BRICS TRANSPORT

Currently, the problem of training highly skilled, competitive specialists equipped with competencies necessary for their future professional activity is of particular relevance. This is key to building a talent pipeline in the transport industry in general and in the railway sector in particular where the activities of the majority of workers involve providing safety and continuity of operations. One of the topical issues is to study their values and meaning domain and motivational attitudes to their future profession as an opportunity to develop techniques of psychological and pedagogical support aimed at forming stable internal motives and optimizing the professional development of future specialists in the transport industry. The purpose of the study is to explore the specifi c features of the values and meaning domain and motivation of future specialists in the transport industry. In order to study the purpose-in-life orientations, personality traits and motivation of future specialists in the transport industry, a study was conducted with the participation of 50 people aged 20 to 24 years. The following methods were used: the Purpose-in-Life (PIL) Test by D. Crumbaugh and L. Maholick adapted by D. A. Leontiev; the questionnaire for the assessment of personality traits of a professional (LOP) by I.G. Senin and V.E. Oryol; and the Motivation for Success and Fear of Failure (MUN) method by A. A. Rean. The results for interpretation were obtained by mathematical and statistical data processing using correlation analysis (the Pearson correlation criterion). The sense of purpose in the students is associated with the ability to identify signifi cant conditions for achieving goals and everything that happens to them contributes to their personal growth. The more the students perceive their lives as emotionally intense and interesting, the less they tend to perceive their educational and professional activities as a source of stress. Conclusions: Students with clear goals for the prospects of their future professional self-realisation tend to show internal motives for achieving results to a greater extent. The feeling of meaningfulness and productivity of the students’ lives is associated with tension they experience in the learning process, conscious control of their actions and behaviour.

The article covers the life and certain episodes of the activities of Augustin Betancourt (1758–1814), an outstanding engineer, scientist, architect, teacher, and statesman of Spain and Russia, in Russia. Arriving in Russia at the personal invitation of Emperor Alexander I, and being in the Russian service from 1808 to 1824, A. Betancourt left a notable mark in the history of engineering and construction, in the development of industry and transport of the Russian Empire, and formation of engineering education in the country.

Based on the sources, including those of the XIX century, the article provides information on the main projects implemented by him in Russia, offers characteristics of the relations between Augustin Betancourt and Emperor Alexander I, and other statesmen of that epoch, and reveals some personal and psychological peculiarities of behaviour of the engineer and scientist. An attempt is made to study the reasons for the tsar’s disfavour of Augustin Betancourt and his resignation from government posts. The article describes the conspicuous merits of A. Betancourt, his contribution to speeding up the industrial revolution in Russia, gives the main facts related to the special role of the scientists of Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University (PGUPS),the successor of the Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers (IKIPS), organised by Betancourt, and the Betancourt’s Legacy International Scientifi c and Educational Project held since 2015 and the annual Betancourt International Engineering Forums dedicated to the development of higher engineering education in the world. This article is dedicated to the memory of Augustin Betancourt and is published in the year of the 200th anniversary of his passing on July 26 (14), 1824.

The article is devoted to Responsibilities of a transport university for the development and dissemination of advanced competencies in the fi elds of transport and transport education in the context of the expanding BRICS space

On June 10–11, 2024, the Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg Transport University (PGUPS) in St. Petersburg hosted the III Conference of the Association of Rectors of Transport Universities of BRICS+.