Necessity of modernizing the Russian Higher Education System

Reforming and modernization of higher education in agreement with Bologna Process is an important problem of educational system of Russian Federation. The actual situation is that according to the contemporary legislation, federal law № 232 from October 24, 2007 higher educational institutions of Russian Federation have to introduce the two-level Bachelor-Master educational system of training since September 1, 2010. Directions of preparation and specialization of bachelors and masters have been determined, state standards for development of educational programs.

New standards and curricula suggest that the essential part of curricula and educational materials will be developed by universities. These developments should be carried out paying attention to the experiences of universities, scientific schools and demands of regional business. Thus, in the forthcoming years universities of Russia face an important task of reforming of a large number of educational programs.

Development of new educational programs should be based on the achievements of the world science and engineering. This work will not be successful for Russian higher education institutions without multilateral partnership with the same in EU. The aim of such partnership is the establishment of European area network of higher education in Russia in order to improve the quality of education, to create more jobs and growth for graduates of universities.

Necessity of focusing on ecological and environmental issues in higher education of the Russian Federation in general and in the Volgo-Caspian Region in particular:

One of the most important directions in higher education reform is ecologists training. Problems of the environment pollution as well as the removal of wastes may be solved only by integration of energies of all industrial countries.

There is a growing recognition of the importance of the Environmental Management issues in Russian companies and organizations and at the same time understanding that their business improvements cannot be achieved without properly educated “Environmental professionals”.

Ecological education in Russia has undergone the same metamorphosis as ecology science which has gradually turned from the modest unit of biology to a mega-science which requires a multidisciplinary approach. The main objective of modern ecological education in higher school is to teach students to formulate environmental problems and to find ways of their decision. In order to achieve this it is necessary to proceed from simple transfer of knowledge and skills to teaching the strategy of living and action in quickly changing conditions of environment. For this purpose it is supposed to enter a lot of nonconventional themes into educational process, to strengthen interdisciplinary training, to learn to put and solve complex ecological and social problems.

New bachelor’s program of the description “Preservation of the environment and rational use of natural resources” corresponds to these requirements. It has been developed according to the teaching direction “Energy and resources conservation processes in chemical technology, petrochemisry and biotechnology”.

The area of professional work of bachelors on this direction includes creation, introduction and operation of energy and recourses conserving, ecologically safe technologies in chemical, petrochemical and biotechnological industries, development of methods of manipulation with industrial both household waste products and secondary raw material resources. The bachelor’s program of the named description have been introduced into the teaching process of many Russian technical universities. On the contrary training of the high level specialists Masters is just on the initial stage of curricula development.

As for master programs, according to Russian state educational standard they should be formed in view of requirements of concrete region, taking into account needs of the industry in experts of the given direction.

That is, more independence is given to high schools at drawing up of the curriculum, only 30 % of time is reserved for obligatory general scientific and professional disciplines studying. Nowadays master programs on the teaching direction “Energy and resources conservation processes in chemical technology, petrochemisry and biotechnology”are not developed yet.

Statistics for 2002:
1041 institutions of higher education in Russia;
610 institutions are state;
280 out of 431 private institutions hold state accreditation and licences;
44 % of state institutions' freshmen pay for their education.

Ministry Affiliation of Russian Institutions:
The majority of state institutes of higher education are regulated by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. Some of them are regulated by other state Ministries, such as the Ministry of Health Care, the Ministry of Railway Transportation, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of International Affairs and others. It is rather difficult to understand the principles of this Ministry subordination (subjection, submission). Institutes of higher education of aviation are regulated by the state, of railway and water transport - by the corresponding Ministries; legal academies are divided between the state and the Ministry of Internal Affairs; the largest medical institutes and medical departments of universities are regulated by the state, smaller - by the Ministry of Health Care.
Non-state educational institutes can be established institutionally and legally in the forms stipulated by the Russian Federation Laws for non-profit organizations. The majority of them teach humanities, economics, and law - the disciplines that do not require expensive high-tech equipped facilities and big capital investments. Students at non-state schools need to pay for their education during the whole period of study.

Types of Institutions:
There are three kinds of higher education institutions in Russia: universities, academies, and institutes. All of them realize programs of undergraduate and graduate professional education.

"University" covers a wide range of fields of study, for example, technical university or classical university.

"Academy" differs from universities by a narrower spectrum of specialties connected with a particular industry, for example, Academy of Railway Transport, Agriculture Academy, or Academy of Economics.

The status of an "Institute" requires teaching of at least one discipline.

Universities also conduct fundamental and applied researches in a wide spectrum of sciences, while the academies and institutes run their scientific activities in one field of Science or Art. To hold a status of a university or an academy it is obligatory to be a leading scientific and methodological center in the field of your specialization. Institutes mainly offer the professional training. Institute also can be established as a department of a university or an academy with the aim to conduct autonomic educational or scientific activities. For example, Institute of Social Rehabilitation of the Novosibirsk State Technical University or Institute of International Affairs and Law of the Novosibirsk State Academy of Economics and Management.

According to the Russian Federation Laws, there are no preferences or limitations (discrimination of) for the graduates from accredited institutes, academies and universities.

Before 1990 only classical universities had the status of "universities". There were not so many of them, only in the big regional centers, for example, Novosibirsk State University, Moscow State University, St.Petersburg State University. All other institutes of higher education hold the status of "institutes" (do not mix with Research institutes whose business is not in teaching, but in conducting Research).

With the reforms of 1990s institutes of higher education got the right to reorganize their main activities and this led to mass raising the statuses from "institutes" to "academies" and "universities". This tendency changed the structure of the state system of education. According to the statistics for the period of 1991-1996 the number of universities increased 6 times and academies - in more than 30 times. In order to raise the status from institutes to universities and academies many institutes open new departments: economics, law, business administration, management. Unfortunately, very often this does not mean that these disciplines are taught on a high professional level. Need to be mentioned that non-state schools usually have status of institutes. There are only 6 non-state universities and 4 non-state academies in Russia now.

Universities also conduct fundamental and applied researches in a wide spectrum of sciences, while the academies and institutes run their scientific activities in one field of Science or Art. To hold a status of a university or an academy it is obligatory to be a leading scientific and methodological center in the field of your specialization. Institutes mainly offer the professional training. Institute also can be established as a department of a university or an academy with the aim to conduct autonomic educational or scientific activities. For example, Institute of Social Rehabilitation of the Novosibirsk State Technical University or Institute of International Affairs and Law of the Novosibirsk State Academy of Economics and Management.

Accreditation
Besides the division into universities, academies and institutes, state licensing and accreditation are the most important characteristics of any institute of higher education. State license gives institution the permission to offer educational services. That means that an institution has enough well-equipped space, which will allow to teach an appropriate number of students; that it has in its staff well educated and trained lectors and teachers. Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation issues this document. Every branch of the institute of higher education needs to get state license separately from the head institution. There are two types of accreditations in Russia: state accreditation and community accreditation.

State accreditation means correspondence between the quality of education on accredited programs and state educational standards. Accreditation also gives the right to issue state-standard diplomas. Constant state control of the quality of educational services is legally guaranteed only for accredited schools. Institutes of higher education can be accredited for the period, which not exceeds 5 years. Accreditation certificate is not eligible without its attachment, where accredited programs of all levels (bakalavr, specialist and magistr), stages of education and qualifications of graduates are listed. All branches of institute of higher education should be accredited at the same time as the head institute. The names and addresses of the branches, list of accredited programs are mentioned in the attachment. The word "state" in the name of the institute of higher education guarantees that this institute issues state standard diplomas.

The aim of community accreditation is appreciation of the level of activities of institute of higher education, which corresponds to the criteria and expectations of civic educational, professional, scientific and industrial organizations. Community accreditation does not mean financial or any other obligations from the state.

Oksana Anistratenko, educational adviser, Moscow EIC, IREX,
Natalia Aulchenko, educational adviser, American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, Novosibirsk,
NAFSA 55th Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, May 25-30, 2003.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 487