ROLE OF THE CLASSICAL UNIVERSITY IN ELITE REPRODUCTION

The article examines problems concerning the modernization of the higher education in Russia and training of highly intellectual, elite persons for managing the country.

The author concludes that the hasty steps taken in the course of reforming the Russian system of higher education at the end of the first decade of the 21st century led to a specific situation. This situation is characterized by a policy of accelerated reorganization of education, primarily aimed at accepting the dogmatized models and tools for educational institutions management, which were imposed by the West and initially designed for underdeveloped backward countries.

Unfortunately, this situation has determined many dysfunctions in education, concerning foremost classical university education. Completely predictably, it led to disorientation of student youth that began focusing on narrowly applied aspects of future professional activity, which are secondary in terms of social significance.

The article emphasizes the importance of preserving the best traditions of the Russian higher education within the framework of classical universities, which have always played a leading role in the reproduction of the elite of the society. Key points are identified that make it possible to specify the essence of the elite reproduced by classical universities.

The author demonstrates that the future presidents and prime ministers, Nobel laureates, internationally renowned writers graduated from the most famous universities in the world, with the Lomonosov Moscow State University preserving a leading place among them. For example, when Russian science was living through its historical rise, it was led by the Moscow University graduates, including S.I. Vavilov, A.N. Nesmeyanov, M.V. Keldysh.

Overcoming the populist approaches to contemporary education, return to the fundamentality and breadth of domestic education, focus on the traditional “scientific education”, as well as the intellectual potential of the best educational institutions in Russia are regarded as the most important tasks for reforming the whole system of education in which classical universities played and will play a major role.

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