University youth policy: genesis, concept, and limits of its application

In recent years, the Russian government has significantly increased its attention to activities in the youth policy sphere. To date, the legislative framework has been formed at the federal level, and the role of youth policy in universities is being purposefully increased. However, as practice shows, there is currently a conceptual gap in the university youth policy sphere due to the lack of a clear definition of this activity both in the rule-making sphere and among researchers. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to comprehensively analyze existing theoretical and practical approaches to youth policy, considering previous experience in educational activities in higher education institutions within the framework of defining the university youth policy concept. Various approaches to the youth policy definition in the scientific literature have been considered, the evolution of the perception of the youth sphere of activity within universities has been investigated, and the theoretical features of implementing youth policy at university have been studied. The author’s vision of the essential concept of university youth policy in the context of the strategic development of the higher education system has been proposed. This definition focuses on the importance of youth policy and includes key elements that contribute to improving the competitiveness of an educational organization.