Global challenges and problems of Russian engineering education modernization

The world wide trends of globalization and integration lead to certain challenges which have an impact on national systems of education. The answer to globalization challenges is internationalization of education, which is inevitable. However, there are a number of problems to be solved which go along with global challenges in engineering education. Although having global dimension, these problems are country-specific and the proper positioning of a country in the global education market is the necessary prerequisite for its successful and sustainable modernization. The paper deals with the problems of engineering education modernization in Russian national research universities under globalization challenges focusing on its place in the global community. Historical analysis of Russian engineering education development in the global context has been carried out to track its modernization challenges. A positioning approach is applied to the modernization of engineering education in Russia focusing on how different world regions can contribute to solve its modernization problems in the context of global challenges. Europe and Asia have been selected as the reference regions with Germany and Vietnam as the reference countries. Specific recommendations are given for each listed modernization problem of Russian engineering education.