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The Russian universities’ contribution to the achievement of sustainable development goals is analyzed from the prospect of globalism crisis and transition to the global-local paradigm of the existence of a society. The authors proceed from the theoretical premise that the internationally recognized threefold concept of sustainable development encompassing economic development, social stability and environmental sustainability is based on the understanding of the development as a process and a result of subjective and objective factors that effective in activity aimed at building the future of the humankind. Sociocultural approach allows considering the universities’ practices on achieving global goals of sustainable development through local (national and cultural) practices: ecological, economical and socially oriented activity and/ or building ecosystems at a local level. The article is aimed to define the universities’ organizational environment and conditions providing the high level of sustainable development goals’ achievement.Universities implement various strategies to introduce the concept of sustainability into the programs of their development. The practices of the universities known for the effective implementation of sustainability concept into educational, research and social practices oriented to the regional sustainable development are analyzed. The universities under consideration provide stimulating ground for establishing horizontal and vertical relationships among all subjects of sustainable development within their educational environment, fostering sustainability culture and motivating students, teachers and other personnel to achieve sustainability goals. Their experience might be informative for Russian Universities as far as the principles of sustainable development and orientation at building educational ecosystems are formulated in the national programs of regional development in Russia (Flagship Universities Program and Priority 2030 Program). In the Priority 2030 Program, the ecosystem principle is one of the fundamental for the result-oriented innovative development of regional clusters created by the joint efforts of universities, businesses, state and social organizations. However, Russian universities in their striving for designing educational ecosystem mostly focus on research and financial aspects than on the development of a man, whose professional, intellectual and moral formation might contribute to the sustainable development of the region, the nation and the world.

Teacher-retraining course design is considered to be a challenge not only to the course participants but to the course designers as well, especially, when the participants enrolled turn out to have dramatically different professional background and conditions. This article supports the idea that changes to the course design should be made straightaway in response to the trainees' specific needs. The context for rural school teacher retraining at Novosibirsk State Technical University in Russia illustrates reasons for making immediate changes necessary as the course progressed, and reaction to them. The article discusses a model for a teacher retraining course in which EFL improvement is the core element.Keywords: teacher retraining program, rural teachers, shortage of EFL teachers, non-cohesive professional background, changers to course design IntroductionIt is no secret that a teacher is a key figure in any teaching process, be it in an urban or rural school. It is impossible to carry out educational reforms without teachers. They are responsible for achieving results set by national educational standards. The more professional teachers are, the better results their students demonstrate.And it is understandable why the Russian Federation State Standard of secondary education requires that "teachers who do not possess certified qualifications necessary to perform professional duties must take training or retraining course and be certified to prove their professional eligibility" (Russian Federation State Educational Standard of secondary education, 2012). To meet this requirement, universities launch training and retraining programs for the teachers of different subjects, particularly teachers of those subjects which are in great demand in schools like teachers of English as a foreign language.No matter how many specialists majoring in teaching English graduate from pedagogical universities, there has been a shortage of EFL teachers in Russia for decades. Even the positive tendency of the recent years that is more teachers graduate from higher educational institutions comes to nothing. One of the reasons is that the graduates are not motivated by rather low salaries for novice teachers and big amount of tedious paper work school teachers have to carry out. Other reasons are connected with opportunities offered by the globalizing world to people with high proficiency in English. They can easily find jobs with better conditions and payment either in this country or overseas. That is why schools are in a difficult situation when, on the one hand, the paradigm of innovation spread over the world is confronting school system with the new range of professional To improve the situation with teaching English, school administration either stimulates teachers of other subjects to take courses in teaching English or makes EFL teachers master problem areas of their teaching practice if they lack the professional competencies required to teach. That is especially relevant to complex professional situations in rural schools....

The potential of Content and Language Integrated Learning for developing intercultural competence makes it one of the instruments to pursue a policy of internationalization in tertiary education. However, the creation of certain learning conditions for the successful implementation of different CLIL models is still a controversial issue. There is little research in Russia focused on the plurilingual curricular model of CLIL for university students. The study explores its value in pre-service language education. To create a foreign language-rich environment, 'ICT in Professional Development' was introduced in English to firstyear Linguistics students at Novosibirsk State Technical University. As a research methodology, action research was chosen due to its high level of practical relevance in educational research. The data collected from two cohorts of students through lesson observation, semi-structured interviews, and students' evidence of learning served to identify factors engaging students in studying ICT in English and to evaluate conditions favourable for the achievement of ICT in PD course learning outcomes. The qualitative and quantitative data proved a high educational value of CLIL to students interested professionally in ICT and L2. However, even in a highly motivating environment the students tended to rely on their learning strategies to overcome content and language difficulties. The various factors that influence the student's choice of either L2 or a mixed code or L1 can be considered highly individual and situation-related. To provide more learning opportunities for students to choose from, we revisited lesson plans, teaching materials, and tasks with differentiating and scaffolding techniques.