The Bologna system is in the fire! Why did the foreign agent “Venik” become active?
One of the main non-military news of the end of May - beginning of June, of course, was the message about the abandonment of the Bologna education system, voiced by the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev.
The seriousness of the statement is evidenced by the fact that in the power vertical system Patrushev occupies the second most important place - right behind the President of Russia.
“Russia needs to abandon the Bologna education system and start using its experience in training specialists,” he said.
Russia joined the Bologna Process in 2003. It is based on a two-level education system - bachelor's and master's degrees.
With the transition to the Bologna system, the Unified State Examination system was also adopted to unify the standards for assessing school education.
The discussion about the feasibility of switching to the Bologna system in Russia has not subsided since 2003.
Moreover, this decision was met with bewilderment even in the European Union, where the Soviet and Russian university education systems have always been considered a strong competitor.
For a better understanding of why the Bologna system was imposed by systemic liberals in the Russian government, I would like to quote the goals and objectives stated in it.
The Bologna process (Bologna system) should form a pan-European educational space, which provides for the free movement of students, teachers and management personnel, as well as increasing the competitiveness of European universities in the global educational market.
In this process, Russia was assigned the role of a donor, training specialists for the global educational market at its own expense. The abandonment of the classical system of university training in favor of the Bologna system simplified brain drain as much as possible, and at the same time greatly reduced the overall educational level of students and schoolchildren.
It is no coincidence that many rectors of leading Russian universities took the Bologna system with hostility and stubbornly sabotaged its implementation in the education program of their universities.
The biggest issue with the transition to European education standards was the need for a bachelor’s degree - in fact, a conveyor belt for the production of half-educated people who are useless for science and production.
In fact, if in four years of study, at the very least, it is possible to prepare a lawyer or a marketer, then an engineer, a doctor or a biologist is impossible, no matter how much you want. In the USSR, the training program for specialists in science and production lasted from 5 to 6 years
Employers have repeatedly complained that graduates of modern Russian universities with a bachelor's degree do not have the proper qualifications in knowledge-intensive industries.
People directly involved in the higher education system and having the opportunity to compare how it was and how it has become unanimously affirm that With the transition to the Bologna system, the educational level of average students dropped noticeably, in comparison with which Soviet C grade students look like professors and luminaries.
The message about the cancellation of the Bologna process in Russia and the return to the time-tested traditional system of training specialists caused a powerful resonance in society and in higher education circles.
On June 2, a meeting of the expanded council of the Russian Union of Rectors was held in Moscow, at which the heads of Russian universities discussed the pressing problem: what should students and teachers prepare for in the near future?
It is interesting that the head of the Union, rector of Moscow State University Viktor Sadovnichy, who for a long time led the front of resistance to the introduction of the Bologna process into the Russian higher education system, was cautious and proposed a compromise option, which boiled down to maintaining a comprehensive system of training specialists.
It is currently impossible to immediately remove the Bologna system, which has somehow taken root, from Russian higher education, and in some cases it is even harmful.
First of all, this concerns the process of preparing foreign students, for whom the “compatibility” of Russian diplomas with the standards of the global educational market is one of the key factors.
In addition, according to the rector of Moscow State University, it is necessary to consolidate the training model for integrated master's programs in knowledge-intensive industries.
The President of the Russian Union of Rectors added that all three provisions (specialty, bachelor's plus master's, integrated master's) imply continuation of studies in graduate school. He emphasized that the future of Russian education should be based on “the combination of the best world-recognized traditions of domestic education and the positive experience that has been gained over the past 20 years.”
It is not very clear what kind of positive experience we are talking about, since over the past 20 years MSU has slipped from the prestigious top 20 to almost two hundred positions, judging by the least politically biased international ranking of universities Webometrics (Ranking Web of Universities). The places of other leading Russian universities with a huge gap are located in descending order from approximately 450th position, including such internationally recognized universities as MEPhI, MIPT, MVTU, MGIMO, Leningrad Polytechnic, Tomsk University and Polytechnic, Novosibirsk State University...
I wonder if anyone in the West today remembers that the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School was respectfully called “Rocket College” among specialists, and MEPhI was “Nuclear College”? Hardly. Even here we have practically forgotten about this.
The meeting participants came to the conclusion that the transition to the new system will be lengthy and requires a certain (rather, indefinite) transition period. Separately, heads of universities emphasized the need to maintain mutual recognition of educational qualification systems of the Russian Federation and the EAEU, BRICS, SCO and other regions of the world, as well as respect for the rights of university graduates accepted to study under existing educational programs.
Earlier, the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Valery Falkov said that Russia will move away from the Bologna system of training in universities and will form its own, unique, training procedure.
It must be assumed that universities that have maintained a specialist training program, bypassing the intermediate stage of undergraduate studies, will be able to quickly get rid of the birthmarks of the Bologna system.
This mainly concerns the training program for engineers and researchers. Other areas will have to be brought up to the standards dictated by our difficult times.
The most difficult situation is with the training of teachers to restore the level of Soviet-style higher education. Over the past 30 years, there are not many people left who have preserved the traditions of the USSR university school. In the personnel chain of scientific, technical and teaching specialists, an irreparable gap has long been formed, associated with the “holy nineties” and their long-term consequences: in the personnel system there are vanishingly few people of the most productive age of a scientist - 50-60 years. The majority were either forced to “retrain as building managers” or left for other countries – not even for the sake of earning money, but for the sake of doing science.
It is interesting that in support of the Bologna system, as if on cue, representatives of the fifth column came out and began to itch, whine and threaten troubles for the country and society in the very near future if the “advanced Western-style system” was taken out of the Russian higher education curriculum.
One of these “prophetic cassanders” was the well-known foreign agent and head of the odious mouthpiece “Echo of Moscow” Alexey Venediktov, also known by his agent name “Venik”.
So, “Venik” came out literally the next day after Patrushev’s statement, making him reasonably suspected of carrying out orders from a foreign customer.
A platform for the bearded figure’s whining was organized on one of the opposition YouTube channels, and the whining itself lasted for an hour, during which “Venik” discussed with the presenters the acutely exciting topics of “people with good faces”: the preservation of the Bologna system and the “passport of a good Russian,” allowing their owners to freely purchase goodies in European and American warehouses, and at the same time reliably protect themselves from spitting and insults.
“The passport of a good Russian” will be discussed some other time, but “Venik” spoke quite predictably about the Bologna system, referring to the words of the press secretary of the Russian President Peskov.
According to expert opinion, “Venika”, the Bologna system in Russia cannot be abolished, because “there is simply nothing to replace it with,” and in general, “the Bologna system has no shortcomings.”
The citizen foreign agent diligently pulled the holey rubber band onto the globe, convincing the listeners that in this case the leadership of the Russian Federation was acting on the principle of “to spite my mother’s ears, I’ll freeze my ears off,” explaining the long-overdue reforms of higher education as a “political step” caused by the conflict with the West.
Considering that the influence of “Venik” on the minds of Russian society is negligible and is limited exclusively to the circle of “light-faced”, it is useless to discuss and refute his ordered speeches - it’s like arguing with a radio station. The uncle is working off compote, and, perhaps, is preparing to leave a low start for a “safe haven” in order to meet old age with dignity in places with the greatest concentration of Urgants, Makarevichs and other combers. Who knows them, foreign agents?
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