Abstract
<jats:p>The article examines the development of the North Caucasus Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals (now the North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute (State Technological University)), the reasons, prerequisites, and circumstances of its establishment. It emphasizes that the challenges facing modern Russia under economic sanctions make the Soviet experience of developing a system of higher technical education during the period of accelerated socialist modernization in the late 1920s and 1930s relevant. It is noted that the creation of higher technical educational institutions as centers for training qualified engineering personnel during the period under study was part of the practical implementation of a program for accelerated economic development and national and cultural development in the regions. In the national periphery, their establishment was conditioned, among other things, by the presence of industries best supplied with local raw materials. Based on this organizational principle, the North Caucasus Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals was established in 1931. This marked the beginning of the development of a higher technical education system in North Ossetia as a center for training personnel for the country’s non-ferrous metallurgy and mining industries. The importance of revisiting the institute’s history is dictated by the continuity of the challenges facing the Russian state in economic and educational policy at the current stage of yet another technological transformation. An analysis of the experience of creating the North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute (NCMI) allows for an objective assessment of the role of planning a national economic development strategy, taking into account regional factors that ensure the development prospects and sovereignty of the state as a whole. The analysis leads to the conclusion that a high level of interaction between government bodies and the scientific and educational community is essential in the creation and development of training centers for the training of qualified professionals.</jats:p>