Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A video conference meeting was held on 20 June under the chairmanship of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the training of engineering personnel and improving the activities of higher educational institutions.

In the modern competitive world, our country, relying on internal resources, is on the path of industrial development. Every year, 3 thousand industrial enterprises are put into operation, which creates about 150 thousand jobs.

This year, within the framework of state investment programs, projects worth 21 trillion soums will be implemented. In addition, projects with foreign and regional investments totaling US$37.5 billion are planned.

The state pays special attention to science, education and innovation. Over the past four years, 2.2 trillion soums have been allocated for the implementation of 1,727 practical, innovative, fundamental and start-up projects. Research and development costs have doubled.

However, there are certain problems in the field of training engineers. There is a gap between higher education institutions and the needs of industry.

Rectors of technical universities were invited to the meeting, and issues related to this were in the spotlight.

The head of state drew attention to the current state of affairs in this area. For example, every year 36 state technical universities graduate 67 thousand specialists, but the programs and specializations do not meet the requirements of the labor market. This leads to the fact that 60% of engineers do not work in their specialty.

Higher education institutions are limited to fundamental research; applied developments for economics are rare. Many startups and innovative projects in engineering fields remain on paper.

In foreign universities, specialties such as “cost engineering”, “comparative engineering”, “reverse engineering” are widely developed, but in our technical universities these areas have not received proper development. As a result, industries are forced to spend significant resources on training their employees abroad or attracting specialists from other countries.

Despite the increase in the coverage of higher education by 5 times over the past seven years, the interest of young people in engineering and technical specialties remains low. Some equipment of universities and scientific laboratories is outdated, many professors and teachers are out of touch with practice, rectors do not visit enterprises and do not get acquainted with new technologies and equipment.

Over the past four years, the number of research contracts has tripled, and income from them has increased 6 times. However, the implementation of the results of scientific developments into production is slow; not everyone is equally successful in patenting their inventions.

The President presented new initiatives for the development of this area. Training and research processes in technical areas will be completely changed based on best practices. The number of technical universities will be reduced to 20, they will switch to a dual education system.

Specialties that are not in demand on the labor market will be reduced, and some departments will be merged. The functions of dean's offices will be digitalized. A “Registrar's Office” will be created based on foreign experience.

Each university will establish cooperation with prestigious technical universities in developed partner countries. Industry councils will be created that will determine priority areas of scientific research in technical areas and will be the customers for this research.

At the first stage, higher engineering schools will be opened in 10 universities, where two-year applied master's programs will be implemented. Enterprises will financially support the creation and equipment of laboratories in higher engineering schools.

The status of experimental production enterprises of universities will be legally established, they will be provided with benefits applicable to residents of the IT park. The system will introduce republican competitions in engineering areas, such as “Best Idea”, “Best Project” and “Best Invention”.

The meeting continued in the format of an open dialogue, where industry leaders, scientists, rectors and engineers expressed their opinions on the development of science and education in the engineering field.

Based on the proposals, a draft corresponding decree will be prepared.

— For accelerated economic development, we need highly qualified technological engineers like air. If every minister, industry leader, rector, professor and teacher deeply feels responsibility and works hard, we will definitely achieve this,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.