PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS OF UNIVERSITY TEACHERS AS A FACTOR OF
HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION CHANGE IN RUSSIA 

Shinyaeva Ol'ga Viktorovna, Doctor of sociological sciences, professor, head of sub-department of political science, sociology and public relations, Ulyanovsk State Technical University (32 Severny Venets street, Ulyanovsk, Russia), olses@rambler.ru
Akhmetshina Ekaterina Rifovna, Candidate of sociological sciences, associate professor, sub-department of political science, sociology and public relations, Ulyanovsk State Technical University (32 Severny Venets street, Ulyanovsk, Russia), katerina.akhmetshina@rambler.ru

316.35.023.6

Background. The article discusses a phenomenon of the higher professional education functionality in the context of the role of professional positions of the main actors of the higher school – scientific and pedagogical workers.
Materials and methods. The authors rely on the analysis of the results of the all-Russian research, the data of Rosstat and NRU HSE for 2000–2014 years, as well as a number of copyright interregional quantitative and qualitative studies conducted in 2010–2014. The empirical object is teachers of public universities in different categories (federal, national research and state budget universities) located in different regions of the Russian Federation.
Results. A comprehensive approach to the analysis of primary and secondary information enabled the authors to offer a system of factors of the university functionality change and to identify the most important role of the positions of teaching staff. The authors also studied and described the professional position of scientific-pedagogical staff through the resulting indicators of professional identity: loyalty to the profession, mobility, subjectivity and job satisfaction. Negative trends in all these indicators allowed the researchers to conclude about the exclusion of teachers from participation in higher school reforms and the negative affect thereof on the functionality of the higher school.
Conclusions. The practical significance of the results lies in the context of increasing cohesion within the professional group of scientific and pedagogical workers and increasing the solidarity with the profession. The recommendations have been formulated for the federal, regional and corporate levels.

functionality of higher professional education, scientific and pedagogical workers, professional positions of university teachers, professional identities.

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