Influence of Higher Education Institutions on Acceleration of Industrial Development of the Economy of an Old Industrial Region

Abstract:

In the article, the author revealed a knowledge-oriented approach to support the acceleration of industrial development of the economy of an old industrial region. I allocated a priority role of an individual and higher education institutions in the course of modernizing transformations. The purpose of the research is to prove a hypothesis that there is a direct dependence of rates of an increment of a gross regional product (GRP) on the dynamics of its knowledge. Another purpose is to develop recommendations for ensuring the acceleration of industrial development of a region through the activity of higher education institutions. To prove this hypothesis, the author substantiated the existing approaches to an assessment of knowledge-based products. I also offered new estimated tools for accelerating therenovation of the industrial relations in a region, which considered a regional role of universities as generators and basic transfers of innovative ideas in managing practice. The application of these tools on the example of the Ural Federal District has revealed the new levels of the modern educational platform of universities, which guarantee continuous development and accumulation of knowledge capital as well asits materialization without technological obsolescence. The author’s conclusions and recommendations can be applied in interregional, regional and national levels of research of the problems of industrial development of old industrial territories during the strategic modelling of the interaction of enterprises, higher education institutions, and authorities.