Programme Overview

Specific features of the programme

1. An international-standard programme — the course has been developed in collaboration with a consortium of American and European universities headed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) and is based on best international practice. In some aspects, the programme is ahead of existing international equivalents, which allows it to compete and cooperate with national and international universities in the market of knowledge and education.

2. Modern/updateable — the programme is designed to be updated annually to keep pace with changes in the higher education system.

3. World renowned Experts — the programme disciplines are based on modern research in higher education and will be taught both by experts who are involved in this research and practitioners using these result. This means students are at the cutting edge of both national and global research and development in higher education.

4. Focused on ideas generation and action, bringing research and educational results — the programme will promote the generation of new ideas, rethinking of existing practices and addressing key issues. This will involve joint action by teachers, researchers and students and is not aimed at knowledge retranslation and mass production of managers in standard programmes. The products of the programme should be open publications (books, reviews of the best work by areas of research, educational and methodical materials, articles in journals and media), events for the professional community, academic and applied projects.

5. Interdisciplinary — the programme should become a platform for joint developments (primarily educational courses) by researchers, experts and employees in various areas.

6. Fundamental — focused not only on mastering procedural skills, but on mastering tbasic research and analytical tools, general culture and thinking.

7. For working people — the programme is aimed at students who are already working in the area of higher education management and who wish to build a career in this area. The programme is not aimed at students who have just received their first degree.

Aim of the programme

The programme aims to train expert analysts and managers for the development and implementation of development/transformation plans and programmes in educational institutions and the system of higher education in Russia.

Tasks of the programme

In-depth study of the concepts and approaches of modern general and strategic management when applied to higher education institutions;
In-depth study of approaches to the implementation of key university management processes;
Developing skills for the analysis and development of administrative solutions, strategic analysis applied to higher education institutions and the development of strategies and plans;
Developing skills for setting and solving administrative tasks in groups and teams;
Developing expert analytical skills for working with information sources and data;
Developing skills for designing managerial processes, programmes and projects in higher education;
Developing the use of models and methods of effectiveness evaluation in universities, projects and programmes in higher education.

On successful completion of the course, graduates will

understand to a professional level the key problems of management in higher education and be familiar with Russian and international sources on this topic (taking into account their relevance and authoritativeness);
have mastered the tools for gathering and analysing information, developing administrative solutions, strategic analysis and strategy and plans development;
be able to analyze a university’s external environment and the system of higher education and to evaluate the changes that are taking place there;
be able to analyze a university’s management system and separate management processes;
be able to design and implement university administration processes;
be able to form an expert opinion on a specific problem, to be able to deliver it verbally or in written form and to prepare appropriate presentation materials;
be able to create a project offer: from its conceptual basis to the planning of its implementation, and be able to set it out in a structured document and present it to potential ‘consumers’;
be an advanced user of data used for the development of management solutions – to understand the structure of research and analytical reports, to analyze the aims of research and relevance of the used methods, to evaluate the validity and reliability of results as well as the validity of the conclusions;
be a professional customer of research and applied developments which are used for management purposes;
be able to critically analyze his own experience, to find mistakes and look for optimal solutions;
have the full set of skills of a modern manager (to systematize and/or supplement them during the education), including teamworking skills.

Career opportunities

Specialists who have successfully graduated from this programme will be professionally prepared to work as:

Managers and experts in various areas of public and non-government organizations of higher education (including the international sector);
Managers of educational programmes and centers of higher professional and continuing education;
Managers and expert analysts in the departments of RF federal and local bodies responsible for administration in science and higher education;
Managers, expert analysts and consultants in organizations involved in the development of science and higher education both in Russia and globally.