Creating a Living Environment

The National Research Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (MGSU) is one of the major field-oriented universities that train specialists for the construction industry; and it is the only field-specific university to have acquired the status of the National Research University. One of the fields that MGSU is engaged in refers to the creation of intelligent buildings. What are the prospects of professional construction education? How are science and practice related? How useful are the ideas of scientists today? In our interview we will dwell on these issues with Andrey Volkov, Chancellor of MGSU.

Mr. Volvov, today the Russian higher education system is going through an era of change. MGSU has always been at the forefront of preparation of highly qualified personnel in the field of construction. What do you see as the main task of the university at the moment?

Our mission is to try to change the view of construction in general and to significantly expand the area of professional liability on the one hand and the competence, on the other. In Russia the system of engineering education developed a long time ago. At this point there are 12 architectural and engineering universities operating on the Russian territory. On top of that, there are over 100 departments and institutes that train specialists of building trade in technical universities. In comparison to Europe where engineering education mainly develops within polytechnic education, it is a lot.

First of all, it proves that the world considers construction as a kind of a basic technical industry. If we follow this trend, it will trigger disappearance of field-oriented engineering universities as such. And we are the ones to be responsible for the development of field-oriented higher education in Russia; we are the universities that have for over a quarter of a century coined the Academic and Methodological Association (AMA) of universities of the Russian Federation in the field of civil engineering and the International Association of Universities of Civil Engineering (IAUCE); and we have to enunciate a strategic concept for further development.

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Interview by Alexander Bikin