SCIENTIFIC EFFICIENCY OF THE UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE REGION DEVELOPMENT

The paper analyzes the state of scientific and educational activity of the universities of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and their influence on social and economic development in the period of geopolitical changes in the country and the region. The state of publication activity as one of the indicators of the scientific productivity of higher education institutions is analyzed with the help of science-metric systems, and the main scientific directions influencing the development of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) are revealed. In the administrative and territorial relation, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is divided into 35 districts. The characteristic features of the republic are large territorial dispersion of regions, remoteness of regional centers from the capital of the republic, underdevelopment of transport infrastructure, small population, and high rates of internal migration of the population. The development of industry in the republic, large natural reserves create the conditions for demand in technical specialists, but to date the capacities of higher education institutions often do not correspond to the needs of society and the development directions of the region. In order to eliminate this imbalance, first of all, supportive measures of the universities are needed and not only financial ones. There are six universities in the Republic of Sakha: the Yakut State Agricultural Academy (YASU), the Higher School of Music of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Churapchinsky State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports (CGIFKIS), the Arctic State Institute of Arts and Culture (AGIKIC), M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) and six branches of Russian universities: the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (Yakut branch of the Russian Academy of Science and Technology), the Yakutsk Institute of Water Transport (the Novosibirsk State Academy of Water Transport), the Yakut Institute of Economics (branch of St. Petersburg University of Management and Economics), of Yakut Economic and Legal Institute (branch of Academy of Labor and Social Relations). Mostly these are highly specialized universities and only NEFU is a classical university and one of ten federal universities in Russia. In July 2005, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) adopted the State Program for the Provision of Professional Personnel in the Sectors of the Economy and Social Sphere of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), which identified training priorities for the diamond and diamond complex, coal, oil and gas, timber industry, transport, communications and power engineering. Unfortunately, in the most important sectors of the economy of the republic as diamond and gold mining, the workforce is mainly staff recruited from other regions. The universities of the republic, where graduates of local schools and colleges enter mainly, residents of the districts are oriented to specialties on the educational programs of these universities. In these conditions, we made an attempt to analyze the publication activity of universities in international citation bases in order to identify the scientific priorities for the development of the university and its influence on the region. According to the number of citations and publications, the interest of the world community in certain areas of science and research subjects was assessed in relation to the educational programs of universities.