Putin cancels the Bologna system in universities
Significant changes are ripe in the Russian higher education system, taking into account new requirements for specialists in economics and social sectors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this today, addressing the Federal Assembly, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We need a synthesis of all the best that was in the Soviet education system and the experience of recent decades. In this regard, it is proposed to return to the basic training of specialists with higher education, traditional for our country. The duration of study can be from four to six years. At the same time, even within the same specialty and one university, programs can be offered that differ in the duration of preparation, depending on the specific profession, industry and demand on the labor market,” Putin said.
If the profession requires additional training, the young man will be able to continue his education in a master’s program or residency. The transition to the new system should be smooth, the president emphasized.
“Young people, our citizens, should have new opportunities for quality education, employment, and professional growth. I repeat again: opportunities, not problems. And I would like to especially note that those students who are studying now will be able to continue their education according to existing programs. And the level of training and diplomas of higher education of citizens who have already completed training in current bachelor’s, specialist’s or master’s programs are also not subject to revision. They should not lose their rights,” Putin said.
Most commentators regarded this statement by the president as the abolition of the Bologna system, imposed on Russia by the West. Political scientist Sergei Markov called this the main sensation of Putin’s address today, and noted that universities have been waiting for this for a long time.
“The Bologna system is over! At the same time, postgraduate studies as a form of training for scientific workers remain. The question is, who needs this jumble?.. At the same time, not a word about increasing budget places in universities... Or about the size of scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students. Let me remind you that an academic student scholarship now amounts to as much as 1800 rubles..”, State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Nina Ostanina found something to criticize.
HSE professor Dmitry Evstafiev believes that the bachelor’s degree introduced under the Bologna system was “some kind of first stage of some kind of endless education, when a person would be forced to “screw in” additional “modules” for a fee all his life.”
“The Bologna system itself may not be bad. But the fact that on its basis they tried to build an “educational pyramid” that was completely commercialized and did not take into account the needs of the country was clearly harmful for the future. Russia needs young specialists capable of solving problems in the economy as a whole, industry, and science.
There should be nothing incomplete in education. Likewise, there should not be institutions with vaguely defined tasks. Alas, master’s programs have begun to become such an institution in recent years. The task is not to abandon the so-called Bologna system: we have outgrown it, and therefore we perceived attempts to either rename it or remake it with undisguised sarcasm. The task is to ensure that the Russian education system is aimed at ensuring the development of the country, and not always the abstract and impracticable “integration into world civilization” in modern conditions,” Evstafiev wrote in his TG channel.
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