Development of Systemic Way of Thinking in Contemporary Higher Education

AbstractThe problem of educating high-level professionals, ready to solve a number of unstructured professional problems, is one of the most important in contemporary education, especially in the case of higher education. By using multiple case studies the paper analyzes the main factors which define most important problems that occur in professional life of recent college and university graduates. As it has been figured out the main factor is that majority of problems are either already solved or their solution within narrow professional approach requires too costly measures. This means that in order to prepare students to solve professional problems efficiently contemporary higher education system has to develop systemic way of thinking for its graduates. Insuring of such result requires, as it is proven by multiple case studies, the following:1) increase the number of multidisciplinary classes, both in terms of contents of the offered courses and in terms of classes’ participants diversity;2) provide understanding of anthropomorphic influence each of professional solutions makes within person's and/or company's environment;3) insure that graduates are able to make prognosis both professional and societal results of suggested solutions;4) develop a multi-angle vision of any professional problem which would cover professional, anthropomorphic and societal aspects.Implementation of such an approach supposes high diversity of offered courses, a variety of educational lines, multidisciplinary activities, hands-on problem solution which are provided in Kazan federal university by means of case studies, role play, simulations, virtual reality development, internships, project-based education