Applied science in the departmental universities: Inflated self-esteem and critical thinking (Оn an example of Federal Penitentiary Service’s universities of Russia)

Article addresses relevant as well as extremely broad topic for local universities related to the assessment of their scientific and practical efficiency. In the center of the author’s attention, there are reportable formal quantitative indicators in chase of which the educational institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service’s (FPS ofRussia) distort the essence of applied scientific research, in fact, imitating it. Nevertheless, with their help these universities continue informing the public about their own scientific importance and high innovative potential, fully realized for the benefit of institutions which carry out penal sanctions. A critical analysis of such self-assessments obviously overstated and narrowly focused in terms of information reflects the content of this article. The indicator of social and / or economic effect obtained by the penal establishments from their actual implementation in practice could contribute to the objectivity of judgments about the results of the universities’ applied scientific research.