The Ministry of Education and Science supported the idea to avoid studying in the master’s program with a non-core bachelor’s degree

Deputy Head of the Ministry of Education and Science Dmitry Afanasyev called the right idea to get away from the practice of teaching students in the master’s program who had previously completed a bachelor’s degree in another direction. He clarified that for some more universal specialties, it is worth considering exceptions.

According to Mr. Afanasiev, avoiding master’s studies with a non-core bachelor’s degree is one of the possible solutions. He noted that “for different areas there may be other solutions.” “In general, this is probably the right message, but exceptions need to be considered,” the deputy minister told TASS.

This idea was voiced by State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin. On May 29, he announced that it was necessary to get away from the practice of teaching students in the master’s program who had previously completed a bachelor’s degree in another direction. According to him, for such students “universities should not have non-core specialties for them.” He believes that, first of all, “this applies to humanities students entering the master’s program for engineering specialties.”

In June 2022 at the Ministry of Education and Science declaredthat all Russian universities were excluded from the Bologna process. The Russian authorities decided to abandon the Bologna system (which implies the division of the educational process into four years of bachelor’s and two years of master’s degree) and create their own. It was assumed that in the new system of higher education introduce specialist in exact sciences.

Laura Keffer