Computer Science: History of Emerging Discipline
At the end of December new issue of Higher Education in Russia and Beyond journal was presented. The issue is dedicated to IT education and Computer Science developing in Russia. Several faculty staff participated in the issue’s preparation: speakers I. Arzhantsev, M. Gustokashin, A. Konushin, V. Kuliamin, A. Petrenko, V. Podolskii, A. Sobolevski, V. Shilov and guest editor S. Zavarin. Publication to the Institute for System Programming was prepared with the participation of the Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences V. Ivannikov (1940-2016).
Higher Education in Russia and Beyond (HERB) is a quarterly informational journal published by National Research University Higher School of Economics since 2014. HERB is intended to highlight the transformation process of higher education institutions in Russia and the counties of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The journal seeks to present multiple-aspect opinions about current challenges and trends of regional higher education and give examples of the best local practices.
This issue is dedicated to contemporary computer science education in Russia, which exhibits some interesting trends. Part one of the issue describes the rise of computing hardware and information technologies in the USSR. This topic is still relevant because in the Soviet times, expert evaluations of the situation in this sphere were rarely made public. Soviet legacy is still tangible in other ex-Soviet countries, for example in Belarus, which is one of the world’s leaders in the sphere of IT outsourcing but maintains a largely Soviet-style higher education model.
The second part covers university education. Many comprehensive universities respond to the latest market trends by opening IT education departments and launching new programs in computer science. However, many higher education institutions in Russia are facing a serious problem: the most talented young people from their regions prefer to go to Moscow or Saint Petersburg to study.
The dynamics of IT industry presents another challenge: academic institutions cannot always keep up to date with the changes. Part three of the issue is dedicated to further education projects and describes the newest approaches to working with high school students, university students and recent graduates used by HEIs, research organizations and commercial companies.
The facts that the educational landscape is very diverse and salaries in industrial companies are high lead to university graduates’ lack of interest in post-graduate studies, so in the final part of this issue you can learn more about how research institutes can work with students and universities in the current context.
The issue is available here: https://herb.hse.ru/en/
All the articles are also available on the Faculty site.