Reproduction of higher education personnel: motives for entry and retention measures

Abstract

Introduction. The trends in the reproduction of intellectual resources have a significant development potential worldwide towards the realisation of a proper strategy for increasing the countries’ competitiveness. The stimulating programmes for the development of national universities set a due benchmark for the elaboration and testing of new ways to attract young people to the scientific and educational environment, as well as the formation of professional commitment. The accumulated practice of implementing federal programmes to support science and education raises a question of the outcome and efficiency of measures funded by the state. The aim of the study is to identify the dominant motives of the teaching staff belonging to the “young personnel” category for long-term work in the profession and at the university, as a consequence of the managerial measures applied by the administration. Materials and methods. To diagnose the priorities in the structure of young people’s motives to work in the system of higher education, the data obtained from a survey of young university specialists were used. The survey involved 140 people with different lengths of work experience in higher education. To assess the effectiveness of managerial practices aimed at retaining young specialists, a semi-structured interview with managers who realise the tasks of searching for, attracting, and retaining young people at universities was held. A total of 25 professionals took part in the interviewing: heads of departments, deans and vice-rectors of three Siberian universities. The methods of statistical data processing and assessment of the experts’ opinions coherence (Kendall’s coefficient of concordance) were applied. Results. The dominant motivations for young people to stay in higher education are: the system’s resource and readiness to support initiatives of young teachers–researchers (3.9 p.); regular self-education and professional growth (3.9), lucrative compensation (3.6), and the opportunity to work in priority branches of science (3.4). The higher school associates the transformation of all basic activity processes with staff rejuvenation: change in the format of communicating with stakeholders; intensification of work performance methods, as well as strengthening of intellectual, emotional, and professional resilience of work teams. The output and impact of the measures to stimulate due professional commitment were assessed. A major instrument contributing to high efficiency is represented by communication support measures based on regular feedback and included in individual adaptation and professional development programmes. Conclusion. The management system has to solve the staff rejuvenation problem at two levels: operational and strategic. It is necessary today to seek due options for the implementation of policy decisions and target indicators, and simultaneously to lay the foundations for involving specialists in the future scientific and educational environment. The application of different meaningful content actions in solving a particular task entails the manager’s professional deformation and blurring of the rules of interaction with the subject of labour.