Criteria and Drivers of Creative Activity of Higher Education Teachers in the Far East

The article is devoted to the study of higher education teachers as a key component of the creative class. The relevance of this research area is determined by a number of key factors reflecting current trends in the development of society, information and communication technologies and education. As part of the transition to an economy based on knowledge and innovation, higher education teachers act as direct producers of intellectual capital. Their work is directly related to the creation of new ideas, knowledge and technology. Thus, the creativity of a higher education teacher becomes a key factor in the innovative development of the state and society. The methodological basis of the research is R. Florida’s concept of the creative class and modern scientific publications in this area. The empirical basis of the study includes secondary data from a survey of Russian higher school teachers obtained as a result of the project “Monitoring the Economics of Education” at the Higher School of Economics in the 2020–2021 academic year, as well as primary data from the author's research, which includes an online survey conducted in 2024 among teachers of Far Eastern higher educational institutions. The study of teachers as a creative class in Russia and the Far East will make it possible to understand the specifics of their work, emphasize their contribution to the intellectual development of the region and the country as a whole, as well as answer the following questions: 1) what are the main forms of creative activity of a higher school teacher; 2) what factors can become potential barriers to the development of a teacher's creative potential; 3) whether modern technologies, including artificial intelligence, can replace teachers in the educational and scientific process.