Science Communication Strategies in Russian Universities

The master thesis «Science Communication Strategies in Russian Universities» examines the context of science communication in educational institutions and within a scientific and educational community and relevant topics – popular science, public understanding of science in the contemporary communication environment. The research covers the theoretical approach to these topics, models of public understanding of science and describes models of PR, digital marketing instruments are also listed. Based on the theory and international practices Russian experience is reviewed and summarized, with the help of data obtained from the «Best R&D Management Practices» survey conducted by The Institute for Statistical Studied and Economics of Knowledge of Higher School of Economics. Besides, the opinions of the experts who are responsible for communications and PR in several Russian universities helped to make the picture fuller. In order to process the information and to summarize it the methods of interview and discourse- analysis were used. Thus the practices of universities’ interaction with the scientific community, state, business, and public are collected and some general conclusions and possible recommendations were given. The research aims at showing how important science communication is, what are the perspectives within this discussion, what is the current state of science communication within Russian higher education, what are the challenges and the obstacles.