The authors designate three problems in frames of this paper. First, to analyze the level of research activity of the best Russian universities at the start of the most important stage of higher education system reform — basing on the results of 2009-2010 and to assess what kind of resource they have received at their disposal from the state. Second, to understand which areas of research potential and how should the leading universities try to influence. Third, to assess the gap in the area of research and development potential that exists between the classified leading universities and other ones, to formulate ways to bridge this gap on the example of the Ural region. The approach to the assessment of research and development activity of the universities is suggested to solve these problems of comparison of methodologies for evaluating research results of universities in global rankings of higher education institutions. Basing on the results and conclusions, four key directions for significant growth of international level of scientific productivity of Russian universities are formulated.

The paper presents a theoretical framework of industrial parks effectiveness as an element of economic policy to accelerate economy development in regions or municipalities. The article studies how historically such instruments were used in modern Russia. The paper states the necessity of extensive development of the industrial park concept and how it affects the chances of project realization and potential economic effectiveness. The main parts and blocks that should be taken into account during concept preparations are highlighted, and proposals for their content are made.

The innovative development sets large-scale and challenging tasks, which need to be addressed in the lack-of-knowledge conditions and require the coordination and integration of numerous expert structures, which are scattered around the world and have different status and competencies. One of the mechanisms of integrating the partners’ intellectual and financial resources is provided by the technology platforms. The article discusses the nature and functions of technology platforms and analyzes the experience of their application in different countries with a special emphasis on universities. The article gives an overview of the various interpretations of technology platform concepts. It also describes the development and implementation of the technological platform at the Ural Federal University (research and education centre ‘ENGEC’), which was targeted at organizing anticipatory learning in the sphere of energy engineering and high-tech industries; its mechanism and role in improving different university activities and processes are shown. This platform is based on the original methodology ‘Integrated System of Consulting, Training, and Transformation’ (ISCT), which includes authentic methods and technologies, which are used in the educational process. A significant advantage of this methodology is that it can be applied in university education as well as in corporate training integrated with innovative activities.

The article examines the motivations for Master’s students’ choice of individual trajectories. In the course of their studies, the students’ trajectories have educational, scientific and professional aspects. Educational, scientific and professional students’ trajectories determine a system of interaction between master’s students and other people in the context of educational process (teachers, other students) and beyond it (employers, research workers from Russian and foreign universities). The authors emphasize the importance of studying the master’s students’ individual trajectories from both scientific (identifying the peculiarities of students’ trajectories formation and development) and practical points of view (investments to master’s students to enhance the professional competence in the regional labour market). The authors have analysed the master’s students’ individual trajectories on the basis of monitoring data obtained from the survey carried out in February and December 2014. The master’s students’ assessments allowed to identify what educational experience they were able to get during the education and whether their experience met their expectations. The master’s students’ economic expectations are examined during the implementation of educational and professional trajectories. The analysis of the results has shown that the biggest gap between the expectations and the experience of the master’s students was found according to the criteria related to the student’s scientific trajectory and opportunities to participate in the internationalisation processes. The results of the research may be used to improve the master’s programmes taking into account the revealed master’s students’ expectations, as well as to ensure highly qualified professionals in the labour market and for the effective investments to the human capital by the government authorities.