The Ministry of Education and Science reported that Russian universities are no longer participating in the Bologna process. As early as April 11, the Bologna Group announced that it was ending the representation of Russia and Belarus in all relevant structures.
“Given the fact that our heads of educational organizations signed the call of the Union of Rectors of Russia to support the president in connection with special operations, in fact all educational institutions in the country are excluded from the Bologna process,” said the deputy. Minister of Science and Higher Education Dmitry Afanasiev.
He reminded that the Bologna Declaration was not a treaty and therefore there was no need to overturn it. “I can say that it is the Bologna system that has come out of the Bologna system, not us,” the official said.
Afanasiev added that the two-tier system of higher education – undergraduate and graduate programs – does not improve students’ readiness. According to him, a four-year degree is not enough for “the full formation of knowledge, skills and competences”.
The deputy minister claims that this is why many employers fail to appoint holders of such diplomas to key positions.
“Over all these years, the list of specialization programs has not been reduced, but rather expanded, meeting the needs that employers in the industry have stated, primarily in a number of engineering fields,” he said.
On May 24, Russian Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov said that the Bologna system should be perceived as a “lived stage”. According to him, in the next few years Russia will have its own national higher education system.
The main purpose of introducing the Bologna system at once was to bring education in Europe to uniform standards and uniform qualifications. In 1999, the Ministers of Education of 29 European countries signed the Bologna Declaration. In September 2003, Russia also joined this system.
The rectors of Russian universities have already supported the creation of a new education system based on that in the USSR.
President of the Russian Union of Rectors and Moscow Rector Victor Sadovnichy said, “The decision we have taken will of course also be related to international cooperation, because our universities will take into account the challenges of the time, and the programs will change.” State University.
He emphasized that not a four-year education, but a five-six-year specialization will be emphasized.
At the same time, RUDN President Vladimir Filippov, in a comment to RIA Novosti, said that it is not worth returning to the Soviet system, which in the current realities is inefficient.
Explaining that education was elitist in the Soviet Union and that the era of mass higher education had begun, he said, “The return to single-level education is a disaster for the individual and the state.”
Filippov noted that now training in 70-80 specialties is carried out in the form of a specialist, which does not prevent the start of a five-year training. “Just justify what’s best for you: ask the population, ask employers, ask future students,” Filippov said.
There is also discussion about replacing the Unified State Examination (USE) with other forms of schoolchildren attestation.
Earlier, State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein said that the abolition of the USE should be a consequence of the end of the Bologna system in Russia.
Khinshtein recommends that entrance exams be as transparent and honest as possible. But it failed to offer suitable options.
At the same time, the head of Rosobrnadzor, Anzor Muzaev, assured that the school exams would not be changed. He stressed that the authorities will not deprive graduates of the right to a single opportunity to enter any university in Russia.