President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects said that in Russia it is necessary to revive the prestige of the engineering profession.
“In Soviet times, we had a lot of good things, but there was a complete devaluation of the very title of engineer, because the state paid very modestly for the work of engineers, 120 rubles, a maximum of 125, that’s the whole engineer. There was such a devaluation, and this is still preserved in the public mind „, he noted.
“Once in Russia they proudly inserted “engineer” before the last name, and in some countries this is still the case,” the president recalled. – Why? Because it sounds like a scientific degree or a title, it emphasizes the social significance of a person who has chosen this type of activity for himself.”
According to him, now in Russia the development of a domestic engineering school should become „the most important direction in terms of personnel training.”
“Therefore, we should think in the same way that we are and should be dealing with the issue of raising the prestige of the teaching profession, the same should be done in the field of engineering,” Putin stressed.
He asked the Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov how the development of the domestic instrumentation program is progressing, which has been discussed since the beginning of 2022 and should be implemented. The minister replied that the program would be adopted before October 1, in addition, a number of Russian universities on the instructions of the Ministry of Education and Science, including MEPhI, MIPT, have already begun to develop dozens of civil devices.
„Such a program has been drawn up, the parameters and directions have been determined, the program is long-term, there are 4 billion for each year, there will be no failures in the planned mode (we will finalize it),” Falkov said.
The issue of the development of domestic instrumentation and import substitution was updated in 2022 after the announcement by Western countries of sanctions against Russia. In addition, in the current academic year, enrollment for engineering and IT specialties at universities has increased.