Reading: Higher Education in Russia
Read the text, translate it into Russian and say:
a) what changes are taking place in Russian Higher education system nowadays;
b) whether is the Higher education in Russia generally accessible or not.
Part 2.
In all the industrial countries standards of living are steadily changing; this means that the kind of education, which was good enough some years ago, is not necessarily good for us today. The adoption of the universities to contemporary needs in our rapidly changing world is widely recognized. And it means that styles of teaching, quality of learning materials and organization of the university itself have to be continuously brought up to date and improved.
Nowadays the education system in Russia is similar to the European and American education systems. It has two education levels: undergraduate level (Bachelor’s degree) and postgraduate level (Master’s degree, Doctor’s degree).
At the same time, there are lots of peculiarities in Russian education system; the main of them is having 5-year engineer / specialist programs. It still exists as a transitional period towards the Bologna system of education. Besides that we have such degrees as Kandidat Nauk and Doctor Nauk in Russia.
Thus, at the moment in Russia, there are three levels of Higher Professional Education:
• Bachelor’s Degree (4 years) - for this degree undergraduate students are educated in the education field of their choice without specialization;
• Specialist’s Degree (5 years) - is awarded to a student on successfully presenting a degree project to the State Attestation Commission and allows to begin with a Master’s or Doctor’s program;
• Master's Degree (2 years) – this degree provides the students after the completion of Bachelor’s Degree with specialization in a particular field of education.
The first- and second-year students obtain thorough instructions in the wide range of sciences as mathematics, physics, chemistry, foreign languages, history, economics, drawing, computer engineering and others. The third-year students get more advanced knowledge and begin to concentrate on their special interests, their major subject and take many courses in this subject. After four years students will get a Bachelor's degree. Then the students may go on with their studies and in two years of further study and research get a Master's degree.