UTMN Rector Valery Falkov Presents a Roadmap for the University’s Development in 2018-2020
The roadmap was born out of the need to form a detailed action plan for the realization of the Global Competitiveness Program and clarify UTMN’s target model and the values of its performance indicators.
UTMN Rector Valery Falkov has presented a new Roadmap for the University’s development in 2018-2020.
The roadmap was born out of the need to form a detailed action plan for the realization of the Global Competitiveness Program and clarify UTMN’s target model and the values of its performance indicators.
The new roadmap was endorsed at the UTMN Academic Council meeting and sent to the Ministry of Education and Science for the consideration at a meeting of the Council on Competitiveness Enhancement of Leading Russian Universities.
The roadmap is based on 7 strategic initiatives for UTMN’s development. These initiatives include:
1. Developing a portfolio of university programs and intellectual products which guarantees international competitiveness.
2. Attracting new members of staff and providing for the professional development of current employees.
3. Improving the quality of research and academic staff.
4. Involving talented students and post-graduates.
5. Concentrating university resources into promising research areas.
6. Withdrawing from unviable activities.
7. Developing a university management system.
“Excellent Education”
Although the University of Tyumen excels on the regional educational market, it is not listed in any international ranking among the most prestigious universities of the RF. The situation can only be changed with the transformation of the university’s educational model, as the current model does not meet the expectations of highly motivated prospective students.
To solve this problem, UTMN has implemented individualized educational trajectories in four institutes and opened the School of Advanced Studies. The School is a research and educational greenfield, functioning as an honors college – a place where the university’s intellectual and infrastructural resources are concentrated. The School is expected to fundamentally change UTMN’s educational model. Gradually, the gap between the quality of education at SAS and the rest of the university will be reduced.
“Research Frontiers”
The university plans to provide focused support for research in the natural sciences and engineering, especially in the fields of ecological and agricultural biology, by setting up a strategic academic unit – the X-BIO School of Environmental and Agricultural Biology.
It should be noted that agricultural biology is a fundamental science and should be considered in a much broader sense than just the science of crops. The international-level research groups which already exist at UTMN lay a well-founded path to the establishment of the X-Bio School, while highly-qualified specialists from other fields will ensure an interdisciplinary approach.
In turn, the School of Advanced Studies will become a driver for multidisciplinary research in the spheres of social sciences and humanities.
Frontier directions in research such as "Photonics and Microfluidics" as well as "Acarology" will be developed at X-BIO. Research areas outside the UTMN frontiers will be boosted by attracting international research groups interested in the unique geographic location of the region.
“New Cadres”
UTMN has introduced ambitious plans to increase the share of international faculty members from 1% to 12% by 2020. However, it is a challenge to recruit such a large number of talented foreign staff to a region so little known internationally. To counter this fact, the recruitment strategy will be to promote the UTMN HR brand both locally and internationally as one of the leading places for the development and fulfillment of young talent in the former Soviet territory.
“Centre for Attracting Talents”
The status of the university in the eyes of prospective students needs to shift from that of the best university in the region to one of the leaders of the Russia-wide university system. This process began when the University of Tyumen joined the 5-100 Project, which has already led to an increase in the number of high-achieving students enrolling at UTMN. This momentum is to be continued by increasing the university’s academic reputation, developing frontier research and academic competitions, the work of the School of Advanced Studies and launching the Sirius regional center for talented children at UTMN, among other projects.
“Smart Management”
Creating a unified corporate information environment at UTMN involves launching a number of projects to support and develop all the university’s administrative and organizational processes. Their main aims include ensuring the efficiency of the decision-making procedure; reducing bureaucracy; increasing the staff’s accountability; and developing state-of-the-art services to support education and research activity. Achieving these objectives will improve living and working conditions within the campus.
“Generating Businesses”
As part of the 5-100 Project, UTMN is taking steps towards cooperation with industrial partners, technology transfer companies, and intellectual property management units. Such cooperation should correspond to two basic strategies: licensing university-developed technologies and developing start-ups with the participation of university staff.
“University Brand Visibility”
A task of this initiative is to improve recognition of the university, its core staff, research directions, and education programs in other Russian regions and on an international level. Work on achieving results in this strategic initiative also influences six basic indicators of the university’s development program: the share of international students and staff, the average Unified State Examination score of undergraduate enrollees, positions in the QS ranking, citation frequency, and the number of students enrolled on the university’s Master’s and PhD programs.
A modern Multimedia center for all UTMN students and staff will be established to develop new forms of cooperation with regional, national and international media, generate unique content for the university and promote UTMN at new markets.
Significant attention is paid to the development of corporate communications.
Source: UTMN Department of Strategic Communications
Link to Russian version: https://www.utmn.ru/presse/novosti/proekt-5-100/329390/