They want to return the specialty, but what will happen to the current bachelor’s and master’s programs
According to “Kommersant”, in May, the Ministry of Education and Science announced that the country would abandon the Bologna system of education, which implies two levels – bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and return the specialist. However, according to the head of the ministry, Valery Falkov, the reform does not mean a ban on undergraduate and graduate programs. Now employers and universities will be able to abandon them in favor of a specialist.
In addition, the minister considers it necessary to understand the magistracy system so that bachelors can choose only profile-related areas. So far, according to the Bologna postulates, any bachelor can enter the master’s program, regardless of the profile education.
“In fact, it turns out that many people use this principle not for the benefit of themselves and the economy, but only to get a diploma. When a person who has a basic humanitarian education suddenly goes to a master’s program as an engineer. Or you, being a journalist, go to law, and it’s not clear either you are a lawyer, or you are a journalist,” the minister said.
According to Falkov, we are not talking regarding suddenly canceling everything that we have been living with for more than 20 years and returning only to the specialty. In his opinion, the future belongs to a unique combination of specialty, undergraduate and graduate programs.
The minister also named three reasons why there will not be a complete rejection of the two-tier system:
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“There are graduates who sympathize with these formats of education.”
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“We have millions of people who have received a bachelor’s degree, and without a master’s degree they will not be able to advance further. Because we have qualification requirements for positions, especially in the state civil service, in the law enforcement service. You cannot be, say, a judge if you only have a bachelor’s degree in law, you need to have a master’s degree. We can’t restrict these people, it’s a constitutional right to education.”
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“The third argument is foreign students. We are in the top 7 countries in the world in terms of the number of foreign students. For them, this is an understandable system, they can come to study and then return to their place, continue their education.”
Russia joined the Bologna system on September 19, 2003. It provides for a two-level system of education: bachelor’s degree (4 years of study) and master’s degree. The Russian system, in addition to these two levels, involves the training of specialists with a standard training period of 5-6 years.
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