Putin signed a law abolishing military departments in universities. The Ministry of Defense has decided to completely abandon military departments in universities. What's happening? A week ago, Shoigu spoke about the opening of new departments. Military departments will be closed at universities

The military department decided to abandon military departments, replacing them with military training centers. A bill has been submitted to the State Duma to replace departments and other military training units at universities with military training centers, RBC reports

With this measure, the military department hopes to “increase the efficiency of managing the process of training university students in existing areas of military training.”

Now students of some universities can undergo training at military departments, where they train “officers, sergeants, foremen, soldiers and reserve sailors.” There are also military training centers (MTC), where officers are trained for subsequent contract service.

The Ministry of Defense decided to unify this system, replacing all existing units with military training centers. It is not specified whether students at military training centers will be able to train as reserve officers or sergeants.

Replacing all units with military training centers will make it possible to “more effectively use” the training facilities, training weapons and military equipment available to the training units, according to the Ministry of Defense.

There are now 54 military departments in Russia, including the Higher School of Economics, Moscow State University, MGIMO, MEPhI, MIPT and other universities.

A week ago, Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu spoke about the opening of new departments, Interfax reported.

“We continue to open new military departments in educational institutions. Last year, five were opened in the Central Federal District, three each in the Siberian and Northwestern Federal Districts, and one department in the Far Eastern District,” Sergei Shoigu said on May 29 at a meeting of the Public Council under the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“You and I have talked a lot about the fact that we need to give the maximum number of young people the opportunity to undergo military training and obtain a military specialty at universities. We continue this work. We have begun to have comprehensive training centers. This includes military departments and military institutes,” noted the Minister of Defense.

A year ago, when information appeared about the preparation of a bill to replace military departments with training centers, military expert Pavel Felgengauer said that Vladimir Putin came up with a similar initiative back in 2013. He proposed introducing analogues of military departments in all universities in the country and exempting their graduates from military service. This decision would make it possible to increase the size of the reserve army many times over.

But over four years, Putin’s idea has changed. Training centers will not operate in all universities, which will contribute to the flourishing of corruption, Felgenhauer believes. Also, this decision will not increase the mobilization reserve of the army, although the expert called the very creation of an active reserve a “positive idea.” It is planned that the active reserve will participate in annual fees and receive a monthly salary. According to the same system, there is a military reserve in the United States of America.

In May 2018, a bill was approved to merge military departments with military training centers. The document was approved by the government commission on legislative activities. Reforms at the departments will help train specialists more efficiently, which will affect the quality of the military industry. Experts approved of this initiative, because today there are certainly problems in officer training.

The corresponding order was published on the official portal of the Cabinet of Ministers, so, unlike 2016, the reform will still be carried out. Today, fifty-four higher educational institutions in Russia have departments for military training of specialists at their disposal.

The first talk about the liquidation of military departments at universities was back in the summer of 2016. The Russian media published information about the reforms that were supposed to come into effect. However, employees of the Russian Ministry of Defense denied this information, calling the sources who spread the lies lost their image.

In May 2018, information about the reform of military departments in higher educational institutions again appeared. This time, the media that published the information refer to the official order, which was published on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers.

The order states that a bill has been proposed to eliminate military departments and introduce training centers. The description of the document emphasizes that the creation of training centers will not affect the number of people involved in graduating military personnel from universities.

Expert opinions on the implementation of training centers

Experts welcomed the initiative to reform military departments. Thus, Evgeniy Spitsyn, advisor to the MSPU rector’s office, said that the idea is excellent, but a reasonable approach is needed. His message talks about the pressing problems of the current military training of graduating specialists.

Spitsyn’s statement endorses the reform in the event of a radical change in the approach to training: equipping with all modern equipment and weapons, as well as a change in professional personnel who can teach how to use it all.

Sinitsyn emphasized that the reform decision will provide an opportunity to more seriously prepare for military action, but difficulties may arise when obtaining internship in a single center. Also, one of the difficulties that you may have to face is the availability of professional personnel outside the capital of the Russian Federation.

Training at military departments today

At the moment, everyone who studies at universities and undergoes military training graduates with the appropriate rank of officer, sergeant or reserve soldier. There are also those who undergo training in military training centers, from where ready officers are sent to serve on a contract basis.

Today, not all students can join the ranks of employees at the military department. The main limitation is students no older than thirty years old, physically healthy and students starting from the third year. Only under such conditions can you submit documents for service.

Training takes place on both theoretical and practical basis. Theoretical knowledge is acquired through lectures and seminars, and practice is drill training, familiarity with military weapons and equipment.

We are talking about unifying training

On Tuesday, a number of media outlets brought panic to the friendly ranks of university students by reporting that the Ministry of Defense was closing military departments. The panic turned out to be false. The reason was the inattentive study by some journalists of the bills that the Ministry of Defense is introducing for consideration by the government. The military department hastened to report that the information was not true. As the military department explained to MK, we are simply talking about unifying the process of military training in civilian universities.

Today there are several forms of training in military specialties in civilian universities. These include military centers, military departments, and training camps. A decision was made to unify the military training process. A network of large military training centers with a powerful training and material base will be created in the country,” said the representative of the department.

According to him, the entire military educational structure existing in civilian universities will be organizationally included in these military training centers. There is no talk of any abolition of military departments. To preserve the existing system of military training of citizens, the Government of the Russian Federation will create military training centers on the basis of all existing military training centers, military training faculties (military departments) at federal state educational organizations of higher education.

The implementation of the bill will improve the quality parameters in managing the learning process of university students in all available areas of military training, the department told MK.

In 2016, over 10 thousand students of the first cohort successfully completed their military training programs and completed field training. There are such centers in 30 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Currently, more than 20 thousand students are studying under such programs. At the same time, the geography of military training is constantly expanding. In 2016–2017, military departments were created at 17 civilian universities, 4 of which are located in the regions of Siberia and the Far East. Currently, military training centers and military departments (faculties of military training) operate at 87 civilian universities.

All this work required unification. In the same civilian universities, training is carried out in military training centers, where they train career officers for military service under contract, and in military departments (faculties of military training), where they teach in military training programs for reserve officers, military training programs for sergeants, and reserve sergeants. and military training programs for soldiers and reserve sailors. Now it has been decided to carry out military training for all existing programs in a single structural unit of the university - the military training center. The bill replaces the terms “military training center”, “faculty of military training”, “military department” with the single term “military training center”.

Earlier, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced at a meeting of the Public Council under the Russian Ministry of Defense that the department intends to give the maximum number of young people the opportunity to undergo military training and obtain military specialties at universities. “We continue this work, we have already begun to have comprehensive training centers, which include both military departments and military institutes. In addition, we continue to open new military departments in educational institutions,” the minister noted.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation explained exactly how the reform will take place, during which all military departments in civilian universities will disappear. In early June, the Russian government submitted to the State Duma a draft law designed to unify educational structures involved in military training of students. According to the document, it is proposed to turn all military departments and faculties in civilian universities into military training centers. Many people were frightened by this restructuring. There were rumors that students would no longer be able to study at military departments, as they would be liquidated.

As it turns out, there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. The number of students who will be able to obtain a military specialty or rank directly at their institute or university, on the contrary, will increase.

“Not a single university will reduce the military training of students, but on the contrary, the number of universities with military departments will increase,” State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Nikolai Pankov said at a briefing at the Ministry of Defense.

Today, reserve officers are trained in 150 civilian universities, and reserve soldiers and sergeants are trained in 90 military specialties.

The military department emphasizes that in recent years they have consistently increased the volume of military training, increasing the number of military departments in civilian universities. In 2015 there were 70 of them, in 2016 - already 75, in 2017 - 87. And in September 2018, at a meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Defense, the issue of creating six more will be considered. Thus, there will be 93 military departments in the country (if by that time the law on military training centers has not yet come into force).

The Ministry of Defense said that until 2008, only reserve officer training programs existed in civilian universities. And only military departments implemented these programs. In 2008, the training of career officers in engineering, technology, and science-intensive specialties was organized in civilian universities.

In addition to military departments, military training centers appeared in civilian universities. Thus, since 2008, there have been two structures in universities - a military department and a military training center. They work in the same classrooms, on the same training grounds, on the same weapons, on the same military equipment.

“The idea was born for all types of military training to create a single unified structure in civilian universities called a military training center. Such centers will implement all three military training programs: training reserve officers, career officers, as well as privates and reserve sergeants,” said Nikolai Pankov .

The Ministry of Defense emphasized that the creation of military training centers poses absolutely no threat to the teaching staff of existing military departments. On the contrary, the volume of military training will increase, so none of the teachers will lose their jobs. “We are not changing anything, we are maintaining the volume of training and the current training programs. More than 61 thousand students are currently undergoing military training in civilian universities. For the training of career officers - 10.5 thousand, reserve officers - 34.2 thousand, sergeants and reserve soldiers “16.5 thousand. And these proportions will be maintained,” noted the Deputy Minister of Defense. According to Pankov, students will not notice these “overflows” at all.

The bill on the creation of military training centers on the basis of military departments in civilian universities was considered and approved at a meeting of the Russian government on May 30.

“The purpose of the bill is to increase the efficiency of managing the process of training university students in existing areas of military training,” says the official website of the Cabinet of Ministers. According to the authors of the legislative initiative, this, among other things, is necessary for more effective joint use of the educational material base, training weapons and military equipment available at institutes and universities.

“We talked a lot about the fact that we need to give the maximum number of young people the opportunity to undergo military training, to obtain a military specialty at universities,” said the head of the military department, Sergei Shoigu, at a recent meeting of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense. “We continue this work. We have started to see “Comprehensive training centers include both military departments and military institutes.”

A bill proposing the liquidation of military departments in universities and their replacement with single military training centers. The corresponding order appeared on the Cabinet of Ministers website.

“In order to more effectively share the educational and material base, training weapons and military equipment available to these units, the bill proposes to replace several existing types of structural units of military training in universities with a single type of military training units - military training centers,” the document says.

Currently, military training is conducted in universities through training centers, military departments and military training faculties.

In addition, the explanatory note to the order clarifies that the main goal of the bill is to increase the efficiency of student training in areas of military training. Also, the authors of the initiative do not expect that the creation of centers will lead to an increase in the number of students studying in military specialties.

Before this, the State Duma had already made adjustments to the procedure for training military personnel. In particular, in March 2017, deputies adopted in the third reading a bill, also prepared by the government, according to which students studying at universities that do not have military departments can undergo military training at military universities.

That is, in fact, the current introduced bill will replace several types of already existing military training units in universities with a single center.

The practice of higher pre-conscription training in higher educational institutions and technical schools dates back to the USSR - in the second half of the 1920s. It was introduced as part of the reform of the armed forces and involved 180 hours of theoretical and two months of practical training at training camps in military camps. The first military training classes started in the 1926-1927 academic year, covering 135 universities and 80 thousand students.

After graduating from the university, students who underwent such training could serve in the army in nine months (in the navy - 12 months), while for all other conscripts the service period was two years - in the infantry and artillery, three years - in the air fleet , and four years in the Navy.

Among the first universities to open military educational formations were, in particular, them. Lomonosov. The military departments trained junior commanders of the Red Army, and later the Soviet Army.

However, in the early 1990s, the training program for junior officers in higher educational institutions began to gradually wind down. According to the Ministry of Defense, military departments are now open at 54 civilian universities. Unlike Soviet times, students who have undergone military training at a university are not conscripted for military service.

The duration of training at military departments varies depending on the military specialty: it takes 30 months to become a reserve officer, 24 months to become a reserve sergeant, and 18 months to become a reserve soldier. At the same time, classes at the military department are conducted in parallel with the main educational process.

From time to time, modern military departments at universities find themselves at the center of scandals. So, in April of this year, information appeared that students of the St. Petersburg State University of Telecommunications named after Professor M.A. Bonch-Bruevich was charged money for studying at the military department.

The Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation then reacted sharply to the appearance of such information.

“It is unacceptable that a business should be built on people who want to become soldiers, sergeants or reserve officers. I signed the order of measures and instructions. We have two options: either we deal with the rector of this university, or we will close the military department at St. Petersburg State University of Technology,” said the Minister of Defense at one of the conference calls.