Russian professional education: new student currents configuration

The article belongs to research category and deals with the analysis of educational statistics on student currents including young people enrolling into universities, colleges and professional technical schools of the Russian Federation. The aim of the article is to describe and analyze new balance between student currents in higher and secondary professional education as well as the consequences for higher educational university development strategies related to the changes of the balance. The main research method used in the article is the analysis of statistic data dynamic sets related to student enrollment to professional education programs. The main result of the research is the conclusion on the achieved balance of students choosing secondary and higher professional education programs during the period of 2001-2014. Data provided in the article allow for making a conclusion that in the coming years student characteristics would play a much more important restrictive role in implementing university and college development strategies than financial resources. The novelty of the article is related to treating student currents as a specific type of managerial resource that is gaining an essential role for professional education institutions in the context of demographic crisis.