Russians are becoming more scientifically literate, but still only a third of them remember plants have genes
New educational media are emerging in Russia one after another, scientists deliver public lectures to full houses, science festivals are being organised — but does all this effort bear fruit? HSE ISSEK experts have found out that in the five years they’ve been measuring Russians’ scientific literacy in the scope of “Monitoring innovative behaviour of the population” project, the share of people who had problems answering “secondary school” questions such as whether the Earth core was hot or continents were drifting, was steadily decreasing. However, slightly more specific questions still tend to baffle a lot of them.
Figure of the day: 65%
of full-time students at Russian universities studied free of charge in 2014. This figure grew in comparison with 2006, when free education was received by only 57% of students. These data were obtained in a survey of students of institutions of higher education that was carried out as part of a Monitoring of Education Markets and Organizations study conducted by HSE in collaboration with the Levada Centre in 2014.
Cluster selection
The Russian Ministry of Economic Development Commission has reviewed Russian regions’ applications for investments in innovative territorial clusters’ projects at the meeting held on 18 August in the town of Troitsk near Moscow. HSE ISSEK experts Mikhail Goland, head of the Centre for Cooperation with Public Authorities, Development Institutes and Companies, and Evgeny Kutsenko, head of the Russian Cluster Observatory, took part in the meeting.
State-owned companies innovate without being pushed
The Higher School of Economics, the RF Ministry of Economic Development, and the Russian Venture Company prepared an analytical report summarising the results of state-owned companies’ innovative development programmes (IDPs) in 2011–2013 and their future priorities, and describing innovation management mechanisms applied by these companies and leading international firms. Data sources included companies’ IDPs, reports, annual monitoring results, and a survey of state-owned companies’ management conducted by HSE ISSEK in 2014. According to most of the respondents, the government actions have already positively affected their companies, and by 2020, the effect will become even more pronounced.
Figure of the day: 13%
of full-time students at Russian universities in 2014 had intentions of studying abroad. A year earlier, the figure was 20%. These data were obtained in a survey of students at institutions of higher education that was carried out as part of a Monitoring of Education Markets and Organisations study conducted by HSE in collaboration with the Levada Centre in 2014.
Figure of the day: 31%
of professional and vocational schools in Russia are currently not enrolling students for professional education programmes due to a lack of demand. These data were obtained in a survey of heads of institutions of professional education that was carried out as part of a Monitoring of Education Markets and Organisations study conducted by HSE in collaboration with the Levada Centre in 2014.
Figure of the day: 72%
of managers at large and medium-sized Russian industrial companies report that the financial and economic situation of their enterprises was ‘satisfactory’. These data are presented in a new Monitoring the Business Climate at Industrial Enterprises study that was conducted in July 2015 by the Centre for Business Tendency Studies at the HSE ISSEK.
Figure of the day: 109
This year, 109 applications have been submitted for the ISSEK English-language Master’s programme "Governance of science, technology and innovation". The competition was quite tough: more than three applicants per a state-funded place.
Figure of the day: 15 U.S. dollars
or 11 euros, was the amount spent per person in Russia in 2014 on preventing cardiovascular disease. These data are presented in a study by Ruslan Saygitov and Alexander Chulok, researchers at the HSE ISSEK Foresight Centre, entitled ‘Cardiovascular Disease in the Context of the Socio-economic Priorities of Russia’s Long-term Development’.
Figure of the day: 79%
of full-time university teachers are involved in scientific work. These data were obtained in a survey of teachers at institutions of higher education that was carried out as part of a Monitoring of Education Markets and Organisations study conducted by HSE in collaboration with the Levada Centre in 2014.