How are BRICS countries shaping their system of training specialists for the economy of the future? Which skills will become critically important amid technological transformation?
Why are university networks becoming part of the new infrastructure of international cooperation?
Human capital as a strategic resource
In the 21st century, the competitiveness of countries is determined not only by access to natural resources or production capacity but also by their ability to develop their own human resources and scientific potential.
Human capital is the foundation of technological sovereignty and long-term economic growth. The quality of this capital is primarily shaped by the education system, and an individual’s capabilities become capital only when they are put to productive use. Human capital also encompasses the ability to create new jobs, structures and types of economic activity.
The World Economic Forum forecasts that by 2030, the global economy will lose 92 million jobs due to automation, while simultaneously creating 170 million new positions. The vast majority of these will require skills combining engineering, data analysis and natural sciences.
The school education systems of BRICS countries account for around a third of the global education landscape. Education is one of the key factors in sustainable development, social equality and technological progress. Amid global transformation, the education agenda is increasingly being viewed as an instrument for shaping the future.
For BRICS countries, with a combined population of 3,9 billion, this transformation is not an abstract challenge but a question of economic sovereignty. The response is a systematic restructuring of higher education.
The fundamental shift is that universities are no longer perceived simply as part of the social sector but are increasingly regarded as strategic infrastructure – on a par with energy, logistics and digital platforms.
Kirill Kostin, Director of the Diplomacy of Knowledge Centre and an expert in international relations, BRICS institutional development, public and civic diplomacy, strategic communications and futurology, supports this view:
“Universities are becoming not only institutions for transferring knowledge but also hubs that bring together the strategic priorities of the state, business requirements and the development of new technologies. In this sense, universities are becoming part of the strategic infrastructure of the BRICS group.
“Through international network programmes, joint laboratories, academic departments, academic mobility and support for youth initiatives, they contribute to the development of human capital and horizontal ties between scientists and public leaders from different countries,” Kirill Kostin stated.
For infrastructure projects in the 21st century, financial and engineering resources alone are no longer sufficient – the existence of a sustainable system for training specialists is becoming equally important. Within this system, universities ensure the continuity of economic development by continuously developing human capital.
Educational cooperation is expanding alongside the restructuring of the global economy. The growth of production chains, industrial digitalisation and the increasing number of joint infrastructure projects require specialists capable of working across different national jurisdictions. This is why workforce training is gradually moving beyond the boundaries of national education policy and becoming part of the international economic agenda.
In 2025, education systems around the world simultaneously faced teacher shortages, increasing pressure on schools, more complex demographic structures, labour market pressures, growing inequality and the rapid development of digital technologies.
Besides creating human capital, education is itself a growing sector of the economy. The education services market is expanding, while education exports, as demonstrated by the most successful countries, can generate tens of billions of dollars. Citizens of BRICS countries regard education as one of their priority social values: in their view, a high level of education is one of the most important guarantees of success in life.
Educational specialisation as a structural advantage of BRICS
The national objectives of each country directly determine the structure of its educational programmes. However, behind the diversity of approaches, a common pattern is emerging: the education systems of BRICS countries are increasingly moving towards complementarity rather than standardisation.
Despite continuing overlap in certain fields, the main trend is for countries to establish centres of expertise in areas where they have already developed national strengths.
The cornerstone of this cooperation is respect for national sovereignty and one another’s traditions. For BRICS, this means that national education models are not replaced by a single template but serve as a foundation for achieving shared human capital development goals.
Building educational ties between BRICS countries and gaining an understanding of the cultures and traditions that shape individual identities provide a solid foundation for future relations between the group’s member states.
The scale of BRICS education systems is comparable to the group’s demographic weight. In the 2023-2024 academic year, more than a third of all school-age children worldwide lived in BRICS countries, while more than 35 per cent of the world’s schools were located within the group’s member states.
India leads in the number of school-age students, with more than 365 million, followed by China with over 211 million, Brazil with more than 53 million, Russia with over 22 million and South Africa with around 20 million. This demographic foundation gives any educational reforms within BRICS global significance.
China is implementing a strategy to become a leading educational power. The plan aims to transform the country into a global leader in education by linking educational reforms with technological modernisation, national identity and global influence. According to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council of China, investment by state-owned enterprises in research and development reached 1.1 trillion yuan (approximately US$164,1 billion) in 2025, Xinhua News Agency, a TV BRICS partner, reported.
The share of revenue reinvested in research stood at 2.86 percent. The country has 474 national-level R&D platforms, employing 1,44 million people in research and development.
Through its National Education Policy reforms, India aims to increase the proportion of young people in higher education to 50 per cent by 2035. The country is focusing on its demographic dividend and transforming its population of more than one billion into a productive workforce.
In India, a dedicated Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship oversees the national skills development model, institutionally establishing the link between education and the labour market at the highest level of government.
Through its Priority 2030 programme, Russia is creating a network of research universities integrated into the real economy. Brazil is investing in agricultural technologies because it possesses unique expertise in tropical agriculture, while food security is becoming one of the major global challenges.
The UAE is investing in space technologies and artificial intelligence to diversify its national economy. South Africa is strengthening the training of specialists in critical minerals needed for the energy transition. Ethiopia is developing its technical education system as it moves towards industrialisation and the expansion of industrial parks.
According to a publication by the BRICS Expert Council-Russia and the Institute of Education at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University), the education systems of BRICS countries develop through their differences. Diversity becomes a source of growth – a foundation for creating flexible, resilient and equitable education models. This experience may benefit not only BRICS countries but also a wider range of states interested in rethinking approaches to school education in light of their social, cultural and institutional realities.
This distribution of specialisations allows countries to avoid duplicating identical research capabilities and to concentrate resources in areas where national advantages have already been established. A distributed model of workforce training is emerging within BRICS, in which universities begin to function as elements of a unified knowledge chain. In essence, this involves creating and developing a system for transferring multidisciplinary knowledge and establishing an innovation network of consortia around universities – precisely how the strategic documents of leading higher education institutions define this objective.
These efforts follow a common logic: cooperation in higher education is becoming one of the key drivers of long-term scientific and technological integration among BRICS countries through the joint training of specialists who, in 15 years’ time, will manage the group’s critical infrastructure. Within this framework, joint educational programmes begin to function like industrial production chains: training an engineer in one country, undertaking a research placement in another and implementing a technological development in a third become links in a single process that shortens the time between an idea and its practical application while distributing costs among participants.
Russia’s experience is particularly illustrative in this regard. Work is under way to restore industry-specific training at bachelor’s, specialist and master’s degree levels, taking into account regional characteristics and the production specialisations of enterprises operating in each region. This approach makes it possible to train specialists who are in demand in local labour markets while simultaneously replenishing regional human capital rather than losing it to major metropolitan centres. – TV BRICS.
