Development of Universal Skills at the Russian Universities: Challenges and Experience

Abstract

Rapid technological development and digital transformation in all areas of life have resulted in a dramatic change in the nature of thinking and requirements to skills. In the information economy, it is not money or natural resources, or territory but people with their critical thinking and high-quality skills, who have become a valuable asset. In this regard, the educational sector advances to the forefront. However, education hardly complies with the requirements of the new economy and retains its basic features of the industrial era. The curricula and educational processes at universities fail to prepare young people for life in our complicated world, or develop critical thinking; they discourage creativity and ability to cooperate. Curricula tend to focus on the development of professional skills and neglect the development of social and cognitive skills. The study sets out to investigate the usefulness of higher social and cognitive skills in the educational process at the Faculty of Humanities in Perm National Research Polytechnic University and offers recommendations on the development of these skills in the educational process.