RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS’ STRATEGIC INTEGRATION WITH HIGHER SCHOOLS

Today, just like it was almost a thousand years ago, teaching and learning remain fundamental missions of Universities and other higher schools. And the core mission of higher education is the same whatever the era, whatever the institution, i.e. to enable people to learn as it is active learning only that generates an adequate response to high quality teaching [Report to the EU, 2013].
High quality of anything produced in Europe must become a trademark of the European Union and impeccable quality of education is a most significant feature that must distinguish the education received in Europe from any other. One of the major aims of the European education is the formation and development of EU citizens’ ability to learn.
There is no contradiction between the imperative of good teaching and the imperative of research which critiques, refines, discards and advances human knowledge and understanding. Good teaching, in many subject areas, is only good to the extent that it is informed by the latest research [ibid.].
In Ernst & Young’s (2013) opinion, the higher education sector is undergoing a fundamental transformation in terms of its role in society, mode of operation, and economic structure and value.
The EU has been building an innovative economy as the European social economies were successfully developed in the 20th century and today innovation is a major driver of economic growth and well-being. To build a sustainable innovative economy, a national (or supranational) government has to create a stable ground, which is the new teaching–research–teaching paradigm
Today Europe is a kind of benchmark, with its common higher education system being a supranational model aimed at reaching world supremacy and thus able to solve many major problems, including equity in higher education and equal access to it as a social merit. The current context in which higher education takes place in Europe has changed dramatically, with learning developed as a lifelong phenomenon demanding a lifelong curiosity and commitment.
The paper analyses the experience of a number of EU Universities and compared it to the experience of Russian research Universities, 28 of which have gained the status of ‘national’ (all-Russian) research Universities striving to combine teaching with researching but facing (and creating) quite a number of problems for both teachers and students as the ratio between teaching and researching (and publishing) is not completely adequate – there seems to be a permanent misbalance with a number of happy exceptions that, however, only confirm the rule.
The authors believe that the ‘golden triangle’ of the new teaching-research paradigm is nevertheless reachable and that is teaching–learning–researching symbiosis or rather a merit circle where proactive teaching inspires proactive learning and both are integrated into researching, which is based on true research interest and thus eager learning, which gives new sources and materials to teaching and lays ground for teaching–learning–research–learning–teaching–learning eternal movement.
Strategic integration of research institutions with higher schools goes along different paths (the authors have identified 7 streamlines) and is part of a new innovative paradigm.