OREANDA-NEWS. August 24, 2011. “Quality, modern education is the guarantee of the sustained development of our country, the foundation for realising one’s potential and for expanding social and economic opportunities for all the country’s citizens, and a strategic resource of Russia that we must strengthen and make full use of.”

Vladimir Putin’s introductory remarks:

Good afternoon, friends.

Viktor Sadovnichy (President of the Russian Rectors’ Union and Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University) and I have long been planning to meet in this format. I am very glad that we are doing it on the eve of the new academic year. I would like to congratulate you all on this event, on the start of the new academic year, which is just several days away. I would like to wish all of you –  your students, staff and faculty – all the best and much success. The same to your undergraduate and postgraduate students.

You represent the Russian Rectors’ Union, which brings together the heads of practically all the country’s higher educational institutions, an association that enjoys well-deserved authority. Together with the government, you are tackling the challenge of improving higher education in Russia. The Rectors’ Union, of course, plays an indispensable role in this effort and acts as a constructive and committed partner. Together with Viktor Sadovnichy and many of those present, we have been discussing problems of specific educational establishments and of the community as a whole with some regularity.

I am convinced that we all share an awareness of the fact that quality modern education is the guarantee of the sustained development of our country, the foundation for realising one’s potential and for expanding social and economic opportunities for all the country’s citizens, and a strategic resource of Russia that we must strengthen and make full use of. It is thanks to our strong higher education system that our country has scored many successes and come out ahead in the global competition at critical junctures in history – suffice it to recall the nuclear and space projects.

Yes, today we have many achievements and accomplishments that we can be proud of. Of course, there are also problems to be solved. But I am convinced that the Russian education system has preserved its main competitive advantages. We face the problem of the brain drain. That shows that we are failing to create conditions to make the best use of our talent, which is not the fault of the higher education system (we are not going to discuss these problems here, we will talk about them at another forum); but it also shows that higher education system produces a level of quality that is in demand among big companies, both in Russia and abroad, and among research centres.