The Academic Council of KBSU summed up the results of the Year of Science and Technology

January 31 at the Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H. M. Berbekov held a meeting of the Academic Council in a remote format chaired by acting. Rector of KBSU Professor Yuri Altudov. The main issue on the agenda was summing up the results of the Year of Science and Technology at KBSU.

About scientific activity

KBSU Vice-Rector for Research, Professor Svetlana Khashirova, in her report noted that in 2021, research work (R&D) was carried out at all departments of KBSU and in a number of educational and scientific departments. Scientific research at the university is conducted by 130 doctors and 395 candidates of sciences, 4 full members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1 honored scientist of the Russian Federation, 30 honored scientists of the KBR, 45 researchers, 182 full-time postgraduate students, including 26 foreign ones. KBSU has 6 dissertation councils for the defense of candidate and doctoral dissertations, 4 collective use centers and 9 research centers, 16 small innovative enterprises. The total amount of R&D funding in 2021 amounted to 135.3 million rubles. In the reporting year, the university published 5 scientific journals. Speaking about the publication activity of KBSU employees in journals indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, acting. the vice-rector drew the attention of colleagues to the fact that the degree of activity of different structural divisions is unevenly distributed. The leaders here are the Institute of Chemistry and Biology, the Institute of Physics and Mathematics and the Faculty of Medicine. It is necessary to increase the number of publications, including those in the first and second quartiles, which is necessary for the implementation of the Priority 2030 program and participation in competitions of the Russian Science Foundation,” — Svetlana Khashirova believes. Speaking about the results of intellectual ativity, Vice-Rector for Research reported that at the end of 2021, 69 patents and computer programs were registered — and in 2020, 33 licenses were issued. Unfortunately, so far we have not learned how to use the potential of our patents, none of the currently valid patents has been commercially implemented, — stated the doctor of chemical sciences. KBSU currently has 6 dissertation councils. In 2021, 10 Ph.D. theses were defended, 7 of which were defended by university staff. Young candidates and doctors of science received incentive payments from 100 to 250 thousand rubles. Unfortunately, Svetlana Khashirova noted, the indicator for the number of doctoral defenses is still low, there was not a single defense in the reporting year. Vice-Rector for Research, KBSU reminded the members of the academic council of the university that, according to the goals of the national project «Science and Universities», in 2024 Russia should enter the top five countries in the world that carry out research and development in areas determined by the priorities of scientific and technological development. In 2021, KBSU officially entered the TulaTECH world-class scientific and educational center, which is based on two leading universities — Tula State University and Tula State Pedagogical University. L.N. Tolstoy. The largest industrial partners are also involved in the work. Among them — JSC «Design Bureau named after Academician A.G. Shipunov, JSC NPO SPLAV named after A.N. Ganichev, JSC Tulatochmash, JSC Tulazheldormash. In 2021, an agreement is being implemented with the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. Peter the Great within the framework of the scientific division of KBSU, created in 2019 — the university mirror engineering center. The developments of KBSU were highly appreciated by the participants of the online meeting of the Council of Industrial Partners of the consortium for the development of hydrogen technologies “Technological Hydrogen Valley”, which was initiated by the Tomsk Polytechnic University, which took place in the reporting year, — Svetlana Khashirova spoke about consortiums with the participation of KBSU. In the Year of Science and Technology, 90 events were held at the university, including 8 international conferences and 10 all-Russian conferences with international participation. In 2022, it is necessary to hold at least the same number of events with international participation, and all structural divisions must be involved in this work, — the acting director outlined the task. vice-rector of KBSU for research.

In her speech, Svetlana Khashirova paid much attention to the development of student scientific communities. The Student Scientific Society (SSS) of the university unites the profile work of all educational structural divisions. Students are actively working in their areas and are ready to present interdisciplinary projects. It is essential that institutes and departments work closely with students as mentors and tutors. Applications are now open for the competition of the Ministry of Education and Science to support SSS — a total of 40 communities across the country will receive funding, and we intend to be among them, — said the professor. – Support for young university scientists in 2021 was one of the priority directions of our activity. We have always held events for young scientists and helped them in holding conferences, exhibitions, events of a different format. In 2021, we have taken steps to make this activity institutionalized — we have a university-wide SSS, the composition of the Council of Young Scientists has been updated, which on February 8 is holding an exhibition of innovative projects of young scientists of the North Caucasus at the university.

Among the necessary steps to promote the development of research activities at the university, the speaker named the stimulation of interdisciplinary research, which will allow obtaining grants from the Russian Science Foundation, strengthening academic ties within the university, and stimulating internal and external interaction of centers for collective use with consumers of services (agreements , price lists, services). Centers for the collective use of scientific equipment of the university should become points of attraction for innovation and business. It is necessary to popularize research activities among students through student scientific societies and councils of young scientists. Of great importance is the involvement of student scientific societies and the council of young scientists in the implementation of technological entrepreneurship projects and the launch of start-ups and small innovative enterprises (SIEs). Among the important tasks is to increase the activity of SIEs created at the university; support for the functioning of dissertation councils, an increase in the number of defenses of doctoral dissertations; organization of competitions for internal grants of KBSU for young scientists, including for student scientific societies; increase in the share of young researchers in the composition of scientific and pedagogical workers; increase in the publication activity of university staff (only 2.2% of staff gave 35% of publications over the past 2 years); increased activity in applying for grants from the Russian Science Foundation; entry of KBSU journals into international databases, indexing in Scopus / Web of Science / RSCI.

Professor Magomet Mustafayev, chairman of the profile commission, director of the Institute of Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery of KBSU, spoke about the results of the work of KBSU dissertation councils and the prospects for training scientific and pedagogical personnel for the university, noting that today there are 6 intra-university dissertation councils and 1 combined. Over the period from 2016 to 2021, there has been a gradual decrease in the number of defenses of dissertations for the degree of candidate of science and a complete absence of defenses for the degree of doctor of science over the past two years. Proposals were made for the consideration of the Academic Council to intensify scientific activities at the university, as well as to popularize science among young people. Thus, the educational and methodological council was asked to consider the possibility of including the course «Methods of preparing and writing a scientific work» in the educational programs. The Department of Educational Policy should increase the normative calculations of the volume of the annual workload of the teaching staff in terms of supervising graduate students up to 100 hours per year. The Department of Research and Innovation Activities of the KBSU to work out the issue of increasing incentive payments to 150-200 thousand rubles for employees in the case of defending a dissertation for the degree of candidate of sciences, as well as to conduct a systematic analysis of the scientific structure of the university departments for the need to open new dissertation councils in popular specialties at KBSU. The Scientific and Technical Council was asked to work out the issue of reducing the classroom load of the teaching staff of KBSU for high performance in scientific activities at the end of the year. The Department of Research and Innovation Activities and the Scientific and Technical Council of the KBSU — to develop a system of measures to increase the responsibility and interest of scientific supervisors for the preparation of graduate students, the high-quality and timely defense of dissertations by them, to develop and implement a roadmap for coordinating and improving the efficiency of scientific and technical innovation the activities of the university, the formation of a policy in the field of training highly qualified scientific personnel in graduate school and residency, and the creation of conditions for attracting talented youth to the field of science, education and innovation. It is necessary to develop and implement an automated system for the formation of an individual work plan for a graduate student through the university’s electronic information and educational environment (EIOS) with the possibility of control by the supervisor, as well as to develop and implement a service for the work of students and graduate students responsible for research work. About the University Efficiency Ranking The 2021 University Efficiency Ranking, where KBSU occupies a high position, was presented by Vitaly Kvashin, Head of the Center for Monitoring and Ranking Research of the University. The rating was compiled by the National
Fund for Support of Innovations in the Sphere of Education together with the Research Institute for Monitoring the Quality of Education based on official data collected by the Federal State Statistics Service and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia using the LiftUp software package. In total, 76 educational institutions of higher education were evaluated in the North Caucasian Federal District: 40 universities (1 federal) and 36 branches. According to the research results, Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekov entered the Top 5 of the first efficiency league of universities in the North Caucasus Federal District with the index value J = 22. As Vitaly Kvashin noted, the values ​​of the university’s indicators exceed the median values ​​for all assessment indicators taken into account when compiling the rating. The fulfillment of performance indicators indicates the quality and success of the university. The university earned the best mark in the category «International Activities».

«From year to year, KBSU is increasing its presence in the international educational market, which helps to promote the brand of the university and increase awareness. In recent years, the share of foreign students of KBSU has been constantly growing, and not only by attracting students from near and far abroad, incl. from the CIS countries,” — said Vitaly Kvashin. At the end of his speech, he informed the members of the Academic Council that, on behalf of the acting. The rector of KBSU is working on the development of an internal rating of structural units based on the rating assessment of the activities of university employees from among the scientific and pedagogical workers with the possibility of additional financial incentives for the leaders of the rating. In the near future, a draft Regulation on the rating system for evaluating the activities of scientific and pedagogical workers and structural divisions will be submitted for discussion.

As part of the meeting of the Academic Council, the proposal of the head of the department for pre-university training and career guidance Aksana Karasheva on a one-time payment of 50 thousand rubles to those who received 100 points in the Unified State Examination, who became students of KBSU in 2021/2022, was considered and unanimously approved.