VOLUNTEERING OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AS A RESOURCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Historically volunteerism in Russia has traditionally developed in the system of higher education. Nowadays Russian universities' scientific potential is becoming more active due to the changing of the educational processes. Despite the fact that self-government bodies, business as well as academic mobility and local communities stimulate university community, social mission of the higher education is being replaced with pragmatic goals. Whereas university community's initiative is gaining value, universities overall program is formed under the guidance of innovation and commercialization. Meanwhile the popularization of volunteerism among younger generations as a trend is reflected in support provided to organized youth groups that often function in universities and colleges. The purpose of this article is to assess the impact of volunteerism on the scientific activity of Russian university students and their innovative potential. The report presents the data of a survey of students of the Urals Federal District which was realized in 2017. The method of correlation analysis is applied. The following research solves such tasks as the evaluation of dependence of the self-assessment of the innovative culture on the degree of the Ural macroregion's students' involvement in volunteer activity. The specificity of the involvement of student volunteers in the innovative and scientific activity of the university is determined. (C) 2019 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.UK