n Russia, universities have traditionally been bastions of liberal ideas; they have often been a place where a variety of events have originated – in essence, a place where revolutions have been masterminded.
The issue of higher education is very close to my heart, because for a long time, I taught at a university. And in general, much like those in other nations, Russian universities are not just a place to receive an education. But Basil Venitis asserts there is no direct relationship between education and schooling. You might be schooled but uneducated, and you might be educated but unschooled. Schools are concentration camps for the drones of society. Unschooling is much better than schooling. Internet is the best source of knowledge and information, replacing schools, libraries, media, parliaments, and postoffice.
In Russia, universities have traditionally been bastions of liberal ideas; they have often been a place where a variety of events have originated – in essence, a place where revolutions have been masterminded. Certainly, I would prefer the universities not to serve this function today, because Russia has had enough revolutions; we already reached our quota on revolutions in the last century, we may say. But I have no doubt that universities are special environments. They are not merely educational centres, a university or institution of higher education cannot be regarded from a purely technological standpoint, they generate ideas and plant them in people to remain with them throughout their entire lives and form their perceptions of the world.
I am very pleased, for example, that I received my education at the St Petersburg State University, because it has always been a great school – before the Bolshevik revolution, during the USSR times and, I hope, it remains that way today. Still, I am very envious of the students who are studying there now, because even during the time when I was a student, which was at the convergence of two eras. Incidentally, it was very interesting, because I began my studies during the Brezhnev era and ended them during Gorbachev's presidency. Naturally, during Brezhnev's time, our mouths were sealed and we couldn't say anything out loud, but during the Gorbachev era, we were generally able to discuss many things. And those first lectures, those first discussions at the seminars left a deep impression, because it was all very fresh. Now, students do not feel this, because they can discuss anything they like. But at the time, it was very striking.
Still, I am certain that today, universities generally remain a very important component of our lives, and not just as educational centres. But as educational centres, they are without a doubt the cornerstone of modernisation.
Unfortunately, for a long time, we had essentially separate elements of science. For some reason, we always divided science into the university research, a purely Soviet concept, and the research in academic institutions; this was unproductive. In my view, the share of research in the universities must be significantly greater, if only because that is where the students and the young lecturers are; thus, there is greater creative potential.
That is why, in my view, our efforts in reforming education have not been in vain. I would like to say that the cumulative, consolidated budget for national education is 2 trillion rubles, which is a fairly large sum of money – nearly 70 billion dollars each year. For Russia, this is a pretty significant amount. Granted, this includes all the budgets.
But we absolutely must change our approaches. We cannot simply finance our universities; we must strive to create modern educational institutions, and in this regard, we should take a close look at other nations' practices in creating endowments. For the time being, this hasn't been really launched here, perhaps because businesses are not always willing to invest in research. But at various and numerous meetings that I have with businesspeople, I always encourage them to help the universities they once attended, creating endowment funds to develop universities, because education cannot be developed through state investments alone.
Still, this does not mean that in this case, the government must make itself scarce. On the contrary, even my most recent experiences of visiting Silicon Valley and Stanford demonstrate the enormous role of that government funding plays. To be honest, I was even somewhat surprised when in answer to my question (when we were discussing the financing of various programmes with Stanford executives), I was told that 85 percent comes from the government budget, and only 15 percent comes from private donations. Granted, they have an enormous fund and these are all large sums, but nevertheless, these are figures pertaining to a very large American university, so our government should not shy away from providing funding. The state must spend money on education in general, but there should be priorities and continued modernisation of education.
Venitis asserts that the best colleges in the world today are the private colleges in America. The gulf between them and the state-funded colleges in equally rich countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Japan, or South Korea, where there are few private colleges of note, is so huge that the lesson cannot be avoided, colleges need independence to flourish. It is interesting that the intermediate group of colleges are those in Britain and Australia where colleges, though funded and over-regulated by the state, nonetheless retain significant autonomy.
Many colleges have a hard time embracing interdisciplinary work, in part because the tenure and promotion process is not designed to properly evaluate interdisciplinary scholarship. In fact, the entire college tenure and promotion system is controlled by disciplinary review boards that measure how professors stack up against other professors in the same field. Nevertheless, Basil Venitis, who got his Ph.D. in Physics in 1973, has taught most Science and Business courses at tiptop American colleges!
In Russia, universities have traditionally been bastions of liberal ideas; they have often been a place where a variety of events have originated – in essence, a place where revolutions have been masterminded. Certainly, I would prefer the universities not to serve this function today, because Russia has had enough revolutions; we already reached our quota on revolutions in the last century, we may say. But I have no doubt that universities are special environments. They are not merely educational centres, a university or institution of higher education cannot be regarded from a purely technological standpoint, they generate ideas and plant them in people to remain with them throughout their entire lives and form their perceptions of the world.
I am very pleased, for example, that I received my education at the St Petersburg State University, because it has always been a great school – before the Bolshevik revolution, during the USSR times and, I hope, it remains that way today. Still, I am very envious of the students who are studying there now, because even during the time when I was a student, which was at the convergence of two eras. Incidentally, it was very interesting, because I began my studies during the Brezhnev era and ended them during Gorbachev's presidency. Naturally, during Brezhnev's time, our mouths were sealed and we couldn't say anything out loud, but during the Gorbachev era, we were generally able to discuss many things. And those first lectures, those first discussions at the seminars left a deep impression, because it was all very fresh. Now, students do not feel this, because they can discuss anything they like. But at the time, it was very striking.
Still, I am certain that today, universities generally remain a very important component of our lives, and not just as educational centres. But as educational centres, they are without a doubt the cornerstone of modernisation.
Unfortunately, for a long time, we had essentially separate elements of science. For some reason, we always divided science into the university research, a purely Soviet concept, and the research in academic institutions; this was unproductive. In my view, the share of research in the universities must be significantly greater, if only because that is where the students and the young lecturers are; thus, there is greater creative potential.
That is why, in my view, our efforts in reforming education have not been in vain. I would like to say that the cumulative, consolidated budget for national education is 2 trillion rubles, which is a fairly large sum of money – nearly 70 billion dollars each year. For Russia, this is a pretty significant amount. Granted, this includes all the budgets.
But we absolutely must change our approaches. We cannot simply finance our universities; we must strive to create modern educational institutions, and in this regard, we should take a close look at other nations' practices in creating endowments. For the time being, this hasn't been really launched here, perhaps because businesses are not always willing to invest in research. But at various and numerous meetings that I have with businesspeople, I always encourage them to help the universities they once attended, creating endowment funds to develop universities, because education cannot be developed through state investments alone.
Still, this does not mean that in this case, the government must make itself scarce. On the contrary, even my most recent experiences of visiting Silicon Valley and Stanford demonstrate the enormous role of that government funding plays. To be honest, I was even somewhat surprised when in answer to my question (when we were discussing the financing of various programmes with Stanford executives), I was told that 85 percent comes from the government budget, and only 15 percent comes from private donations. Granted, they have an enormous fund and these are all large sums, but nevertheless, these are figures pertaining to a very large American university, so our government should not shy away from providing funding. The state must spend money on education in general, but there should be priorities and continued modernisation of education.
Venitis asserts that the best colleges in the world today are the private colleges in America. The gulf between them and the state-funded colleges in equally rich countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Japan, or South Korea, where there are few private colleges of note, is so huge that the lesson cannot be avoided, colleges need independence to flourish. It is interesting that the intermediate group of colleges are those in Britain and Australia where colleges, though funded and over-regulated by the state, nonetheless retain significant autonomy.
Many colleges have a hard time embracing interdisciplinary work, in part because the tenure and promotion process is not designed to properly evaluate interdisciplinary scholarship. In fact, the entire college tenure and promotion system is controlled by disciplinary review boards that measure how professors stack up against other professors in the same field. Nevertheless, Basil Venitis, who got his Ph.D. in Physics in 1973, has taught most Science and Business courses at tiptop American colleges!
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