Russian economic education: Image of the near future

Abstract

The article considers the main changes taking place in modern economics and economics education. Authors believe that the most important of them are: (1) strengthening of the applied nature of economic research work; (2) declining popularity of purely theoretical economics. Our analysis revealed a dual trend. On the one hand, the notion that neoclassical economics still prevails the academic dis­course seems to be less and less justified. On the other hand, economic education is still based on neoclassical foundations. This adds more urgency to the debate on the state of economic education. In particular, on how to train students to view big socio-economic issues from different theoretical perspectives and to strengthen the practical component of economic education. The authors prove the idea that up-to-date Russian economic education should be based on three main principles: (1) teaching students in a wide range of empirical methods; (2) development of pluralism of economic thinking manifested in the acquaintance of students with various currents of modern economic thought as well as the views of their representatives on solving topical economic and social challenges; (3) delivering to students the most comprehensive picture of the performance of the Russian economy. The potential for incorporating of these principles in the educational process is considered on the example of the bachelor’s of economics curriculum of the Faculty of Economics of Lomonosov Moscow State University.