On the development of higher engineering and economic education in Russian technical universities
Authors: Bukhalkov Mikhail I. , Kuzmina Natalya M. , Melnikov Maxim A. 
Published: July 2024

In its historical development, higher Russian engineering and economic education has gone through a centuries-long path of reformatory changes. It began with the establishment in 1830 of the Moscow Trade School to train skilled masters of factory crafts. Soon, by decision of the reigning government, it turned into the Imperial Technical School, intended to provide students with higher education in mechanical specialties with a duration of study of 5 years. For a long period of time, the Imperial Technical School represented in Russia the world's leading frontier of creative engineering thought by outstanding domestic mechanical engineering scientists. It has always been and still remains the first university-type higher technical educational institution in the country, training engineers and economists of a wide profile based on a combination of theoretical and practical training of students in real scientific and economic activities at existing industrial enterprises. At the Moscow Higher Technical School, under the leadership of D.K. Sovetkin, a new system of professional training for future engineering personnel was first developed and used with wide success in the educational process, which received worldwide recognition as the Russian method of teaching crafts. At that time, it was mandatory for all engineers to master carpentry, blacksmithing, turning, plumbing and modeling, each of which was studied in order of increasing complexity. In subsequent years, the basic scientific principles of the formation of complex theoretical knowledge and practical skills of future engineers of mechanical engineering production were presented in a systematic form in the textbook of the professor of the Moscow Imperial Technical School N. G. Charnovsky “Organization of industrial enterprises for metal processing. Published more than 100 years ago, the textbook, according to the organizers of the modern scientific “Charnov Readings”, is the world’s first textbook on production management. Samara State Technical University was also established, like the Bauman Moscow State Technical University many years earlier, by an imperial law signed by Nicholas II in his own hand with the words “Be according to this” on July 3, 1914. The “Law on the Establishment of a Polytechnic Institute in Samara”, approved by the State Council and the State Duma, determined its location, structure of divisions, general status, staff, sources of funding and start time of educational activities: I. To establish a Polytechnic Institute in the city of Samara consisting of two faculties: commercial-economics, with departments of economics and commercial-technical, and agricultural-economics, with divisions of commercial-economics and agricultural-economics departments into subdepartments by specialty. Classify the said institute as a higher education institution. II.Establish the attached staff of the polytechnic institute and put it into effect from July 1, 1915. The article examines, using the example of the country's well-known Bauman, Samara and other technical universities, the historical experience of the development of engineering and economic education in Russian higher education during the formation of new market relations. The main directions and results of cooperation between the Department of Production Management of SamSTU and the Volzhsky Automobile Plant PJSC AvtoVAZ in carrying out scientific research and improving the training of labor and production organizers are also revealed.