G.Gantulga: The key to Mongolia’s development is a research university

For the first time in Mongolia, a new draft law on a research university’s legal status is being drafted and discussed. In recent years, the University of Agriculture has set the goal of becoming a research university from the University of Education and initiated the “University of Agriculture: Research University from the University of Education” program. The university is unique in that it includes four national research institutes, which are an essential impetus for strengthening the links between higher education and science and industry. Therefore, we talked to Professor G.Gantulga, Deputy Director for Research and Innovation of the University, about the research university’s international standards and approaches and what positive results can be achieved by implementing this law.

-The term research university has been around for a long time. Let’s start with the history of how it has developed internationally.

-One of the essential criteria or expressions that define a university, including a research university, is independence and academic freedom. In many parts of the world, universities have a history of becoming leading institutions that contribute to the country and region and the global social and economic development, science, and technology.

In addition to preparing bachelors and advanced specialists with higher education and skills, which are essential for the development of any country, countries are unique in developing universities, as they are the creators of science, technology, and new knowledge to solve key development issues and strategic goals. Has been given importance.

The university also pays more attention to improving the efficiency of research, prioritizing science, technology, and innovation, enriching knowledge, transferring technology, and strengthening science-industry ties: research university, entrepreneurial university (entrepreneur university).

Until the 19th and early 20th centuries, European universities were the world’s leading institutions of higher education and science, setting a good example for the world’s top research universities, such as Harvard, Yale, and Cornell in the United States.

The need for science, new knowledge, and skilled professionals has become more critical than ever as the global socio-economic development trend shifts from a production and resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy. As a result, universities face new challenges, and to overcome them, universities need to place greater emphasis on research. Thus, universities’ focus on creating new knowledge, protecting and securing the intellectual property they have built, putting it into economic circulation, and increasing investment sources by developing cooperation with manufacturers has had a significant impact on the development of research universities.

In recent years, many Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, and China, have focused on developing research universities and have achieved good results in a brief period.

-What are the main criteria for becoming a research university? Is there a school in our country that meets this condition?

Researcher Salmi, in his 2009 book, Developing World-Class Universities, first discusses the basics of a research university; management independence, good governance, leadership, sound management, and secondly; concentration of talented people or attraction of the best researchers, professors, teachers, and students, thirdly; It is defined as a favorable environment for many financial resources, financial capacity, training, and research.

To accelerate the country’s social and economic development by developing the knowledge economy through the rational use of intellectual resources concentrated in large universities, growing universities’ research capacity, training skilled professionals, and supporting new knowledge by professors and researchers. We understand that the draft law has been developed in response to the urgent need to build research universities, and several universities are grateful for it.

Although Mongolian universities have not yet met the criteria set out in the draft law, the government’s “Higher Education Reform” policy and activities have given priority to research by the first state-owned universities over the dominant ones. and achieve the desired result. In particular, Mongolia’s first universities have the potential to meet the criteria set out in the draft law shortly. The law is expected to set the level of development and future trends of universities.

For example, the University of Agriculture has set a strategic goal for developing research and innovation from a university that has dominated training in recent years. As a result of efforts to strengthen human resource capacity to achieve this goal, the share of professors with PhDs has increased by more than 20 percent to 51.3 percent over the past five years. To strengthen the research environment, more than 30 new research laboratories have been established to support the Government of Mongolia and international organizations. Today, the number of domestic research projects implemented by our professors and teachers has increased 11 times compared to 2016. The number of research projects funded by foreign and international organizations has increased 28 times, and the total funding for research projects has reached tens of billions. Funding for the entire research project exceeded the university’s primary source of funding, tuition fees.

Thus, our “University of Agriculture: Research University from Training University” program has been expanded and approved in 2018 as the “Research-Based University” national program by the Government of Mongolia. Today, the program is being discussed as Mongolian law.

With the adoption of the Law on Research Universities, Mongolia will bring the effectiveness of national universities’ research to the level of the world’s leading universities. By their example, universities will make a significant contribution to the country’s social and economic development.

Another important indicator of a research university is, of course, the level of advanced training, the scope, and the results of the research. In this sense, a research university is about training skilled and highly skilled young researchers, which is a critical factor in developing the knowledge economy. As a result of our school’s emphasis on this issue, today, more than 40 percent of the university’s students are advanced students. This is one step closer to reaching the level of a research university. The number and quality of publications by professors and researchers are also improving.

-You are probably familiar with the draft law. How well developed is it?

-I got acquainted with the draft law. He also expressed his views on the need for this law at previous meetings and conferences. It is believed that the draft law was initiated by the Ministry of Education and Science and developed in a brief period. Of course, due to a wide-ranging discussion of professors and researchers from universities and research institutes, there is room for improvement. The higher education sector is grateful for the Ministry’s offer of such an opportunity and is actively involved.

-What progress will the education sector bring to the country with the implementation of this law?

The entry into force of this law will create a favorable legal environment for the development of a national research university in Mongolia. As a result, by bringing Mongolia’s academic resources and capacity up to the level of world universities, the research university will be able to solve Mongolia’s socio-economic development problems in a timely manner, grow rapidly and reach the level of a highly developed country in a short time. This will be a major impetus for the country’s development by making full use of the scientific capacity resources concentrated in public schools.

-Agriculture is one of the leading sectors of our economy. In recent years, the share of the mining sector in GDP has been declining. But it is one of the critical sectors that can diversify the economy. You mentioned that significant progress had been made due to projects, programs, and research implemented by researchers at the University of Agriculture. Can you give a specific example …?

Researchers in our field are making a significant contribution to solving Mongolia’s agricultural sector’s problems on a scientific basis. For example, leading researchers, professors, and doctors of the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, including Dr. Z. Batsukh, have developed and certified technology to produce five variants of the highly contagious animal foot-and-mouth disease vaccine in Mongolia. Preparations are underway to conduct a large-scale vaccine production experiment with the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry and Biocombinat NTUG to produce 450 million MNT. Resolving this issue will allow the country to save a lot of money on FMD vaccines purchased abroad.

In recent years, researchers led by Professor Ya. Myagmarsuren, Scientific Secretary of the Institute of Plant and Agriculture (PSA), has developed high-yielding varieties of wheat resistant to drought and disease, taking into account Mongolia’s natural and geographical features and climate change conditions. In the last ten years alone, eight wheat varieties have been developed, introduced, and introduced into production. For example, wheat selection varieties developed by PSP researchers in recent years are grown in more than 40 percent of Mongolia’s wheat fields, of which Darkhan-144 varieties are grown in about 30 percent. Considering the yield of the last five years, planting the Darkhan-144 variety increased the output by 2-3.5 centners per hectare and allowed farmers to earn a total net profit of 15-25 billion MNT. There are many such results.

Currently, 40-50 percent of the research work carried out by professors and teachers of our university is funded by foreign partner universities and international organizations. Now, 86 international projects worth over 40 billion MNT are being implemented. This indicator is increasing year by year, and cooperation with foreign researchers is expanding.

The university also supports the development of interdisciplinary science. Mongolia is rich in medicinal and medicinal plants. On the other hand, food from animals grazed and fed on these unique plants has select therapeutic and prophylactic properties. Therefore, there is a need to study the uniqueness of these outstanding natural and biological resources in many ways, produce new unique products, develop technologies, and market these products with many sciences’ participation. There is a real need to pay special attention to this.