PROJECT TRAINING AT UNIVERSITY: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

All Russian universities have been switching to new formats of project education within two years. In the context of new socio-economic challenges and threats, this transition is carried out in a situation of acute lack of time and resource constraints, primarily related to the lack of project culture of the main subjects of project training of a new generation of professional personnel. The subject of the research is the practice of introducing project-based education as a new paradigm for organizing the educational process at the Ural Federal University (UrFU). The main task of the authors is to identify the problems and contradictions in the process of introducing new models of project training in the university environment, features of the institutional practices of project training in various areas of training modern specialists.The empirical base of the study was the results of a survey of students in technical areas of training (N = 387) in an object-by-object study of three universities - University of Dunaujvaros (Hungary, Dunaujvaros), Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (Republic of Belarus, Minsk), UrFU (Russia, Yekaterinburg ); focus group interviews with graduates of the educational program of UrFU "Youth Management". The research was conducted using methods of document analysis, reflexive and critical analysis, constructive compliance, and benchmarking. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is modern interdisciplinary concepts of project training, a methodology of social and project management and comparative analysis.The results of a survey of students from three universities show that among modern pedagogical technologies, project-based learning is the most effective form of training modern specialists. At UrFU, the institutionalization of new formats of project training is ensured by using both the traditional project management methodology and flexible interactive technologies of the Agile and Scram families. Possible contradictions in the conceptual basis of project learning are revealed. In particular, in the University model of project learning, differentiation of projects by levels of complexity (A, B, C), on the one hand, takes into account the level of cognitive abilities of students, distributed by project types by the head of the educational program. On the other hand, it creates unequal conditions for the formation of the project culture of students in full. Project culture is not limited only to a certain set of competencies acquired during the period of study at the University. It involves the formation of a certain style of activity of the future specialist in the professional environment. And this is only possible during the development of projects of increased complexity (B, C) on the order of employers. In different areas of training (humanities, public administration,) institutional risks arise associated with customers of class B and C projects - low motivation employers to attract students to implement projects. The overall difficulty in interacting with customers is the difficulty of synchronizing production and training processes. The quality of completed student projects, in many ways, depends on the level of culture of teachers. Practice shows that the level of project competence of the teaching staff is not always at the required level.