Reformers get to science
At the last meeting of the Government, which was opened by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, we were talking about the changes that are awaiting Russian science in the near future. Medvedev said that the established management system of various state academies of science subordination (and there are also non-state ones) does not meet the new requirements.
Today in Russia there are 6 Academies of Sciences, among which is the Russian Academy of Sciences, headed by Academician Fortov, who was recently elected to his post. According to the premier, the Academy of Sciences in Russia should be one, and its employees should not be distracted from science, solving problems, for example, housing and public utilities, and Vladimir Fortov can automatically lead a new joint academy.
After a while, the Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Livanov, announced that the 6 Academies of Sciences really planned to leave one - the Russian Academy of Sciences, which would include the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Academy of Medical Sciences and everything ... And where are the three more? Dmitry Livanov, answering this question, says that the Academy of Education, the Academy of Arts and Architecture, the Academy of Building Sciences, may disappear as such and in another form will come under the “tutelage” of state executive bodies.
According to what principle was the preliminary selection of those who fall into the Russian Academy of Sciences, and who caters straight into the bosom of federal executive authorities, and who has more prospects in this regard is also not possible to assess in advance.
If we consider the choice of the Cabinet of Ministers, it turns out that our Government continues to see the scientific component in agriculture and medicine, but strangely it ceases to see such, for example, in education (that's how ...) Although in the first case this vision is from the Ministry of Education and Science also ambiguous.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Science, headed by Mr. Livanov, announces that at the time of reforming the scientific system, the election of academicians will be suspended. On 3 of the year! Like, let our science be controlled by the forces of existing scholars. Somewhere the same practice in modern Russia has already slipped ... Oh, yes! The case was in the Ministry of Defense, led by Anatoly Serdyukov. There, at one time, they decided to “optimize” the number of military higher educational institutions, while announcing the freezing of the recruitment of young cadets to these higher educational institutions. Academics, of course, people are mostly elderly, but, apparently, will be reformed according to the same scenario. First, the integration with the consolidation and simultaneous cessation of the replenishment of academic ranks, then the new steps of reform, which only remains to be guessed. In the Ministry of Defense under the previous minister there were “green men”, and then who in the Academy of Sciences? ..
By the way, regarding the reformation of the RAS, information has also come about that the Government plans to create some kind of special agency that will manage the property of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Well, full deja vu ... If this agency is also called, for example, "Academservice" or the Department of Property Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, then the match will be close to 100%. And in light of the fact that the country is also waiting for a large-scale amnesty for economic criminals, in the near future only one task can arise before the staff of this agency: grab more property, just to have time for the amnesty ... Microscopes, telescopes, retorts and test tubes - everything will fit ... And this is not to mention the "non-core academic" real estate ...
If we consider the proposal of the chairman of the Russian Cabinet of Ministers, then it should be said that similar thoughts about the “optimization” of the RAS were expressed by the guru of the educational reformation, Mr. Fursenko, and then the current Minister of Education Dmitry Livanov became infected with the ideas of Fursenko. The ideas concerned depriving the Russian Academy of Sciences of relative independence, and aiming at the one whom it should see as its main benefactor. In order to demoralize the RAS staff members, Mr. Livanov did not so long ago decide to make a knight's move: he declared that the top of the academy is economically unclean, and therefore the academy needs a full audit. Then, however, I had to ask for an apology, but also in a somewhat provocative form.
Now, as we see, the disease of the reform of the RAS struck a man with immunity weakened before this case - Dmitry Medvedev. Our prime minister did not comment on the economic nuances of the reform, but he said that the system of management of “these structures” (talking about academies) “developed under the influence of subjective factors”, and the matter was in the distant 30-40-s. They say that academicians, of course, somehow worked there and work, but only the system, their work was initially associated with something archaic ...
No - the fact that academicians do not have to deal with the problems of patching roofs and taking out garbage from the territory is a fact. The fact that it is high time to save them from their unusual functions is also a fact. But is it only necessary to create some additional agency for this, which is unclear by whom it will be headed and controlled by whom. Really it was impossible to go on a simpler path. One gets the impression that there is a certain circle of people who, under the guise of caring for Russian science, are trying to gain access to the property of the academies, which looks like a tasty morsel. Only real estate for billions of rubles. There is where reformers roam ...
I would like to sincerely believe that this very “Academservice” will really enable domestic scientists to do science, taking upon themselves what is called the whole kitchen kitchen, but ... With the level of corruption that exists in our country, and even with the suspension according to Oboronservis, all these words about the reform of the Academy of Sciences with the indispensable creation of a special agency seem, to say the least, strange.
Who will really exercise objective control over the property moved in the process of reform? And is it possible that the unification of various academies without the infusion of, let's say, fresh "blood" will lead to the emergence of new problems that will finally paralyze the scientific activities of this organization ...
It is noteworthy that at that moment, when the Government announced the beginning of reform in the scientific field, material came out concerning the rating of world scientific systems. The rating was prepared abroad, and therefore it was not necessary to expect a priori any kind of laudatory odes addressed to science from this rating. But, even taking into account the entire subjective side of various ratings of universities and research organizations, this rating has surpassed all others. Forgive me, Lord, the research was the "experts" from NPG (Nature Publishing Group). According to their estimates, the Russian Academy of Sciences is on the 7-th place from the end of the world table ... In other words, the RAS has already taken the place of 193 from the 200 possible by rating publication activity ...
At the same time, the rating was distributed in many international scientific publications, and in the Russian Government they also clearly became acquainted with it. An important detail: when publishing the rating, the same “specialists” from NPG for some reason did not emphasize that they investigated publication activity exclusively in English-language scientific journals. Of course, we knew about the English linguistic chauvinism of recent years, but in order to get to this ... You could just as well publish the ranking of the scientific systems of the world by the activity of their publications in the Russian-language press, because no one excluded the Russian language from the UN languages ... and the British scientific systems would have been on the rating backyard. But only we do not do such things. Although, sometimes you think that in vain. Information wars, as we see, and here are conducted in full. Just look at the nationality of the Nobel laureates of the last couple of decades. US citizens are ahead of the rest ...
No matter how one-sided this NPG study was, and the rating did its work - many did not read the nuances of the study, that's why they managed to link the “193” position of the RAS with its “inefficiency”, which heated the hotheads even more. Those hotheads who crave the reform of the scientific system and the arrival of “effective managers” in it.
Today in Russia there are 6 Academies of Sciences, among which is the Russian Academy of Sciences, headed by Academician Fortov, who was recently elected to his post. According to the premier, the Academy of Sciences in Russia should be one, and its employees should not be distracted from science, solving problems, for example, housing and public utilities, and Vladimir Fortov can automatically lead a new joint academy.
After a while, the Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Livanov, announced that the 6 Academies of Sciences really planned to leave one - the Russian Academy of Sciences, which would include the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Academy of Medical Sciences and everything ... And where are the three more? Dmitry Livanov, answering this question, says that the Academy of Education, the Academy of Arts and Architecture, the Academy of Building Sciences, may disappear as such and in another form will come under the “tutelage” of state executive bodies.
According to what principle was the preliminary selection of those who fall into the Russian Academy of Sciences, and who caters straight into the bosom of federal executive authorities, and who has more prospects in this regard is also not possible to assess in advance.
If we consider the choice of the Cabinet of Ministers, it turns out that our Government continues to see the scientific component in agriculture and medicine, but strangely it ceases to see such, for example, in education (that's how ...) Although in the first case this vision is from the Ministry of Education and Science also ambiguous.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Science, headed by Mr. Livanov, announces that at the time of reforming the scientific system, the election of academicians will be suspended. On 3 of the year! Like, let our science be controlled by the forces of existing scholars. Somewhere the same practice in modern Russia has already slipped ... Oh, yes! The case was in the Ministry of Defense, led by Anatoly Serdyukov. There, at one time, they decided to “optimize” the number of military higher educational institutions, while announcing the freezing of the recruitment of young cadets to these higher educational institutions. Academics, of course, people are mostly elderly, but, apparently, will be reformed according to the same scenario. First, the integration with the consolidation and simultaneous cessation of the replenishment of academic ranks, then the new steps of reform, which only remains to be guessed. In the Ministry of Defense under the previous minister there were “green men”, and then who in the Academy of Sciences? ..
By the way, regarding the reformation of the RAS, information has also come about that the Government plans to create some kind of special agency that will manage the property of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Well, full deja vu ... If this agency is also called, for example, "Academservice" or the Department of Property Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, then the match will be close to 100%. And in light of the fact that the country is also waiting for a large-scale amnesty for economic criminals, in the near future only one task can arise before the staff of this agency: grab more property, just to have time for the amnesty ... Microscopes, telescopes, retorts and test tubes - everything will fit ... And this is not to mention the "non-core academic" real estate ...
If we consider the proposal of the chairman of the Russian Cabinet of Ministers, then it should be said that similar thoughts about the “optimization” of the RAS were expressed by the guru of the educational reformation, Mr. Fursenko, and then the current Minister of Education Dmitry Livanov became infected with the ideas of Fursenko. The ideas concerned depriving the Russian Academy of Sciences of relative independence, and aiming at the one whom it should see as its main benefactor. In order to demoralize the RAS staff members, Mr. Livanov did not so long ago decide to make a knight's move: he declared that the top of the academy is economically unclean, and therefore the academy needs a full audit. Then, however, I had to ask for an apology, but also in a somewhat provocative form.
Now, as we see, the disease of the reform of the RAS struck a man with immunity weakened before this case - Dmitry Medvedev. Our prime minister did not comment on the economic nuances of the reform, but he said that the system of management of “these structures” (talking about academies) “developed under the influence of subjective factors”, and the matter was in the distant 30-40-s. They say that academicians, of course, somehow worked there and work, but only the system, their work was initially associated with something archaic ...
No - the fact that academicians do not have to deal with the problems of patching roofs and taking out garbage from the territory is a fact. The fact that it is high time to save them from their unusual functions is also a fact. But is it only necessary to create some additional agency for this, which is unclear by whom it will be headed and controlled by whom. Really it was impossible to go on a simpler path. One gets the impression that there is a certain circle of people who, under the guise of caring for Russian science, are trying to gain access to the property of the academies, which looks like a tasty morsel. Only real estate for billions of rubles. There is where reformers roam ...
I would like to sincerely believe that this very “Academservice” will really enable domestic scientists to do science, taking upon themselves what is called the whole kitchen kitchen, but ... With the level of corruption that exists in our country, and even with the suspension according to Oboronservis, all these words about the reform of the Academy of Sciences with the indispensable creation of a special agency seem, to say the least, strange.
Who will really exercise objective control over the property moved in the process of reform? And is it possible that the unification of various academies without the infusion of, let's say, fresh "blood" will lead to the emergence of new problems that will finally paralyze the scientific activities of this organization ...
It is noteworthy that at that moment, when the Government announced the beginning of reform in the scientific field, material came out concerning the rating of world scientific systems. The rating was prepared abroad, and therefore it was not necessary to expect a priori any kind of laudatory odes addressed to science from this rating. But, even taking into account the entire subjective side of various ratings of universities and research organizations, this rating has surpassed all others. Forgive me, Lord, the research was the "experts" from NPG (Nature Publishing Group). According to their estimates, the Russian Academy of Sciences is on the 7-th place from the end of the world table ... In other words, the RAS has already taken the place of 193 from the 200 possible by rating publication activity ...
At the same time, the rating was distributed in many international scientific publications, and in the Russian Government they also clearly became acquainted with it. An important detail: when publishing the rating, the same “specialists” from NPG for some reason did not emphasize that they investigated publication activity exclusively in English-language scientific journals. Of course, we knew about the English linguistic chauvinism of recent years, but in order to get to this ... You could just as well publish the ranking of the scientific systems of the world by the activity of their publications in the Russian-language press, because no one excluded the Russian language from the UN languages ... and the British scientific systems would have been on the rating backyard. But only we do not do such things. Although, sometimes you think that in vain. Information wars, as we see, and here are conducted in full. Just look at the nationality of the Nobel laureates of the last couple of decades. US citizens are ahead of the rest ...
No matter how one-sided this NPG study was, and the rating did its work - many did not read the nuances of the study, that's why they managed to link the “193” position of the RAS with its “inefficiency”, which heated the hotheads even more. Those hotheads who crave the reform of the scientific system and the arrival of “effective managers” in it.
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