Higher school potential as a social-economic category: conception, essence and functions

Abstract

The article presents a description of higher shool potential as a social economic category. Treating sistematically, higher shool potential is a complex of interacting elements having a structure, which, in its turn, is described by a complex of permanent relations, ties and dependencies. Higher shool potential, as a system, is characterized by continuity, proportionality of elements, proportionality of the parts of an element, balance, hierarchy, functional uninterruptedness.The authors of the present article claim that a specific role must be given to the the most important element of pedagogical and research-technical activities—the human intellectual potential. It should be noted that economic and social activities become more intellectual, accordingly, in the manufacture of products, goods and services, intellectual activities take a more important place. Therefore, pedagogical and research–technical activities in a higher school, as one of the most important generator and supplier of innovations in the economic and social field, should have the highest human intellectual potential—the research–pedagogical intellectual potential. The persons wishing to engage in pedagogical and research–technical activities at higher schools must have exclusive capabilities, research intuition, pedagogical mastership and other properties, without which they do not suit for this kind of activities. Therefore, the authors of the article present their conception and definition, describe the functions of higher shool potencial as well as its content and the results of its functioning. The article claims that the potential of a higher school under the conditions of market economy performs the following functions: marketing function (including diagnostic and analytical ones); study programmes corresponding to economic needs development and realization; scientific forecast (prognosis); development and realization of innovations (pedagogic, scientific–technical); innovations realization in practice. The authors draw a conclusion that the functioning of a higher school potential in the context of increasing competition requires active development of the marketing function.