Педагогические науки/Проблемы подготовки специалистов

Doctor of Phys. and Math. Sci. Gorobets Yu.I., Porev О.S., Doctor of Phys. and Math. Sci. Reshetnyak S.O., Cand. of Tech. Sci. Porev S.M.

National Technical University of Ukraine «Kyiv Polytechnic Institute»

On the problems of students training for scientific entrepreneurship

The socio-economic reality in our country is characterized by the fact that one of the major driving forces is creative scientific and technological entrepreneurship. Therefore, the practical training of students of all specialties to consider what their future activities in any field in any event will take place on business principles.

No exceptions are graduates of physical specialties. Physics largely positioned as a basic science that is not always focus on direct industrial application of results. However, students enrolled in physical specialties, can not rely on employment in public research institutions and universities. The vast majority of physics students, as well as many others, finds a job in private enterprises and organizations. Their activities can be based on a solid foundation of science knowledge, but often requires practical competencies based on entrepreneurship.

Methodological documents of universities provide a wide range of competencies that meet the realities of modern socio-economic system. For example, the Regulation on the magistracy of NTUU «KPI» [1] indicates that graduates of master should be able to work in an innovative economy, comprehensively combine research, design and business, a necessary element of training is mastering the scientific bases of technology transfer, methods of system design, strategic management and marketing business activities.

However, training courses to prepare physics students to scientific and technological enterprise rather limited, in comparison to business training courses to prepare of economists or masters of business administration. But entrepreneurial competence is no less useful for physicist, who wants to start its own or joint enterprise.

Note also that most physics professors in Ukrainian universities rarely conduct their own scientific and technological entrepreneurship. The reasons lie in the fact that the main forms of presenting scientific results in physics are scientific publications in foreign journals and major centers of physical science - public research institutions. Business activity, as well as research, involves creativity, ingenuity, initiative. However, basic research at the forefront of science needs to focus efforts on continuing review and more new scientific results in the publications of the international community of scientists. This limits the activity in other areas, perhaps - with the exception of teaching in higher education.

Thus, in ukrainian universities there is a hidden contradiction between the realities of employment of students, who received the profession of physicists, in a wide range of social practices. They need not only deep physical training, but entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and competence.

First and enough known solution - focus more on training the scientific and technological entrepreneurship in general and interdisciplinary courses, such as a «Basics of scientific research» [2]. Their interdisciplinary curriculum should in this case contain principles not only of research, but of experimental applied development, innovation activities in the forms of scientific and technological entrepreneurship. But in training courses we can only superficially acquaint students with the methodological foundations of modern activities. More promising is the participation of students in research groups, and especially - groups of developers of means and modern technology.

Conceptual bases of university research group activity together with students were presented in the H.Etzkowitz papers [3]. According to him, research groups can be transformed into quasi-firms, where students and educators doing the business.

In modern conditions, universities as powerful producers of knowledge and training for industry and enterprise, were viewed as complex of research groups and quasi-firms. These forms of R&D and business create for university its innovative environment. Etzkowitz proposed the concept of entrepreneurial university with main feature to transform research groups into quasi-firms, and then - into small technology firms. To conduct regular research financed by sources from outside the university, academic research group should work as a quasi-firm. Scientific and technological entrepreneurship at university is an extension of the research group activity, which already has a dynamic business based on their mode of operation. Research groups of universities working as firms, but have no profit.

Usually, professors often become leaders or members of the research group in its creation of good results. However, this is possible if educators do not just carry out research and development, but have competitive results themselves or in their managed research groups. These groups of ukrainian university often have not enough own capabilities to promote technologies, innovation system of our country remains very weak. Therefore, managers of research groups should be ready for business and industrial cooperation. We can note, that student participation in research activities makes them bearers of knowledge and owners of intellectual property.

Formation of R&D business based on university research groups in Ukraine remains quite problematic. But entrepreneurial training of students in these groups may still have significant positive results. The more students work in research groups, the more they can successfully continue to promote the development of university research.

According to Etzkowitz [3], organizational and educational role of university as an incubator expanded after reception of using "Club Alumni", linking them with potential partners of the firm. Just as the university prepares individual students and sends them into the world, he now does the same for organizations. The University is especially favorable for innovation from such basic functions as a high flow rate through it human capital in the form of students is a source of potential inventors.

Our experience confirms speculation of Etzkowitz that the university is a natural incubator for small technology businesses. Moreover, such a business incubator could be a chair prepares masters and contains one or more research groups. The key difference with the educational process is the fact that the training is planned not only for individual students, but for small subgroups as a parts of university research groups. Today it is not plane by regulations, but can be done within an independent scientific work and research practices.

References

1. Regulation on the magistracy of NTUU «KPI», 2007. -[Ukrainian]

2. Porev S.M. University and Science. Epistemology, methodology and pedagogy of knowledge production. – Kyiv: Himdzhest, 2012. – 384p. – [Ukrainian]

3. Etzkowitz H. Research groups as ‘quasi-firms’: the invention of the entrepreneurial university/H.Etzkowitz//Research Policy. – 2003. – 32. – Р.109–121.