Design of Concepts Sustainable Development of Flagship University

in the Digital Economy

Sergey Sazonov

, Ekaterina Kharlamova

and Vera Tsygankova

Volgograd State Technical University, av. Lenina 28, Volgograd, Russia

Keywords: Flagship University, Sustainable Development, Smart University, Socially-Oriented (Civic) University,

MOOC, Digital Economy.

Abstract: The concepts of sustainable development were initially developed in the framework of environmental theories,

but were later applied in socio-economic systems (including educational ones), since they have similar laws

of development, the balance of the rates of development and resource consumption, and the interaction of

complex systems. The development programs of the main universities within the framework of the concept

of sustainable development are aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the regions, stimulating innovative,

technological and social processes in interaction with applicants, employers, entrepreneurs, regional

authorities, but at the same time the universities compete with each other, develop development strategies,

analyze strengths and weaknesses, resource opportunities and limitations. This article analyzes the

possibilities of transformation of universities in the digital economy, taking into account regional and

university competition, nowadays it is necessary to apply development programs that consider the conditions

of the growing requirements for all participants of the system.

1 INTRODUCTION

The activities of modern universities are carried out

within the framework of national and international

initiatives and programs that are aimed at

strengthening stability in the region and developing

their national contribution to solving global

problems, such as sustainable development. The role

of universities is the scientific support and diffusion

of the ideas of sustainable development through y

networks, professional societies, mass media and

other resources.

The concept of “the triple helix’ of (Etzkowitz and

Leydesdorff, 1995) is widely used for exploration

systems of factors that form the rules of work in the

conditions of the innovation economy, the extension

in the rate of updating knowledge, the growth in

employers ' requirements for the quality of graduate

training, the construction of network structures that

unite universities, regions, public administration and

business structures. As a result, universities become

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the core of cluster structures, ensuring their

development.

An important direction of implementation of the

concept of sustainable development in the activities

of the reference university is cooperation with local

or regional authorities in the implementation of

specific programs for the sustainable development of

the industry, region or territory.

Cooperation with local enterprises and support for

entrepreneurial initiatives aimed at sustainable

development are beneficial both for small and

medium-sized enterprises that receive new ideas and

approaches to doing business from university

specialists, and for universities that accumulate

specific experience to train future specialists and

business leaders.

2 RESEARCH METHODS

The general research methodology is the philosophy

of sustainable development at the stage of transition

Sazonov, S., Kharlamova, E. and Tsygankova, V.

Design of Concepts Sustainable Development of Flagship University in the Digital Economy.

DOI: 10.5220/0010672100003223

In Proceedings of the 1st International Scientiﬁc Forum on Sustainable Development of Socio-economic Systems (WFSDS 2021), pages 575-579

ISBN: 978-989-758-597-5

575

to a post-industrial society, the increasing role of

higher education in the world and the leading trends

in its development in the digital economy. In

accordance with the logic of the research, a set of

complementary theoretical, empirical, statistical

methods, adequate to the subject of the research, was

used to solve the set tasks, including: theoretical

analysis, generalization, classification, modeling,

sociological methods, generalization of best practices

in the field of sustainable development of flagship

universities in Russia.

The history of the creation and the features of the

sustainable development of reference universities in

Russia are discussed in detail in the works of Berestov

A.V. (Berestov et al., 2020), Krakovetskaya I. V.

(Krakovetskaya et al., 2020), Saginova O.V.(

Saginova, 2012), Gubar L.N.( Gubar, 2016), Arnaut

M.N. (Arnaut, 2014) and Sazonov S .P. and

Kharlamova E. E. (Sazonov et al.).

Figure 1 shows the main five principles on which

the concept of sustainable development of the

university is based.

Figure 1. Basic principles of sustainable development of the

University (Saginova, 2012)

The sustainability of the university's development

is achieved as a result of the development of a number

of interrelated concepts described in table 1.

Table 1: Concepts of sustainable development of the

University (Krakovetskaya et al., 2020).

Concept

name

Concept essence

The concept

of a green

university

(green

campus)

This concept involves the formation of a

"green", environmentally sound

education, the introduction of

environmental practices in the

university, increasing the level of

environmental behavior of students and

employees, monitoring the environment

and assessing the quality of the

environment, describing possible

environmental risks and ways to reduce

them

The concept

of a Smart

University

(Smart

Campus)

The concept involves the formation of a

university that effectively uses all types

of resources and implements modern

information technologies to manage its

key processes, working "ahead of the

curve", developing promising areas

based on the results of foresight research

in the di

ital econom

The concept

of a

socially-

oriented

(civic)

University

This concept is aimed at creating

conditions that ensure a decent life and

free development of the individual.

Social demand and social responsibility

of the university are formed on the basis

of public expectations. It’s implemented

through various projects: training of

highly qualified specialists, retraining of

regional personnel, social assistance and

social support of students and

ees, etc.

The concept

of the

University

as a

stakeholder

organization

The concept is aimed at building long-

term and mutually beneficial

relationships with stakeholders:

applicants, students, graduates,

employees, potential employers,

authorities and management, etc. The

concept is aimed at coordinating the

goals and criteria for measuring the

effectiveness of the university's

activities to the goals of key groups of

stakeholders , as well as organizing

monitoring of stakeholders ' satisfaction

with the university's activities

The concept

of the

"Third

mission" of

the

University

This concept is aimed at active

interaction of the university with the

society as an organization producing

knowledge and technology, as well as a

complex of social, legal, and financial

institutions that can ensure effective

cooperation of regional authorities,

scientific and educational organizations,

industrial enterprises and the business

community, non-profit organizations in

all spheres of socio-economic and public

life

Growth of sustainable

development issues in the

university's curriculum.

Growth of sustainable

development issues in the

university's research topics.

Building the current

activities of the university

on the principles of

sustainable development.

Creating opportunities for

students and university staff

to acquire skills of behavior

aimed at sustainable

develo

ment.

Development of cooperation

and partnership programs

with other organizations for

the sustainable development

goals.

The concept of

sustainable

development of the

University

WFSDS 2021 - INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC FORUM ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

576

Each of the presented concepts contributes to

achieving the sustainability of the University and

therefore should be taken into account when forming

the overall concept of sustainable development of the

university.

The sustainability of the development of a

regional reference university lies in the possibility of

its existence in the market of educational services and

demonstrating high achievements in its work. It may

by characterized by a number of necessary and

sufficient conditions, the most significant of which

are:

 the positive dynamics of the given contingent

of students;

 qualification of scientific personnel;

 structure of the services provided by the

university;

 overall positive trend in financial resources;

 increased R & D funding;

 growing share of modern equipment;

 the insignificant deviation of the planned

indicators of the university's activities from

the actual ones, etc.

Based on these factors, the researchers distinguish

the following indicators for assessing the

sustainability of the university's development.

Table 2: Indicators for assessing the sustainability of

university development (Arnaut, 2014).

Group of

indicators

Characteristics of indicators

1: Highly

scientific

staff

Growth of the share of persons with a

Doctor of science degree in the total number

of university teaching staff, %.

Growth of the share of persons with a PhD

degree in the total number of university

teachin

staff, %.

Growth of the share of teaching staff

awarded state and world-class prizes, as

well as full members and corresponding

members of the state academies of Russia,

2: Innovative

scientific

and

educational

complex

Growth of the number of research,

innovation and implementation structures,

including technology parks, business

incubators, etc.,%.

Growth of the number of interactive

trainin

materials, %

Growth of the number of scientific journals,

including electronic ones, published by an

educational organization, %

Growth of the book value of machinery and

ment, %.

Growth of the number of personal

com

uters with Internet access, %

Growth of the total area of educational and

scientific

remises, %

Growth of the share of the cost of modern

(not older than 5 years) machinery and

equipment in an educational organization in

the total cost of machinery and equipment,

3: Extra-

budgetary

financial

base

Growth of the share of the educational

organization's income from income-

generating activities in the total amount of

the universit

's funds, %

Growth in the income of an educational

organization from funds from income-

generating activities, %

The growth of the educational

organization's income from the funds from

income-generating activities aimed at the

implementation of R & D, %

Berestov A. V. studied in detail the evolution of

the main universities during the period of the program

of their development. Although the period 2016-2020

was accompanied by depression in the economic

situation, universities managed to improve business

activity, expand the list of programs, and conclude

agreements for conducting commercial research

(Berestov et al.,2020),.

Nowadays, Russian universities participate in

numerous rating systems that allow them to compare

their achievements at the national and global levels

(National University Rankings).

Participation in the world educational rankings

motivates Russian universities to create their own

strategies based on the principles of sustainable

development, for international recognition and

creating a positive image of Russian education and

research.

The analysis of the rating allows you to identify

the leading universities, change priorities in certain

areas, but there are also gaps in the rankings between

individual categories of universities.

One of the main directions is the digitalization of

education, which received a significant impetus

during the forced format of distance learning.

Although traditional education remains basic, an

alternative has appeared on the educational services

market-EdTech and MOOCs, which allows achieving

a higher speed of information exchange, integration

of work programs, benchmarking of educational

processes, and reducing the cost of training.

MOOCs fit well into the students' requests for

new learning formats, increasing the variability of

disciplines, forming an individual educational

trajectory, and reducing the duration of training. 2020

was even called the year of MOOCs (Shah, 2020), as

Design of Concepts Sustainable Development of Flagship University in the Digital Economy

577

it showed the demand for these courses and their real

possibility to replace traditional education.

MOOCs transform teaching methods, the market

for educational services, and the requirements for

both teachers and students. Nowadays there are

changes in the development strategies of the

education market, its globalization, and the removal

of geographical and linguistic restrictions. There is a

gradual diffusion of MOOCs. This field of activity

has become attractive for startups that attract millions

of dollars, covering the fields of education, business,

and communications. Aggregate platforms offer a

wide choice to users, promoting their advertising (for

example, Class Central), with which you can quickly

and in a single format get information about old and

new MOOCs, about their start dates and access

conditions, about the growth of MOOC platforms,

and many other information.

The global market shows growth, in 2021, it is

possible to reach $ 241 billion. the number of students

is increasing, for example, the number of registered

users on Coursera has reached 76 million, edX-35

million, Future Learn-15 million (Shah,2020).

There are 4 main characteristics of MOOC that are

well consistent with the concept of sustainable

development of the university (Yuan & Powell,

2013):

1) Open schedule: students combine educational

resources, classes and / or training complexes in

different disciplines in order to meet their needs.

2) Open learning: teachers, experts and/or other

students will generate ideas through various activities

and share them in the learning process. This provides

students with opportunities for independent, self-

directed learning based on personal interests.

3) Open assessment: the assessment of what

students have learned is made by their teachers and

other students in the course of training, that is, the

assessment of students by each other or in a group

with "accreditation" on request.

4) Open Platform: Supports a dynamic and

interactive open education community by creating

and maintaining an attractive, intuitive and stable user

interface for teachers and students. Computer

software based on the information cloud principle and

the use of open standards facilitates the exchange of

data for different platforms and services.

MOOC may be considered as a social innovation

that uses technological capabilities, and as a variant

of social entrepreneurship aimed at expanding the

field of education and its diversification, minimizing

(in the long term) the costs of organizing the

educational process, teaching thousands of students

(Tsygankova, 2019). The number of completely free

courses is decreasing there is a orientation to the

corporate consumer, who is interested in both new

knowledge and career advancement, or obtaining a

full higher education in the MOOC format. There is

also a regionalization of MOOCs-the Spanish,

Chinese, and Russian sectors are actively developing,

covering new demographic groups (restrictions on

age, health status, and tuition fees are removed),

while there is a drop in interest in conventional forms.

MOOC provide new opportunities for the

sustainable development of the university in the

digital economy, but their creation and application

depend on some factors:

 ability to create own courses;

 human factor (the desire to learn, the

motivation of students);

 using platforms (using existing ones or

creating new ones);

 the ability to use the achievements of

digitalization;

 financing of digitalization projects;

 active monitoring of the requirements of

employers and students, expanding the scope

of activities.

3 RESULTS

Thus, MOOCs and digitalization can have a dual

impact on supporting universities:

Stimulating – If universities can change their

infrastructure, develop new courses in the format of

mixed learning, attract applicants, expand the range

of research.

Depressing - If there is no change in the principles

of work, ignoring the requirements of the

environment, the transition of applicants to virtual

platforms or to central universities.

The implementation of the concept of sustainable

development based on digitalization, it will allow the

reference universities to become the technological,

innovative and cultural core of the regional socio-

economic system; to ensure the development of

scientific and educational opportunities of the

university; to train more in-demand specialists with

the requirements of the digital economy.

1. The concept of sustainable development is

aimed at a systematic understanding of the role of

universities in the economy, the search for new

resources, development opportunities, but at the same

time, competition for applicants has intensified

2. Qualitative and quantitative changes require

additional funding, one of the sources of which is the

creation of network and cluster structures, the joint

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use of research infrastructure, the creation of

entrepreneurial universities

3. Information interaction plays an important role

in the development of university networks. One of the

forms of this interaction is mass online courses, which

allowed to expand educational opportunities.

4. The development of core universities requires

additional investments in both infrastructure renewal

and professional development, knowledge

management, and access to best practices.

5. The concept of sustainable development can be

implemented in various directions, but digitalization

allows for the integration of educational, financial,

and technological resources.

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