The plenum was attended by heads of faculties, institutes, departments, professors and leading teachers from 43 classical, technological, agricultural, and pedagogical universities in Russia that implement educational programs in the field of geosciences. The Southern Federal University was represented at the forum by Andrey Kuznetsov, Director of the Institute of Earth Sciences, Grigory Sklyarenko, Head of the Department of Geoecology and Applied Geochemistry, and Alexander Ioshpa, Associate Professor of the Department of Oceanology.

The work of the plenum was opened by the First Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Kasimov, Vice-rector of the Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University, Professor Alexander Streltsov, Dean of the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Deputy Chairman of the FUMO for Geosciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Dobrolyubov, Dean of the Faculty of Geography of the Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University, Professor Dmitry Subetto.

The plenum heard and discussed the results of the work of thematic expert groups on the composition of enlarged groups of higher education specialties and the fundamental core of educational programs at the Center for a New Model of Higher Education of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, which included representatives of universities participating in the pilot project on a new model of higher education, including SFU. There was unanimous support for a five-year deadline for the development of educational programs of basic higher education in the field of geosciences, while consolidating at least two field and two production practices in their structure and increasing their funding to a level similar to the related enlarged group of specialties "Applied Geology, mining, oil and gas engineering and geodesy." The need for early differentiated training of students in different specialties is emphasized in order to properly prepare them for field training conducted after the first and second years of study. The Plenum considered it advisable to maintain two-year master's degree programs in geosciences at a number of leading universities, considering it as a level of education for the formation of interdisciplinary professional competencies, deepening research or applied competencies, and international cooperation. Attention is drawn to the need to expand the role of organizations – potential employers of graduates in developing solutions for the transition to a new model of education, the development and implementation of educational programs.