Association of universities in Samara (responses). What is the connection between universities?

Several months ago, a scandal erupted in one of the Russian cities related to the inspection of higher education institutions by the Ministry of Education. The unification of universities in Samara plunged many students, teachers and parents into shock, because they believed that all three institutions justify themselves 100%.

How did it all start?

In February 2015, the authorities of the Samara region announced their intention to unite the three higher education institutions into one. They were not at all embarrassed by the fact that we are talking about the three oldest institutions in the region, each of which has its own history, scientific school and tradition.

The union of the three universities of Samara, the authorities believe, will help all institutions to get rid of the financial problems that have arisen and reach a self-sustaining level. The leadership of all higher education institutions opposed the merger and formed a response letter to the regional authorities, not forgetting to send a copy to the President of the Russian Federation - VV Putin.

Whom will they unite?

The association of universities in Samara, the list of which includes SGAU (Aerospace University), SamSU (state) and SamSTU (technical), can put education in the whole region at risk, heads of universities believe. The governor of the region explained that the SSAU is currently one of the top 15 universities in the country, so he has the right to apply for additional funding.

But the remaining two schools receive less money, and if the union is held, the SGAU will be able to improve performance and get more funding, part of which will go to support the existence of other universities. The Governor also fears that the SSU will not be able to retain its position as one of the higher schools in Russia due to the reform that was announced by the Ministry of Education and Science in the summer of 2014. According to her, postgraduate and graduate studies will remain only in the strongest universities in the country, and because of their low indicators, the SSU does not apply to them.

First reaction

Teachers, students and parents are outraged by the current situation. Heads of universities fully support them. Each university has its own customs, habits and traditions, the admissions officers note. According to them, even the contingent, which goes to three universities, is radically different from each other.

According to media reports, the initiator of the event, called "Association of three universities of Samara" - Merkushin, governor of the Samara region. There is a hypothesis that this is only a temporary measure, and as soon as the situation in the country returns to normal, universities will again depart, but no one believes this and does not plan to agree to the association.

Development of the situation

In April 2015 it became known that SamSTU will continue to function as a separate institution. But SSAU and SSU will still be merged, and on the basis of the first institution, the second will simply be abolished. Such an association of universities in Samara, whose comments were already unflattering, only spurred the discontent of citizens.

Representatives of SamSTU are not supporters of such an association, as they have repeatedly stated in the media. To solve this issue, an ad hoc working group was set up, which after a short consideration of the situation approved the proposed scheme for optimizing universities.

Minister of education

The governor of the region met with Education Minister Dmitry Livanov and discussed this issue. The union of universities in Samara, according to the minister, is possible, but without the participation of SamSTU. Nevertheless, it is planned that SamSTU will later become a member of two unified universities, but when this happens it is not known.

The administration of educational institutions does not comment on this situation, but in the spring of 2015, the scientific councils of the SSU and SSAU supported the initiative to unite universities. Thus, the only institution that does not officially agree with the association is SamSTU, all the remaining ones will be united in one way or another.

Opinions of citizens

Association of universities in Samara (the opinions of citizens and authorities are very contradictory) is a problem that has many fundamental nuances. Representatives of the employers' union note that due to the unification it will be possible to achieve a synergistic effect, when the departments and universities will interact with each other most closely, and this will be much more useful. In their opinion, through such a measure, it will also be possible to establish interaction between universities, business and schools.

Some deputies note that the connection of even two universities is wrong, not to mention three. They believe that a split within one institution will exist for many decades, and it is unlikely that a joint educational institution will develop. SSAU, in their opinion, should not be considered at all as a university, since it received this status only because of its prestige, and in fact remains the same institution as before.

Teachers' reaction

Some officials suggest that the incident has its own reasons, and commenting on the unification of the three universities of Samara (with which it is connected, in particular), state that it may be about order from other regions. In June, the governor visited the SSU, where he spoke for a long time about the benefits of unification.

As a result, a scandal broke out due to the fact that one of the university's teachers did not slam the governor after the end of his speech, but directly stated that he has been working here for 45 years and does not expect anything good from the prospect of a merger. According to the policy of Mikhail Matveyev, this is the only person who openly leads the fight against the merger of the two universities, all the others have already accepted the inevitability for a long time.

Meeting

The unification of universities in Samara led even to a rally, which took place in early July. The deputy of the Samara Duma, Mikhail Matveyev, who is actively fighting against the unification of universities, noted that more than 500 citizens attended the rally, which lasted more than two hours. The press service of the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that no more than 150 people took part in the rally.

The protesters demanded that the authorities cancel the accession of SSU to SSAU and asked to stop this process of optimization until it was too late. Political slogans also sounded from the crowd, in particular, there were those who demanded the resignation of the governor of the region, calling him incompetent in matters of education and management.

Activities of activists

Teachers and students, even after explaining all the advantages, do not agree to unite universities in Samara. It was their idea to collect signatures for the leadership of the country with a request to keep all three institutions as independent units. The creators of the petition noted in her that each university has its own unique history. Total petition collected more than 20 thousand signatures.

At the end of June, Dmitry Livanov, who holds the post of Minister of Science and Education, signed an order to merge SamGU and SGAU on the basis of the latter. Whether the petition will affect this decision is not yet known, but students and teachers are ready to go to the end and to ensure that universities remain in their places.

The benefits of pooling

According to the leadership of the region, as an obvious plus, one should consider that due to the merger it will be possible to achieve higher indicators and increase financing. Among other things, the prestige of the SSAU diplomas is highly valued all over the world, thus, the students of the united university will have much more opportunities to find work not only in Russia, but also abroad.

Also, as obvious advantages, there is an opportunity to save using one and the same infrastructure. According to the authorities, if two institutions of higher education are located in the same room, it will help save energy and building expenses. The released funds can be spent on current needs.

Cons of Consolidation

But the minuses are often spoken by university staff and students than the government. In their opinion, unification inevitably entails a reduction in the teaching staff. As a result, for the small salaries of the remaining teachers will have to carry a double burden, and the quality of the education provided in this case will be very low.

The students are afraid of the same situation, especially for those who receive education on a budgetary basis. After the unification of universities, part of the budget places will be reduced, this means that it will be possible to get education only on a paid basis, which is not possible for everyone to afford.