Assessment of the readiness of the russian higher education for the digital economy
Authors: Dneprovskaya Natalia V. 
Published: September 2018

The purposeof the study is to assess the readiness of the Russian higher education system to move to the digital level based on the statistical researches of education. The way to the digital economy becomes decisive in the development of Russian education and covers all its stages. Within the framework of the state program “Education development” the project “Modern Digital Educational Environment” is being realized, for the secondary education the “Digital School” project is being developed, and in the program of development of the digital economy a separate direction “Personnel and Education” is emphasized. Digitalization of education becomes the next stage after the informatization stage in the technological development of education. It is necessary to assess the current level of informatization of higher education.

Materials and methods of research.The presented study of the assessment of the readiness of Russian higher education to the digital economy is based on the methodology, proposed by the World Bank, which includes an assessment of five groups of indicators: the use of information technology in the learning process; training of teaching staff for the use of information technology in education; informatization of education management; information infrastructure of higher education; normative and legal support of the digitalization of education. The methodology includes the combination and interpretation of the different statistical data because the appropriate study of digitalization of education requires the specific approach. The factual basis of the research is the data of official statistics and universities.

The results, on the one hand, indicate a high level of provision of universities with personal computers and access to the Internet, and on the other hand, a lack of automation of the administrative and educational processes of the university. Despite the constant development of technologies and the emergence of new educational web tools, and a multi-year state policy on the information educational space formation, its potential is partly used by universities. Only one third of university students are trained using e-learning or distance education technologies. At the same time, non-state educational institutions provide most of the educational services available to online listeners. In general, the share of online education in the market of educational services is low and is 1.8% for higher education programs and 6.7% for additional professional education. 82% of students, enrolled in programs with exclusive use of e-learning are students of non-state universities. The use of technology, even in the form of blended learning, in addition to the corresponding IT infrastructure, requires the appropriate training of lecturers and students. The training of lecturers in the use of IT in education, including training directly to work with IT, should be supplemented by teaching methodical work in the information educational space.

Conclusion. The study shows that the Russian education system has created the necessary reserve for the creation of IT infrastructure, regulatory support, and best practices in the field of IT application in the educational process, which should become the basis for the participation of Russian universities in the digital economy. At the same time, the differences between information technologies (IT) and digital are not obvious, in many respects, these concepts are identical, differences arise when considering the totality of the information technologies and resources involved. Digitalization assumes that practically all the computing devices are involved in information support, including consumers, who, for example, install mobile applications in order to use the services. Involving a large number of devices with the ability to connect to the Internet allows you to organize the collection and processing of a large amount of digital data. The basis of digitalization is the created IT infrastructure and the degree of informatization in educational institutions.