Who is fired at the institutes?
The reduction of the large army of Russian scientists and university professors is a topic that is now being actively discussed in society. Oil was poured into the fire the other day by documents of the Ministry of Education and Science (they turned out to be with fellow journalists of Gazeta. RU), in which specific numbers were indicated: "By 2019, 10.3 thousand (!) Scientists may be laid off." The relevant ministry hastened to refute the shocking information, reporting, on the contrary, about an increase in the number of scientists in institutes. To find out how things really are, "MK" turned to a number of institutions subordinate to FANO.
Strangely, none of the three academic institutions we surveyed are aware of any increase in staffing. The sequestration of the budget, which, of course, is directly related to the reduction of government assignments and the people who carry them out, they talk routinely: since 2014, this is the reality of our science.
In order not to be unfounded, let us cite as an example the situation at the leading Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after Lebedeva - FIAN. In 2014, the state, within the framework of the state assignment, allocated him 840 million rubles and 100 million additionally from the projects of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2015 these amounts decreased to 800 and 40 million rubles, respectively, and in 2016 - already to 700 and 40 million rubles.
“Naturally, when reducing funds for government assignments, we have to proceed from the current situation,” comments Nikolai KOLACHEVSKY, a young director of FIAN. - If at the end of 2013 our institute, quietly fulfilling its obligations under labor contracts, still received some equipment, then in 2014 there was no talk of any renewal of the speech, we could hardly refrain from staff reductions, but we still paid salaries for all employees. Since 2015, we have had to cut rates. As a result of this alone, in 2016, the number of our institute decreased by 50 people. If in 2017 funding is cut by another 100 million, then 20 percent of the budget deficit will have to be covered by reducing people. And this is about 20% of the population. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account that from the same money allocated to us we pay not only salaries,but we also pay taxes on land, which takes about 130 million rubles annually."
But why should employees be fired immediately? Maybe you can at least reduce their salary? It turned out that directors cannot help but cut their staff: on the one hand, they are getting their budget cuts, and on the other hand, they are bound by presidential decrees in May 2012, which state that the salary of scientists should be doubled in comparison with the average salary in the region. by 2018. In the regions, this is easier, but in Moscow, where a large number of state corporations are concentrated, where only cleaners buy bags from leading brands, the average salary is already considerable 63 thousand rubles. This means that by 2018 every researcher in Moscow should receive at least 120 thousand a month … All unpopular decisions related to dismissals are made under the responsibility of directors of institutes. They are simply confronted with the fact: the budget has been cut,you need to raise the salary, and then do as you want.
Who is fired at the institutes? It is understood that the reduction in staff at each institution is mainly due to those who have reached retirement age, or those who, due to some personal reasons, have ceased to bring concrete results. But the reality is that it is more difficult to fire an experienced, old employee, even if he does not even appear at the workplace at all, than a young one. Such a trend, according to Kolachevsky, is already visible in a number of leading Russian institutions and it will not lead to anything good, because young specialists, of course, must be given a path first of all.
What topics are being cut? In the same FIAN, as a result of the reduction of the state assignment, the acceleration theme suffered the most. For the last two years, the S-60 accelerators and the more modern S-25R accelerators in Troitsk have been mothballed here. Supporting the infrastructure of these accelerators requires a large amount of resources, which simply do not exist. Meanwhile, such centers are in great demand in the world. They are needed to study the structure of new materials. Now FIAN employees, where they continue to create such materials, are forced to transport them for testing at the synchrotron (an accelerator similar to the Troitsky one) to China and other countries.
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Strange decisions, strange decrees … Everyone understands that even a doctor of sciences, who for decades did not receive a salary higher than 35 thousand, would be glad of the average for the region of 60 thousand, if only his direction of activity was not curtailed. Here is what, for example, would you order the same scientists who worked at the accelerators of FIAN to do?
What was reported in the secret documents of the Ministry of Education and Science, which came to the disposal of journalists:
- Expenditures on the scientific state program from the total expenditures of the federal budget will be reduced from 0.98% in 2015 to 0.87% in 2019. Because of this, an offer was made to fire up to 500 people from universities in 2017.
- The Ministry of Education and Science intends to exclude 8.3 thousand scientists from the salary list of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FASO) by 2019 (3.5 thousand of them may be reduced already in 2017). From the Kurchatov Institute next year, it is planned to dismiss 1.5 thousand researchers.
- Due to the lack of funds, the number of budget-funded places in universities in 2017 may decrease by 40%.
WHAT THE MINISTRY SAYS
The reduction in recruitment and the upcoming personnel purges were commented by the rector of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Mikhail Eskindarov:
- Of course, there can be no sharp reduction of budget places in universities, such as the announced 40%! In this form, it does not coincide with the plans of the Prime Minister, and neither does the Finance Ministry. Although there are certain cuts - as recently as this year there was a decrease in recruitment in the areas of training economics, law, management, in which there is a surplus of specialists in the market. The cuts are small, 3-5 percent, they primarily affect non-core universities, but they also partially affected specialized ones like ours - we went to meet the proposals of the Ministry of Education and reduced admission by 3%. Next year, I also foresee some cuts, including for academic science, but still not fatal. All these initiatives come from the Ministry of Finance and are connected with the need to replenish the budget …
There was also information about a sharp reduction in funding for a project under the special patronage of Putin - the World Skills World Championship of working specialties, which is especially important for our country in popularizing secondary specialized education.
- At that meeting with Prime Minister Medvedev, there was no talk about World Skills at all, - the press secretary of the project Evgeny Kolchev explained to MK. - We talked about possible cuts in additional spending on science and education, if any. We keep funding in full, and all obligations for the world championship planned for 2019 in Kazan are in force!
Meanwhile, the head of the press service of the Kurchatov Institute, Natalya Zvereva, told MK that the leadership of the Research Center has no information about the “forthcoming reductions of 1,500 scientists” - they themselves learned about it from the media …
Natalia Vedeneeva
