Posted 26 мая 2022,, 09:03

Published 26 мая 2022,, 09:03

Modified 24 декабря 2022,, 22:37

Updated 24 декабря 2022,, 22:37

Farewell to Bologna! Russia abandons the international education system

Farewell to Bologna! Russia abandons the international education system

26 мая 2022, 09:03
Фото: Соцсети
Having clearly failed to introduce the Bologna system of higher education in the country, the authorities decided to abolish it.

Ivan Zubov

State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that "as far as he knows," all factions are "for" the exit of the Russian entity from the Bologna system. This means that the rejection of this system of higher education is a settled issue. Earlier, as you know, the head of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Valery Falkov said that the department intends to abandon the Bologna system of higher education.

As you know, the basis of the Bologna system is education standards that are recognized in all member states, as well as the possibility of internships in European universities, since one of the utilitarian tasks of the system is to ensure the employment of European citizens and increase the international competitiveness of the European higher education system. Hence the introduction of a training system based on two cycles. Introduction of credits of the ECTS type (European Credit Transfer System) - the European system for re-crediting credits for the labor intensity of studying disciplines, in order to maintain student mobility. Promoting mobility, both for students and teachers.

Therefore, the decision to abandon this system has at least a political rationale: to stop the “brain drain” from Russia. Analyst Konstantin Sinyushin writes about this in his blog:

“When you are suddenly told in Soviet newspeak that “the Bologna education system is a terrible Western influence on Russian universities,” this is correctly translated into Russian as “the party and the government are trying to prevent the recognition of diplomas abroad and, as a result, the departure of all new bluecard graduates.

Political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov is sure that abruptly withdrawing from the Bologna system is short-sighted:

“In fact, the main task of a two-level system is to learn all your life (to change or expand competencies). The Soviet system, on the contrary, taught a person “for life”, not allowing him to be mobile in the labor market. In addition, in recent years we have seriously invested in this process and now it will be difficult to start again from scratch.

Therefore, the Bologna system fixes three main tasks. Lifelong learning as an actual strategy of European universities. Strengthening the role of students in the implementation of the Bologna reforms. Increasing the attractiveness of European universities (struggle for “minds”, “prestige”, “money”).”

The experts of the Methodical channel, however, looked at this problem even deeper:

“There is only one problem with Russia's withdrawal from the Bologna process – no one understands, but what will it bring in the end?

In ultra-patriotic circles, it is generally accepted that this is how it should be, they say, Soviet education was the best in the world, and the Bologna system was dragged to us by secret liberal enemies who from time to time sneak into the government to worsen the quality of education and kill the remnants of Soviet science.

Indeed, the quality of education is deteriorating, and the remnants of Soviet science are dying off, but, let's be honest, not because there are now masters and bachelors instead of specialists, but because education and science are chronically underfunded. Grassroots teaching staff earns less than food deliveries. In the USSR, a candidate of sciences was a person who was entitled to material benefits that made him a representative of the upper middle class, and now a candidate’s can guarantee only one thing - poverty.

In general, the question is not the Bologna process of learning, but the desire and ability to develop science and higher education.”

In addition, according to experts, it turned out that by no means all the points of the Bologna Agreement have been introduced into the system of higher education in Russia. For example, the Bologna Declaration presupposes “independence and autonomy of universities”, which Russian universities did not and still do not have. In addition, the Bologna Agreement was implemented in Russia without taking into account the specifics and traditions of the domestic education system, and therefore led to the loss of existing achievements. Thirdly, the wrong, violent nature of “Bolognization” in Russia is evident: scientific university research, issues of assistance to young scientists, financing of higher education, and so on and so forth have been left without due attention...

That is, it turned out in Russia as usual: only the external form was introduced and the content was almost completely ignored. But now it is possible with a light heart to “abolish” what, to put it mildly, did not work out...

"