An interview with the Head of the Office of Digital and Information Technologies Leonid Bessonov has been published in the Research City section. In the Digital University material, he shared the plans for the digital development of the university in the coming years and spoke about improving the digital literacy of students and professors of Saratov University by 2030.

The interview is dedicated to the digitalisation of the university business affairs and the introduction of digital competencies into the main curriculums. Leonid Bessonov noted that ‘automation of various systems and processes has been going on for several decades, information systems are being introduced in all spheres.’ In addition, he drew a parallel between digitalisation with electrification, which was rapidly taking place in the XX century.

According to Leonid Bessonov, digitalisation is an evolutionary process. ‘When the society masters new technologies, there always comes a point of no return. That is why those who already use the benefits of digitalisation will continue to successfully develop their competencies, and those who do not use them will inevitably fall behind.’

Due to the rapid transition to digitalisation, the curriculums for IT specialists must be improved and new “digital departments” must be formed that will develop digital competencies for students of other fields of study – chemists, philologists, historians, and so on.

During the interview, we discussed the issues of creating a large-scale system of additional professional education and re-training programs that will allow to train personnel for the digital economy. ‘Digital technologies are landing on very specific vectors of university life, from incomprehensible, almost cosmic ones, they are already becoming quite tangible and real,’ Leonid Bessonov said.

The interview can be found here.