Decline of the international price of some minerals, such as coal, has changed the living standards of the Arctic population leading to its considerable out-migration because of the drop in profitability not only in mining, but also in related industries. Being essential for the sustainable economic development, the highly qualified specialists are currently a crucial issue in the Arctic. This research employs demographic and economic indicators to address the gap in the study of demographic challenges for the Arctic administrative-territorial entities. Special attention is paid to the comparative analysis of the population dynamic in the Russian and global Arctic regions. As part of this study, the impact of the demographic factor on the economic indicators of the region was assessed on the basis of GRP data calculation. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the major trends in the Arctic labour market. Based on the results of the assessment, an increase in GRP was determined with the simultaneous decrease in the Arctic population. The current demographic situation in the Arctic regions in the context of gender factors was reviewed. It should be noted that the article contains exceptions and the causes of the phenomena described. The results of the research may contribute to better understanding of regional variation and trends in socio-economic development of the Arctic as well as the stabilisation of the Arctic population.

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Thisarticledemonstratestheeffectivenessofemployingthecase study method to teach English as a foreign language to the agricultural and environmental engineering students. It should be useful to those who are trying to contribute to the development of the technology relevant to the contemporary educational challenges based on the unity of applied and theoretical aspects of teaching English within a perspective of developing students’ environmental responsibility. This research includes three-year study conducted both in the institution of higher professional education and in one of the largest concentrating enterprise sharing strong environmental ethics in Russia from 2017 to 2019. The research methodology includes: analysis of literature on the main purposes of the engineering training as well as environmental concerns; the analysis of the waysofteachingcasestudy;anassessmentofpurposes,needs andfunctions for which English is required. The findings of this research are as follows: firstly, engineering student’s professional communicative competence is effectively developed within a case study analysis based on real cases from current companies. Secondly, students are more satisfied with their English course and more willing to put their English to practical use when foreign language skills and their professional engineering issues are brought together.

The paper deals with the challenges in language education that technical universities face. The authors give a brief overview of linguistic auditing and offer a closer look at needs analysis in the context of teaching English for specific purposes. The authors suggest considering the potential of linguistic auditing as a tool for the profound needs analysis of the target professional situation and its impact on foreign languages syllabus design in technical universities. The paper also presents the results of a feedback questionnaire received from ex-mining students in this regard.

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