The Ministry of Education and Science announced a diploma model with several marks

Graduates of universities and colleges will receive more qualifications

What the experts have been talking about for so long has happened. The Ministry of Education and Science presented models of new curricula designed for both universities and colleges. Innovations will allow students to receive two specialties at once, which will be included in the diploma upon graduation. And there will be notes on practices.

Until recently, experts in the field of education were hoarsely arguing that modern education should be flexible. More competencies should be obtained during the study, courses are more diverse. And in general, today the individual trajectory of learning “steers”. Professions of the future, they are all either at the junction of two or more disciplines: a medical manager, a biopharmacologist, a media policeman, an ecoanalyst in the extractive industries, an ecoarchitect… Or, in general, dual professions for which you need to have two equal qualifications. Not counting the IT knowledge that everyone needs today. For example, an online therapist, or even an online preacher…

But even without futuristic predictions, it is clear that overly academic programs of study and diplomas according to the old established models are paving the gap between a university graduate and an employer. According to official data, in 2021, 91% of employers complained about the lack of practical skills among graduates. And more than 40% of Russian students considered the knowledge gained at the university to be divorced from the reality of the labor market.

Irina Abankina, director of the HSE Institute for Education Development, also points to inflexible curricula. “This is a certain hourly plan, strict program limits,” she says. “Checks for compliance with standards take place quite often, and the GEFs themselves are updated extremely slowly.”

“There is no active exchange of information between these markets (education and the labor market), there are no situations when a program that is not listed on the labor market quickly becomes unpopular in the educational environment,” says Nikolai Kulbaka, a representative of the RANEPA Institute of Social Sciences. Other analysts note that students massively lack practice and internships in production, and the notorious integration of industry and businesses into education is not enough in reality.

That is why innovations from the Ministry of Education and Science delight the educational community. Moreover, in addition to two educational qualifications and other marks in the diploma, the “masters of the tower” in the Russian Federation spoke about other “fashionable” training programs. For example, about the “flipped curriculum” model for bachelor’s programs, designed for IT specialists in the field of economics. Initially, they will have an internship, 1-2 year bachelor’s degree, and “mastering some of the fundamental and general disciplines” – in the senior years. Realizing in practice what kind of knowledge is missing, students will be more motivated to master the theory.

– I think it’s a good idea, – says programmer Ivan Berezin. – The demand for the profession of “programmer” is now great, but the competition is high. It is very good that already at the university a person acquires another qualification, receives some certificates. And he will immediately have something to go to the employer. And I like the inverted program. First languages, basics, then complex, research, academic part. Today, far from everywhere they teach not only their narrow understanding of the profession, but also what the media market is, for example. That there are different information technologies, different business strategies and so on. This is important to know for those who will work in a large company. In general, it is probably more correct to teach programmers, already relying on the profile of his future employment. After all, everywhere: in trade, in medicine, in the media or in some kind of production, there is a specificity. It would be good to master at the university not only applied mathematics and programming, which are always on top with us, but also to understand the specialization of the industry in which you will work.