Home – Home – Jornals – "Philosophy of Education" 2018 number 2

Introduction. Under the influence of globalization, in the conditions of modern social and cultural transformations, the convergence of national educational systems is clearly manifested, which is expressed in the desire of the state to bring the organization of domestic science and education in line with world trends. The problem considered in this paper can be formulated as follows: on one hand, the state policy in the sphere of science and education provides for the provision of key system-wide changes, within which a new organizational and economic mechanism operates that theoretically allows the restructuring of the system in accordance with the most successful Western models of development, and on the other hand, the declared goal of numerous transformations, namely, the maximization of the competitive position of Russian universities in the global market of educational services and research programs - has not yet achieved. Methodology and methods of research. A retrospective analysis of changes in the structure, form and methods of the French higher education was carried out, which succeeded in successfully adapting the «initially alien» Anglo-American model of a two-tier system of higher education, which significantly increased the number of students and substantially increased the rating of their own universities in the world scientific and educational space. Result of research. The analysis revealed the steps that led to the growth of academic freedom and created the prerequisites for strengthening the links of universities with other social institutions, which contributed to a real increase in the autonomy of universities, led to the development of inter-institutional cooperation, large-scale student and academic mobility, the development of joint training programs, and the expansion of the practical training of students and intensification of scientific research. As a result of the comparison of the modernization processes of the French and Russian higher education systems for similar purposes, tasks and mechanisms of reforms, it has been shown that, in the domestic conditions, the same qualitative breakthrough did not happen. Conclusion. One of the key reasons is the fact that domestic reforms, unlike the French model, translate the notions of academic freedoms and university autonomy from the intellectual plane to the economic one, despite the resistance of the academic community. The conclusion is made that if it becomes possible to circumvent such restrictions, taking into account the experience of the development of the French higher education, this can contribute not only to increasing the competitiveness of national universities in the global educational services market, but also to the further positive development of the domestic scientific and educational system.