Abstract:

At present, the principal sources of economic growth are defined as R&D expenditure, a degree of their introduction in manufacturing, increasing employment in the national economy, improvement in the quality of workforce, and a more effective distribution of resources. The system of education and professional training affects, directly or indirectly, each of the above factors of growth because education, hence a quality of the intellectual capital, is one of the economic growth factors.
The most important task currently consists in an improvement of the system of training and securely extended reproduction of R&D personnel as a component of the national S&T and innovation potential.The significance of this issue has increased essentially during the last one-and-a-half decades; whereas the number of R&D personnel has reduced significantly and its quality has declined, secondary employment has become widespread (very often outside the professional competence), the inflow of young people in R&D dramatically decreased, and the internal and external migration increased, as well as, resulting from these, the related ageing of R&D personnel. At present, a break in the succession of generations has appeared and seems to become irreclaimable, leading to a gap between researchers’ generations and, as a result, loss of certain competence of research activities, as well as a portion of accumulated knowledge and skills, and destruction of scientific professionalism.The low level of remuneration in R&D, lack of economic incentives, deterioration in the social situation of researchers, and the decline of the prestige of research activities have entailed the reduced inflow of higher education graduates in the R&D sector and the continuing outflow of young personnel. On the contrary, in advanced countries the education and training of highly qualified personnel is the main component of the human potential formation determining the subsequent efficiency of its use.
The problems affecting the human component of R&D occurred in the later Soviet period and has become aggravated since the 1990s, being supplemented by new ones: the brief stay of young researchers who have joined the science and technology area; brain drain, both external and internal; active disappearance of the middle-aged generation of researchers in their thirties and forties; and the disruption within the scientific community (including the incomes).Although the existing trends in the actual development of Russian education have extended the potential for formation of R&D personnel to a certain extent, only an insignificant proportion of higher education graduates enters the S&T sector. Even after successfully completed postgraduate studies, professionals having joined research institutes or universities most often do not stay there for long. Besides the low remuneration, one of the main factors of outflow of young people from science and technology is the lack of prospects for a scientific career.Russian science is developing under new economic, social, and political conditions that have determined its present state in many respects. To involve new R&D personnel, long-term science policies should involve an education policy and a policy for the human component of the S&T potential. The direction of these policies is obviously derived from the fact that the medium age of R&D professionals is growing in Russia, whereas science has no prospects without recruitment of young scientists.

Keywords:

r&d personnel, education level, higher and secondary education, reproduction of highly qualified.