The "school and leading research university" network interaction: identification aspects

The purpose of this article is to consider changes in the network interaction of institutions of general education and Tomsk State University in connection with the latter obtaining the status of a leading research university. The sources for this article were statements in the press of the leaders of the University on the issues of network interaction of the University with institutions of general education, publications of University professors on the topic of the study and participant observation of the author of this article. Regarding the latter source, the author is the head of one of the network programs (TSU - School 49, Tomsk) and a participant of the project "Interaction of TSU with the system of general education". Networking of institutions of general and higher education have been actively developed and studied in our country since the beginning of the 2000s. The active cooperation of schools and universities was prompted by the introduction of the competence model of education, the transition from the traditional translation and reproduction of subject knowledge to the teaching of the use of knowledge in practice. Mutual interest caused network cooperation: schools needed new curricula, qualified teachers, equipment, universities needed applicants that have mastered relevant competencies. Tomsk teachers and researchers made a significant contribution to the development and implementation of various network forms of cooperation, particularly active in this direction were the staff of Tomsk State University, who described the precedents, identified the problems and outlined the prospects of cooperation between schools and universities in the region. It seems that the main factor of changes in the interaction of TSU with the institutions of general education in the last three years is the transition to transforming the University into an innovative corporation. A new course, on the one hand, demanded restructuring the system of relations of the University with schools of the region, on the other hand, actualized the problem of the identity of schools in relation to the new cooperation. However, the vast majority of schools in the region continue to traditionally consider the University as a recipient of future entrants and make a very limited use of its innovative resources. In the author's opinion, an important reason for such a "neglect" of the new role of TSU is the shortage of effective forms of self-identification, in which the University and schools could present their positions, engage in dialogue to understand each other, develop joint projects and programmes. A platform for dialogue could be set up by TSU and its partner in the form of the Regional Institute of Interaction of Institutions of General and Higher Education based on network principles. The establishment of this Institute will be particularly relevant and promising, taking into account the rapid changes that are taking place within the University environment and in the general education system. These changes at every turn will re-raise identification problems.

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