Higher education in Russia

Higher education includes Universities, Institutes, Drama studios, conservatoires, etc. The duration of studies is four, five or even six years.

In Russia there are three systems used in higher and special secondary education: full-time, part-time, and correspondence (extramural) courses.

There are three types of higher education schools: universities, polytechnical universities and academies.

Universities prepare research workers in humanities: philology, economics, psychology, law, philosophy, literature and history. They also train workers in sciences: chemistry, mathematics, biology, geology, geography, astronomy and so on. Teachers for secondary schools and colleges are also prepared by the universities.

Universities offer a four-year course of study for Bachelor’s degree and two-year course for Master’s degree. The University of Moscow has students of 60 nationalities and from 40 different foreign countries.

There are higher technical schools with ten or more departments, each offering courses in related fields. Among the largest polytechnical universities is the Bauman University of Moscow, established 130 years ago.

Hundreds of institutes train qualified experts for an enormous number of fields; industrial, agricultural and cultural.

The Foreign Language Institutes prepare translators, interpreters, personnel for the foreign service and language teachers.

There are institutes training architects, economists, administrators and executives.

A relatively new form of higher school is the factory technical institute.

Each University or Institute has its own Academic Council made up of professors and assistant professors.

The faculty in higher schools is competitively chosen. A vacancy is publicized and applications are examined by the Academic Council. There are two degrees: Candidate and Doctorate. Those who wish to undertake postgraduate work pass special examinations and present written work in their own field. The usual term for graduates study is three years - full time students receive state stipends larger than undergraduates and two month vacation.

Notes:

to be competitively chosen – избираться на конкурсной основе

Compare the systems of higher education in Russia and in Great Britain, find the differences, pay attention to the following:

· the courses at universities are not regarded as vocational;

· British universities have always been planned and set up at the local level;

· there are no state universities in Britain;

· the universities grant their own degree;

· at the end of a first degree course the successful students are awarded Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science;

· colleges of advanced technology are technological universities;

· sandwich courses include periods of full-time employment and full-time education;