Orenburg state university

Zhanna Ermakova on “A Digital University” in digital economy

OSU Rector Zhanna Ermakova has participated in the 8th International Forum “Russia of XXI century: global challenges and development options”, that took place at RAS Market Economy Institute on October 24–25, where she has addressed the plenary.

The Forum has been held annually in Moscow since 2012 under the aegis of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Zhanna Ermakova, Doctor of Economics and Corresponding member of RAS, addressed the plenary with the speech "Regional aspects of digital economy". She brought in the facts of drastic digitalization of Russia. The rate of digital economy development is higher than the rate of general social, economic and industrial development of Russia. Through 2011–2017 the average income of Russian citizens, Gross Regional Product rates and the consolidated revenue of the state increased by 1,5, the retail turnover by 1,6, while the scale of digital services by 4,4.

“Despite the drastic increase in the scale of the services provided by data-centers in all regions of Russia, it is important to highlight the significant trend in digital economy development — the increase of digital imbalance in the regions”, — points out Zhanna Ermakova. "The amount of data-centers increased only in a limited number of cities and regions, while most of the regions, especially rural municipalities, have an insufficient growth of digital infrastructure”. As a way to solve the problem, she suggested a concept of "a digital university" which implies the integration of educational, research and project activity which eventually might benefit not only to the field of IT-experts training, but also develop digital competency of all university staff.