THE EFFICIENCY OF STUDENTS’ RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AT THE FOOD PRODUCTION UNIVERSITY

In recent years the ongoing modernization of higher education in Russia in the context of continuous food production education provides an opportunity for learners to improve their professional knowledge and skills throughout their lives. Continuous education is carried out through:
a) the development of educational programs in organizations that carry out educational activities,
b) training in the framework of professional non-profit organizations,
c) individual cognitive activities.

From this perspective, the educational process in a food production university should be a synthesis of education, training, production practice and research work. The framework of the students’ research activities allows students to get acquainted with the topical scientific and technological achievements at scientific conferences, research laboratories and workshops of technological enterprises.

The implementation of the Bologna Agreement on the territory of the Russian Federation is aimed at training competitive, initiative, and creative specialists, who are ready for continuous professional growth. This challenge can be solved by conceptual revision of the educational process with the transition from the pre-existing training in the form of passive perception by the student of ready knowledge provided by the teacher to the educational process in the form of active knowledge acquisition by students.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the organization and efficiency of educational and research work of students of the Moscow State University of Food Production.

The efficiency of students’ research activities is complex and includes the following indicators to be measured and quantified: the efficiency of the mass coverage of students; the efficiency of the impact of research activities on the development of creative abilities and mastering the methods of individual and collective creativity; the efficiency of quality content and contribution of students in science; the efficiency of the subject influence onto the object of the process of forming qualities, skills; efficiency of methods, forms and means for the process of forming the subject of creativity.

Identification of the efficiency and prospects of 118 students’ research activities at the Moscow State University of Food Production (their mean age is 18-19 years) was carried out by method of a survey, as well as using Pareto diagram and Ishikawa diagram.

The results showed that students, who are actively and productively engaged in research activities, mostly have professional skills and competencies related to the practical use of the knowledge, skills and potentials than their colleagues not involved in research work. Professional competence of the future specialists is the ability to successfully act on the basis of knowledge in solving problems of the professional kind, and also determines the social significance of the future specialists, their mobility and readiness for innovative professional activity, which becomes possible with the active participation of students in research activities.

Thus, the results of the analysis of the efficiency of students’ research work identified the vector of further development and formation improvement of research that should increase the interest and motivation of students to conduct experimental and theoretical studies with the skills of independent theoretical and practical work in the food production industry.