectors to find possibilities of integration with the Academy of Science.
The next workshop will be held on October 4-5 at Baltic Federal University.