Post-graduate levels

Http://www.euroeducation.net/prof/russco.htm

Russian educational system

General information

Literacy:

Age 15 and over can read and write:

• total population: 98%
• male: 100%
• female: 97% (1989 est.)

Soviet Russia's educational system has produced nearly 100% literacy. About three million students attend Russia's 519 institutions of higher education and 48 universities. As a result of great emphasis on science and technology in education, Russian medical, mathematical, scientific, and space and aviation research is generally of a high order.

Nowadays, the country has 685 governmental higher education institutions, all of these having state accreditation. Besides, 619 non-governmental higher education institutions have been licensed for educational activities, 367 of these having been given accreditation in the past decade. Thus, the number of higher education institutions is 1,304 (1,162 of which are accredited). In 2003–2004, the total number of students of higher education institutions was 5,947,500, including 5,228,700 and 718,800 in governmental and non-governmental education institutions respectively. (Bologna Process International Reports: Russia)

Russian educational system

The Russian educational system may be arranged into three major groups: secondary education, higher education and postgraduate education.

Secondary school

Secondary education in Russia takes either ten (skipping the 4th form) or eleven years to complete, depending on the school. After graduation from the 9th grade, which is compulsory for all Russian citizens, a pupil obtains a Certificate of Incomplete Secondary Education. After that a pupil has to choose one of the following ways to complete his secondary education: to continue education for two more years at the secondary school or to pursue an associate degree at a Community College. The latter variant usually takes three to four years to complete but provides a pupil with educational qualification that is sufficient for most blue-collar jobs.

University

After obtaining a Certificate of Complete Secondary Education a student can enter a University or a Community College. At a Community College students with complete secondary education can obtain an Associate Degree in one or two years. A student can choose a program of higher education with a duration of four to six years. There are three different degrees that are conferred by Russian universities: Bachelor's Degree (4 years), Specialist's Degree (5–6 years), and Master's Degree (6 years). Bachelor's and Master's degrees were introduced relatively recently; they did not exist during the Soviet period. Even now they are not offered by many six-year institutions.

Post-graduate levels

After obtaining a Specialist's or Master's Degree, a student may enter a university or a scientific institute to pursue postgraduate education. The first level of postgraduate education is aspirantura (аспирантура) that usually results in the Kandidat Nauk degree (кандидат наук, Candidate of Sciences). The seeker should pass three exams (in his/her special field, in a foreign language of his/her choice, and in history and philosophy of science), publish at least three scientific articles, write a dissertation and defend it. This degree is roughly equivalent to the Ph.D. in the United States.

After graduation a student may continue postgraduate education. Few (2 to 4) years of study in doctorantura (докторантура) with obtaining important scientific results, publishing them and writing new thesis would result in the Doctor Nauk degree (доктор наук, Doctor of Sciences), but the typical way is working in a university or scientific institute with parallel preparation of a thesis. The average time between obtaining Kandidat and Doctor degrees is roughly 10 years, and most of new Doctors are 40 and more years old. Only 1 of 4 Kandidats reaches this grade.

Kandidat Nauk may keep position of Assistant Professor (Docent) in universities and of Researcher or Senior Researcher in a scientific institutes. Doctor Nauk can hold position of full Professor, Head of Laboratory or equal and higher ones.

Granting of advanced degrees is overseen by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1011