Pilot project on higher education reform in the Russian Federation will pass in six Russian universities in the academic years 2023-2024 and 2025-2026. A decree to this effect was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, May 12.
In particular, various levels of education have been established. This is direct higher education – basic and specialized, as well as professional – postgraduate education.
It refers to specialization education, master’s degree, specialization and assistantship-internships. Duration of study at different levels: in basic higher education – from 4 to 6 years, in master’s program – from 1 to 3 years, depending on the educational direction, specialization, qualification, economy or social sector. sphere.
It is understood from the document that the old rights, social guarantees, duties and responsibilities will be preserved in the new education system for students at all levels.
At the same time, those who study at universities within the scope of specialization programs will be able to continue to enter the master’s degree as the next step. This will not be considered a second or further higher education. Now, according to the law, graduates who received a specialty diploma after 2012 can only enter the master’s for paid places, since they are valid for the second higher education.
Pilot project MAI, MISiS, Moscow State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg Mining University, Baltic Federal University. Immanuel Kant and the National Research Tomsk State University. By 30 June they must develop and approve the relevant educational standards and requirements, as well as higher education and postgraduate programmes. TASS.
Admission of students as part of the experiment will begin as early as the 2023-2024 academic year and will run in parallel with registrations in the previous system.
Universities participating in the project will have to submit reports on the functioning of the mechanism and proposals for its adjustment to the government of the Russian Federation; This government will summarize these data annually and submit the relevant report to the presidential administration by 30 July at the latest.
“The Cabinet of Ministers should determine within two months the details of the implementation of the pilot project, including the redistribution of budget places, the procedure for accepting, organizing and conducting training under the new system, lists of specialties and training areas. as well as criteria for the effectiveness of the educational process. The government has also been instructed to link new levels of education to those that existed before,” the text says.
The Ministry of Education and Science was tasked with the organizational, technical, informative and methodological support of the project. The Ministry should also regulate the issuance of diplomas and other documents to those who will study in the new system.
“The Department of Education and the Department of Education and Science are also required to fund the project within 3 months to make appropriate changes to the state assignments of the participants. Expenditures will be taken into account from the funds provided by these departments for the current year and the planning period, ”says the publication.
Recall that in May 2022, Minister of Education and Science Valery Falkov called the Bologna education system the “living stage” and announced that Russia will have its own system. At the same time, the department assured that the transition would be smooth.
In his address to the Federal Assembly in February, Putin proposed a return to the traditional education system of specialists with higher education, whose training period will be from 4 to 6 years.
The head of state pointed out that if a profession requires additional training and narrow specialization, then it should be possible to continue training in a magistracy or residency.
In April this year, the Ministry of Education and Science presented a draft of a new education system, recommending the abolition of undergraduate, graduate and specialist programs.