The event brought together representatives of federal ministries, the Russian Academy of Sciences, leading universities, employers and professional associations. The Southern Federal University is represented by a delegation led by Rector Inna Konstantinovna Shevchenko. The SFedU delegation included Pavel Makhno, Vice-Rector for Education and Information Technology, Maxim Bondarev, Vice-Rector for International and Project Activities, Gennady Veselov, Director of the Institute of Computer Technology and Information Security, Natalia Chemerisova, Director of the Academy of Architecture and Art, Mikhail Karyakin, Director of the Institute of Mathematics, Mechanics and Computer Science, Director of the Institute of Tourism, Service and Creative Industries Sergey Goryainov, Alexey Tselykh, Deputy Director of the Institute of Computer Technology and Information Security for Informatization, and others.

"Our university participated in the work of several groups, I worked in the Information Technology group, which discussed how to train IT specialists in a pilot project on higher education reform, while delineating the scope of their activities.

We have come to the conclusion that there should be two consolidated groups here: one for computer science, information technology and artificial intelligence, and the second for information security. In each of these groups, lists of specialties and requirements for the conditions of program implementation were proposed.

The presentations of the experts were devoted to the vision of the situation that is developing in the world, the transformation of requests in the competencies of specialists. This is of particular importance for the information technology sector now, because the introduction of AI is significantly changing the structure of the labor market.

We really hope that within the framework of the pilot, we will be able to create such educational programs and accelerate approaches to their implementation in order to train the best IT specialists and information defenders who will be in high demand after completing their studies at the university," said Gennady Veselov, Director of the SFedU ICTIS.

The purpose of the Open Dialogue is to discuss a new model of higher education, taking into account technological trends, demographic situation and changes in the labor market. The organizers were the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia and the National Center "Russia".

The dialogue was launched by Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister, and Valery Falkov, Head of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that achieving technological leadership is a national goal set by the President, and the role of universities here is crucial. By 2032, the country will need 4.5 million specialists with higher education, and not only the quantity, but also the quality of their training is important. Valery Falkov, in turn, called on the participants to rethink the very concept of "higher education" by looking at it from the outside — through the eyes of economics, technology and the labor market.

Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, also spoke during the dialogue (with a report on global economic changes) and Anton Kotyakov, Head of the Ministry of Labor (with a forecast of personnel needs).

Then there was an expert discussion on artificial intelligence in higher education with the participation of representatives of Yandex, ITMO, UrFU, TSU, HSE, MIPT and the InfoWatch group of companies.

On the second day of the Open Dialogue, the focus is on the socio—humanitarian part of the fundamental core of educational programs, as well as the platformization of social spheres (using the example of Moscow healthcare, with a lecture by Vice Mayor Anastasia Rakova). On the same day, the results of group work in the areas of "AI in higher education" and "A combination of new and traditional formats: online and offline" will be defended.

On the final day, an expert lecture "A New paradigm for Human Capital Development" from Selina Neri, CEO of the Future Readiness Academy, is planned, as well as project defense in five areas: engineering, business and economics, law, information science and agriculture.

The SFedU delegation actively participated in the discussion of approaches to updating the education system, synthesizing the best Soviet practices and experience of recent decades, as well as training new types of engineers capable of working with the most modern technologies.