Features of the application of the Bologna education system. Bologna process and Russian education

With the aim of creating European higher education, in 2003 the Bologna process, unknown to anyone at that time, appeared in Russia, which, despite general criticism, today enjoys noticeable popularity. Its birth dates back to 1999, and it happened in one of the Italian cities - Bologna. Hence the corresponding name, which was approved and approved by 29 ministers of education of various European powers.

Main objectives of the Bologna process

The emergence of a new system of teaching and assessment immediately attracted the interest of modern teachers in Russia, although at first it was difficult to get used to such innovations. The main thing is to understand why the Bologna process is necessary, and then there will be much less discussion on this topic.

Its main tasks are the following provisions:

1. Expand the boundaries of higher education;

2. Increase the mobility of teachers and students;

3. Attract European traditions for further international cooperation;

4. To guarantee successful employment abroad for university graduates;

5. Modernize traditional higher education.

In simple terms, the Russian Ministry of Education received additional funding from Europe in exchange for new training standards that are attractive on the global labor market.

The main prospects and advantages of the Bologna process

The fact that the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation was switching to the Bologna process became officially known back in 2006, and this resolution was announced by the Minister of Education and Science of Russia A.A. Fursenko. The reaction was mixed, but the scientist’s arguments sounded very encouraging and promised a bright future for the development of science and education.

Firstly, Europe opened up for students, where domestic students could now also receive higher education. Students of Russian universities can complete several semesters at a Russian university, and then continue their studies at one of the European universities without any problems.

Secondly, at the same time all Russian educational programs were revised, and from now on correspond European standards, thereby improving the quality of education and, accordingly, the qualifications of university graduates.

Thirdly, the achieved European balance allows domestic students to get jobs in international companies, increasing not only your standard of living, but also your qualifications.

And lastly: a single European higher education area ensures effective competition between European and American universities, which means that the demand for domestic specialists will rapidly increase, several times over.

What you need to know about the Bologna process?

According to the provisions of the Bologna Process, specialists are no longer produced, and the European Labor Exchange receives highly qualified masters and bachelors.

Of course, today the implementation of all the tasks of this international program is problematic, since it is very difficult to find a “golden mean” between the generally accepted educational system and the innovative one. But it is still real, and the last few years are clear proof of this.

The Bologna process provides for a two-level education system, however, domestic scientists and educators openly declare that balance will be achieved only if the proposed education system is three-level and is able to harmonize centuries-old domestic traditions and European aspirations for the unity of education.

Probably the main prospect of such an innovation was unified savings system of loans, which has long been practiced in European countries.

If a student needs to move to another state, he can easily transfer to a foreign university without losing years of study, credits and exams. He simply continues his studies in another country from the point at which it was interrupted.

Such mobility among university students cannot but rejoice, especially since it has already been proven in practice that it really works.

So, we have already mentioned the two-level education system, and it is precisely the structure of the Bologna process that is worth talking about in more detail. It is characterized by the following characteristics:

1. The Bologna process provides two-level education system, where the first level covers 3–4 years of study, and upon completion awards the student a bachelor’s degree.

The second level is not mandatory, but is considered prestigious and very promising. Training in this case covers 1–2 years, and upon graduation a master’s degree is guaranteed.

For comparison: in Germany, the annual salary of a bachelor's degree is up to $20,000, and a master's salary is from $20,000. So there is something to think about.

2. Grading system – point, that is, the student, with his knowledge and active participation in student life, earns credits that determine his future.

One credit is equal to 25 study hours, which the student spends not only on passing the session, but also on lectures, practical classes and independent study of a particular subject.

Student participation in conferences, seminars, research and competitions is also accompanied by additional credits.

3. Diploma on higher education is established uniform sample, which significantly simplifies the further employment of foreign graduates in European companies. This is done in order to equalize the chances of all applicants for a promising position.

What does the Bologna process give to students and the education system?

Despite all the criticism with which the Bologna process was adopted in Russia, its significant advantages cannot be underestimated.

They can be judged based on the objectives that have already been achieved in practice:

The image of higher education has been enhanced;

Students will have a unique opportunity to independently choose disciplines;

The social and scientific potential of the European powers has been strengthened;

Well-established quality control of education was carried out;

The competitiveness of European universities has been ensured.

So the introduction of the Bologna process did not leave its mark on domestic education, and even, on the contrary, expanded the opportunities for Russian students. Now every graduate can achieve their main life goals at the global level.

Disadvantages of the Bologna process?

Like any other innovation, the Bologna process has its shortcomings and shortcomings, which should also be mentioned.

Firstly, a bachelor’s degree for many developed countries is not a qualified specialist with completed education. Such graduates are less likely to be hired, and working conditions and wages leave much to be desired. There is a stereotype that a bachelor’s degree is an incomplete higher education, that is, a student is a dropout.

Secondly, the well-established Soviet model of education was disrupted and undermined by the emergence of a two-tier education system envisaged by the Bologna Process. This, one might say, historical event had a negative impact on the mentality of the entire power.

Thirdly, since the master's degree is in any case paid, many students, due to insufficient financial resources, have to complete their higher education with the status of bachelor, which is not so prestigious.

Accordingly, the state’s maneuver to reduce budget funding for the education system is felt.

Fourthly, obtaining international diplomas will ensure a “brain drain” to the West, as a result of which Russia will become poor in qualified specialists. Many industries will suffer from this, in particular the development of science.

And lastly: it is worth recalling that in Spain many students and teachers are preventing the introduction of the Bologna system and even organizing numerous mountain rallies. In fact, one can argue about this for a long time, but the Bologna process still contains that “grain of truth” that will make it possible to unite the world education system and develop uniform standards for the cultivation of certified specialists, or rather, masters and bachelors.

Basic provisions of the Bologna process

1. The competitiveness of the European higher education system is enhanced through uniform standards of diplomas and successful employment in international companies.

2. Two levels of education - bachelor (3 - 4 years of study) and master (1 - 2 years of study).

3. The basis of the Bologna process is considered to be a unified cumulative ECTS system, which operates within the framework of the “lifelong learning” program.

4. Reducing unemployment and the possibility of increasing the intellectual potential of Europe.

5. Definition of international standards for transnational education.

6. Development of new concepts for the mobility of international students.

If these points are achieved by the Ministry of Education and strictly observed, then a Russian student will be able not only to undergo an internship in foreign companies in his specialty, but also count on further employment and bright career prospects.

To date, 47 countries have joined the Bologna process, and observing such positive growth dynamics, it becomes obvious that this is not the limit. Montenegro was the last to join in 2007, but perhaps the Bologna process will soon break into the education system of other powers.

Conclusion: The Bologna process is another step towards Europe, which Russia took back in 2006. At first there were difficulties and contradictions (which even today cannot always be avoided), but today many modern students have already experienced all the delights of such an accession and have noticeably improved their working and living conditions.

Now you know about what is the Bologna system.

There has been a lot of debate and talk about the Bologna education system lately: some encourage innovations associated with its implementation and see a decent number of advantages from its influence on students, while others, on the contrary, are very skeptical.

But there are those, and, I must say, quite a few, who do not even know what it is, why it is needed and whether it is worth thinking about this strange process at all. Of course, first of all, these issues affect future students - when they go to universities to seek new professional knowledge, they often do not know at all what and how it works there. Let's figure it out.

With the advent of the new millennium, a new concept, at that time still unknown to anyone, burst into the world of education - the Bologna system, which was supposed to greatly modernize and, in some places, radically change the system of higher education in Europe, as well as in some countries of the post-Soviet space .

The official start date of all reforms is considered to be 1999, when 29 participating countries signed the Bologna Declaration. Since then, 19 more countries have joined the process, including Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which was the last to sign the agreement in 2015.

Since then, higher education in the participating countries has been brought to common standards, which has made it possible to transform it into a common European space.

Why was this necessary?

The question immediately arises: what prompted the entire European community to so actively modernize and unify the existing system of higher education? After all, as was believed for a long time, the Russian and European systems were considered one of the strongest in this regard, what has changed? And the reasons are:

• The whole world is subject to progress, development, globalization and the expansion of cultural and economic ties; it would be strange if higher education remained unchanged. As a result, it has also been included in the processes of globalization.
• Over time, the European system began to be much inferior to the American one, and in order not to lose its position and potential students (which is fraught with the drain of valuable personnel), a decision was made to transform it.

What is it?

What are the features of the Bologna education system, what is it and how does it affect the educational process? In general terms, it looks something like this: according to it, the entire educational process is divided into two main cycles of education.

The first cycle is preliminary, which can last 3-4 years and ends with a bachelor's degree and diploma. This level is already considered a completed higher education and a person who has received documents confirming a bachelor’s degree already has the right to get a job as a full-fledged specialist.

The second cycle is another year or two of study, which ends with obtaining a master's degree, which, to a greater extent, involves continued study, as well as the development of one's own scientific activity. As you can see, the duration of study in different countries and even universities in the same country can vary significantly, which is explained by the incomplete unification of the European education system.

Also, some prestigious universities have retained certain kinds of traditions, which imply certain differences in educational systems.

The next point of the Bologna system is a special assessment system called the credit system or ECTS. Here, under the credit, a special unit of measurement is raised, which characterizes the amount of academic work performed by the student in various forms: independent study, practice, lectures, and so on.

During the semester, a student must receive a certain number of credits, which characterizes the amount of material he has completed. If credits are a quantitative assessment, then there is also a qualitative assessment, which helps determine the student’s level of knowledge. It is divided according to the principle of a 7-point scale.

All of these generally accepted assessment systems allow a student studying at a university participating in the Bologna process to begin his education at one university and continue at another.

Advantages and disadvantages

The issues of the Bologna education system have many sides; its advantages and disadvantages are actively discussed by the population of various countries, including Russia, whose opinions differ sharply. Let's try to figure it out.

So, the pros

• From a global perspective, the Bologna process contributes to strengthening the economic, cultural and political ties of European countries.
• Two cycles of education allow the student to make a choice: go to work earlier or continue their professional training at a university. In addition, the credit system is a real chance to start education in one country and continue abroad, where, for example, you can significantly improve the professional skills of your chosen specialty. In addition, this opens up prospects for finding work in different countries.
• Formation of a competitive market of trained specialists.

Disadvantages of the system

• The system is largely focused on developed European countries, and differences in the economic development of different countries in the process are simply not taken into account. The mobility of students who study under this system is very attractive for the best personnel: naturally, students with the highest grades tend to move to the most developed countries with the highest wages, while less prosperous areas remain without “bright minds.”
• It is believed that diplomas received at universities operating under the Bologna system are equalized: you can get a diploma, for example, in Ukraine, and go to work in Europe. But in practice, for some reason, things are different. For example, diplomas obtained on the territory of the Russian Federation, most often, are not valued in Europe, just like vice versa, which creates considerable difficulties for young specialists.
• Reducing the duration of study to 4 years has a strong impact on the quality of graduates’ training.

Bologna refers to the unified educational space of leading European countries, formed since 1998 on the initiative of the ministers of education of Germany, Italy, France and England. The initiative was supported by officials of other states, and in 1999, the feasibility of creating a unified system of European higher education was recognized by 29 states that signed the Bologna Declaration. Other countries are gradually joining the agreement on the unification of the educational process, since access is open to everyone. Today the Bologna process has already united 48 countries, but the incorporation of new participants continues.

Thanks to a unified educational space, national programs have the opportunity to take the best and most progressive experience accumulated by partners, and higher education has acquired:

• student mobility;
• professorial, teaching and bureaucratic-managerial agility;
• coordination of the functioning of European universities.

All this contributes to making Europe more attractive in the global education market.

What Bologna is and what its essence is can be found out by finding out the goals and reasons for changes in the work of European universities.

The purpose of the Bologna educational process:

• Construction of a European educational zone as the main direction for the continuous development of civil mobility with a real opportunity for further employment after graduation.
• Improving and stabilizing intellectual, scientific, social and cultural potential.
• Raising the prestige of the European university system.
• Ensuring the competitiveness of European universities and institutions in the global competition for influence, money and students.
• Achieving compatibility and universality of national HE systems.
• Improving the quality of education.
• Increasing the role of higher education institutions in the development of common cultural values, giving universities the status of bearers of continental consciousness.

The need to build a common European educational space is dictated by:

• the urgent need to reformat European education to organize a counterbalance to educational schools in the USA, Canada, Australia, and Southeast Asian countries, which attract a significant flow of students from Eastern Europe and third world countries;
• globalization of the economy, which requires changing fundamental approaches to the training of highly qualified specialists.

The Bologna education system became necessary for the following reasons:

• The influence of its informational, intellectual, and creative components on the effectiveness of professional work is increasing.
• Flexible short-term production projects are coming to the fore, which temporary groups and teams implement more fruitfully than permanent staff.
• The concept of gradual career growth is disappearing: there are fewer and fewer specialists who stay at one enterprise.
• Personalization of professional tasks replaces the uniformity of conditions and the interchangeability of employees.
• The workforce is becoming unstandardized.
• Traditional forms of labor are losing their identity.
• The isolation of professional castes is being destroyed, which leads to the formation of floating parameters of specialties.
• Vocational education aimed at acquiring one qualification is becoming a thing of the past.

A gradual fundamental change in approaches to assessing the professionalism of an employee has led to the need to introduce education according to the Bologna system, designed to redirect the emphasis from the forms and content of the educational process to its results.

Russian Federation in the Bologna education system

The introduction of the Bologna education system in Russia became possible thanks to the country's accession to the international educational movement in 2003. On At the summit of education ministers in Berlin, Russia promised its European colleagues to direct efforts to reform post-Soviet education in universities with the aim of joining the Bologna process.

The renewal of “higher” pedagogy included the development of new plans and methods of education compatible with those adopted in other countries. To implement these ideas, a radical transformation of institute and university structures, documentary and regulatory frameworks, as well as teaching activities was necessary.

A year after the Minister of Education of the Russian Federation signed the Bologna Declaration, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a document on priority vectors for the development of higher education in the country, which declared the need to implement the main provisions of the Bologna process. The transition to pan-European standards required:

• compiling a list of teaching programs;
• creation of a national qualifications framework;
• bringing programs and plans into compliance with the standards of European universities;
• legislative implementation of a two-level system (the first stage is a bachelor's degree, the second is a master's degree);
• construction of training programs on a credit-module principle.

And the work began to boil. In the course of writing and approving federal state programs for the standardized training of high-quality bachelors and masters, the requirements for the design and structure of educational plans were determined, the conditions for their implementation were developed, and the results of mastery were provided for.

An innovation in Russian educational programs created on the basis of the Bologna ones is the focus on learning outcomes, expressed in the form of competencies, and the accounting of labor costs in credit scores. In accordance with the Bologna education system in Russia, large employers began to be involved in the training of future personnel.

How the Bologna process works in Russia

The greatest innovation resulting from the application of the Bologna educational system in Russia was the introduction of a “framework” standard for the educational process. IN In the USSR, standard programs in disciplines were the same for all institutions in the country; there were practically no differences in university educational plans.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some changes did occur in the Russian educational system, but not as dramatic as in the former Soviet republics. A mandatory minimum was introduced in the Russian Federation, containing a strict list of disciplines and reporting methods, which universities were strictly prohibited from violating. The standards controlled the volume and content of all items. A certain amount of independence in educational programs gradually increased, mainly at the expense of regional higher education institutions.

The new set of standards provides for the systematic expansion of university freedom. Now the Federal State Educational Standard establishes only half of the compulsory disciplines in bachelor's training programs, and up to 30% of subjects in master's training plans, which is consistent with the guidelines of the Bologna education system. Filling out the variable part of the curriculum is the prerogative of the university. To guide teachers, manuals are published with examples of basic educational programs in specific subjects and areas.

The Bologna process or Bologna education system was organized on July 19, 1999. On this day, a special declaration was signed, which was approved by 29 European countries, and it began to be called the “Bologna Declaration”. It affirms the special importance for Europe of educational cooperation and education in strengthening and developing democratic, peaceful and sustainable societies.

The Russian Federation was included in the list of countries supporting the Bologna process in 2003

The main principles declared by the Bologna education system

2-level system of higher education (master, bachelor);

Diplomas that are recognized in all countries.

History of the Bologna process

Traditionally, all European educational institutions had four faculties:

• Preparatory (Faculty of Liberal Arts);
• legal;
• medical;
• theological.

• music;
• geometry;
• rhetoric;
• astronomy;
• arithmetic;
• grammar.

According to historical information, the oldest educational institution in Western Europe is the University of Bologna, which was opened in 1088

The oldest European universities

Parisian (Sorbonne);

Oxford - founded in 1096;

Salamanca was founded in 1218;

Cambridge founded in 1209;

Bolognese.

Cambridge and Oxford were examples of an excellent combination of humanities and technical disciplines, the Italian university located in Salerna was famous for the successful training of medical personnel

About the Bologna education system video analytics

The Bologna process is a movement aimed at harmonizing the education systems of European countries. It was launched in the city of Bologna (Italy) on June 19, 1999, when 29 ministers of education from different European countries signed the Bologna Declaration. Official site:

The goal of the Bologna Process is to create a single scientific and educational space in Europe (EHEA, or European Higher Education Area) by 2010. This means that the countries participating in the process will have the same rules for the recognition of diplomas, conditions for employment of people, mobility of students and teachers will become possible, cooperation and exchange of experience between universities in different countries will be strengthened.

One of the main demands of the Bologna Declaration is the establishment of a common system of academic degrees. In countries that have joined the Bologna process, three-cycle training should be introduced. The first cycle, lasting at least three years, ends with a first academic degree and gives access to a second cycle, which can result in a master's degree, and after that a third, leading to a doctorate.

So, the Bologna process sets itself the following tasks:
increase the prestige of European higher education
create a single zone of higher education, which will ensure mobility of residents of different countries with employment opportunities
strengthen the scientific, technical, social and intellectual potential of Europe
achieve compatibility of higher education systems
provide students with the right to choose disciplines to study
improve the quality of education in participating countries
ensure the competitiveness of European universities
control the quality of education

In order to become a participant in this movement, a country representative must sign a corresponding declaration. Countries are accepted into the Bologna process only on a voluntary basis. By signing the declaration, countries undertake a number of obligations. For example, universities should begin issuing free uniform European supplements for bachelor's and master's degrees to graduates. Until 2010, participating countries are obliged to reform their educational systems in accordance with the requirements of the Bologna Process.

Participating countries and the years of their entry into the Bologna process:

1999: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, UK, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland

2001: Croatia, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Türkiye

2003: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vatican City, Russia, Serbia, Macedonia

2005: Arenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

2007: Montenegro

The six main provisions of the Bologna Declaration are:
The adoption of a system of comparable degrees, including through the issuance of the Diploma Supplement, will provide employability for Europeans and increase the international competitiveness of the European higher education system.
Introduction of two-cycle training: undergraduate and postgraduate. The first cycle lasts at least three years. The second should lead to a master's degree or doctoral degree.
Introduction of a European system for transferring work-intensive credit units to support student mobility (credit system). It also ensures that the student has the right to choose the disciplines he studies. It is proposed to take ECTS as a basis, making it a cumulative system capable of working within the framework of the concept of “lifelong learning”.
Significant development of student mobility (based on the implementation of the two previous points). Expanding the mobility of teaching and other staff by crediting the time spent working in the European region. Setting standards for transnational education.
Promote European cooperation in quality assurance and the development of comparable criteria and methodologies.
Promoting the necessary European outlook in higher education, especially in the areas of curriculum development, inter-institutional cooperation, mobility schemes and joint study programmes, practical training and research.

Criticism of the Bologna Process

In post-Soviet states
In post-Soviet countries, bachelors to this day are often not perceived as people with completed higher education.
There is concern that the introduction of a two-tier system will destroy the traditional Soviet model, which many believe has worked well.
The adherence to the Bologna process can be seen as a hidden way to reduce budget funding for higher education, since master's degrees are often paid.
If diplomas from graduates of post-Soviet states begin to be recognized in the West, there will be a great risk of brain drain, which will lead to the decline of domestic science and education.
Officials are not fully informed both about the current state of affairs in domestic and European education, and about the goals of the Bologna process.

In the world
Professor of sociology at the University of Ljubljana Rastko Mocnik believes that the Bologna process will lead to a decrease in the quality of education and will also create barriers to higher education for the majority of the population of countries taking part in the neoliberal reform of their social systems.
At the University of St. Gallen, which was the first to switch to the new system, most professors and associate professors do not hide the fact that the reform had a negative impact on the educational process. The standardization of studies and the introduction of the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credit system hit the humanities departments the most noticeably.
In some European countries (for example, in Serbia), teachers, students and schoolchildren are protesting this education reform.
In Spain, the majority opposes the introduction of the Bologna system.

Additional materials:
parta.com.ua – “Bologna process in Ukraine”
vedomosti.ru – “Bologna Process: Catastrophe or Panacea”
almamater.com.ua – “Bologna process of Ukrainian”
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In connection with the reform of higher education today, the so-called Bologna system is increasingly mentioned. What kind of system is this? What is its main concept? And how is it implemented? These are the main questions we will try to answer.

The emergence of the Bologna education system dates back to 1999, when in the Italian city of Bologna 29 ministers of education of European countries signed an agreement on the introduction of a unified educational system within the European Union. To date, 47 countries have introduced this system. On the transition to the Bologna system, the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation A.A. Fursenko stated back in 2006. By the way, you can see what courses and education are available on the Internet, and also sign up for them on the website artox-media.ru.

In his opinion, the Bologna system will allow Russian students to receive high-quality education not only in their homeland, but also in foreign universities. For example, a Russian student, having studied at his institute or university before the winter holidays, will continue his studies at some European university from the second semester. However, this does not take into account the fact that our educational programs are far from corresponding to all-European ones. Therefore, it is necessary to bring them into balance.

The very concept of the Bologna system involves graduating bachelors and masters instead of ordinary specialists. The main goals of the system were determined: the creation of a single European zone of higher education, the development of the cultural potential of Europe, and ensuring competition between European and American higher education institutions.

In addition, it is planned to introduce the so-called unified cumulative credit system into European universities. That is, if a student moves from one country to another, and at the same time changes place, the years spent and the tests taken are credited to this educational institution. Thus, the developers of the concept of the Bologna system intended to create conditions for accelerating mobility among students and improve the quality of all European higher education.

Today this system is difficult to implement, especially in our country. It turned out that it is not so easy to find common ground between national educational programs and the standards implemented under the Bologna system. However, according to its supporters, a balance can be found. To do this, it is necessary to create a three-level higher education.

State universities will work according to their own programs. Institutes and universities that switched to the Bologna system. And finally, universities that will teach using a mixed program. In this case, applicants have a choice: whether to study according to the old program or choose the Bologna system.
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Education reform is now being actively discussed in the press and on television, where politicians and scientists argue about the advisability of its introduction. But the most lively discussion on this topic takes place on the Internet, in thousands of forums, where opinions about the Bologna system are expressed by those who will be directly affected by it - students and university teachers. Just enter these two words into a search engine, and you will be able to see hundreds of abusive posts about this experiment of our government and several dozen statements by those who support this innovation.

Most “little Ukrainians” agree that the Bologna system is not written about our country, that its implementation here is impossible for dozens of reasons, ranging from an outdated material and technical base to the mentality of the nation. Many call the education reform premature, suggesting that first we experiment at several universities in Ukraine and see what happens.

Meanwhile, an education system that is as similar as possible to the one proposed by the Bologna Convention has been operating for the fourteenth year in one of the most popular Ukrainian universities - the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. And, I must say, it works very successfully.

From the author’s point of view, most of the abusive articles, reports and posts are written about the Bologna system due to the fact that the majority of Ukrainian citizens simply have no idea what it will look like in practice. The author has been studying according to this system for three years now, and this article is an attempt to explain what the postulates voiced by the Bologna Convention look like in real life.

So, the Bologna system offers several innovations that will radically change Ukrainian higher education as a whole. Next, the author will present these innovations point by point and tell how each of them works in specific Ukrainian conditions.

1. Credit transfer system

It means that for each course taken, the student receives a certain number of credits, in Mogilyanka, usually from one to three. In order to receive a bachelor's degree, a student must earn at least 120 credits over four years of study; for a master's degree, it is necessary to complete at least 60 credits in two years.

In fact, this gives the student the opportunity to control his own learning process. He himself makes sure that by the last year of his bachelor's/master's degree it does not suddenly turn out that his level of education is not enough to obtain a diploma. In practice, this forces students to pay close attention to how many credits each course is worth and whether the amount of credits is enough to graduate. Therefore, the picture is when fourth-year students, at the beginning of each trimester, rush around the departments, re-enrolling somewhere in order to gain the necessary credits. Sometimes it also happens that a careless student sits in his fifth year of bachelor’s, completing one or two courses in 10 months, which he lacks to receive a diploma.

However, Mogilyanka students actually have much fewer problems than other Ukrainian students when trying to transfer to a university abroad. Loans are actually recalculated, and education in Europe can be continued from where you graduated in your home country.

2. Two-tier education system

Following the Bologna Convention, bachelor's and master's degrees are two different stages of higher education, where the bachelor's degree is more focused on practical activities, and the master's degree is more focused on scientific and pedagogical activities.

At the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, bachelor's and master's degrees in the same discipline are often very poorly correlated with each other. For example, in some specialties you have to retake courses in the magisterium that were already taught in the bachelor's degree. True, there are also positive aspects to such a weak connection. For example, you can continue your studies in any existing master’s program, regardless of your previous specialty, you just need to pass the exams. In this situation, it is quite possible to complete a bachelor’s degree in physics and receive a political science education at a master’s degree.

3. Revision of the assessment system

Theoretically, this means that it is impossible to get a satisfactory grade for the course by passing the exam with “excellent” marks if the teacher has not seen you before. In Mogilyanka, most of the trimester grade is obtained at seminars, and a person who has not attended or at least not worked most of them will not receive a grade for the course.

In practice, of course, it is possible to persuade the teacher to count your course only for the exam. But not everyone and not always. Going to seminars is easier mentally and physically, because for most courses you can get a machine gun if you score decent points for your work in the term.

4. Liberal Arts Education, or Free choice of disciplines

This question is perhaps one of the most exciting in the ongoing education reform. Many people are concerned about where education majors will go if students are allowed to take elective courses.

In reality, free choice of disciplines does not mean that you can devote all your time at university to studying only what interests you. There are three groups of disciplines: a) compulsory disciplines. Includes a cycle of general education subjects and basic professional disciplines. It is at this point that the dreams of techies who want to completely get rid of various cultural studies, political science and philosophy fail. Whether you want it or not, you will have to teach them, and when they are in your program; b) a cycle of professionally oriented disciplines. These subjects are also required to be studied, you just have the opportunity to choose when you want to study them. For example, if you are eager to learn the basics of organizing PR campaigns, you can do this already in the first year, leaving the more complex “Fundamentals of Image Formation” for the third or fourth year; c) disciplines of free choice. This is where you can make the most of it – courses from all faculties of the university are at your service. Would you like to know about the peculiarities of the philosophy of the Renaissance or get acquainted with the peculiarities of social work with the mentally disabled? Please, you can study at least at the Faculty of Computer Science. Naturally, the number of credits for such disciplines is small, so getting a second education that is in no way related to your main one will not be possible in four years. On the other hand, if the disciplines are related, such as sociology and social work, the task becomes quite realistic.

Such a system, as well as the opportunity to freely attend lectures, which the administration provides to undergraduate students, forces the teacher to make an effort to make their course interesting, and not stupidly read lectures from a textbook written, even by himself. However, the picture of less than a dozen people sitting at a streaming lecture is quite realistic. Teachers complain, swear, and sometimes lower exam grades, but they have no other way to get students to attend except to make their lectures interesting.

And now about the negative aspects of such a wonderful phenomenon as Liberal Arts Education. You can probably imagine how complicated the work of a university is, where instead of hundreds of courses they teach 5-6 times more? Of course, the groups for each subject are much smaller, but much more teachers and classrooms are needed. In addition, it is impossible to control the number of students who enroll in a particular course each year. Therefore, quite often a course in which the groups were overcrowded in one academic year does not take place in the next due to under-enrollment.

Another sore point in working with Liberal Arts Education is the schedule. With such a system, a significant part of the teachers are not on the university staff, but work somewhere else, so they can teach the course only at some clearly fixed time, which is not always convenient for students and the dean’s office. And when there is not one such teacher, but several dozen...

So it turns out that students of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy often have the first pair and the sixth, that is, they come at 8.30 and leave at 17.50. The question of what they do between ten in the morning and half past four in the evening remains open. Some manage to work. The “first, third, fifth pair” class schedule is also very “convenient”; here there can’t even be any question of any employment - who would like an employee who appears in the office for a couple of hours and immediately runs away from it?

Of course, this system is unusual for students who are accustomed to studying the old-fashioned way, when responsibility for the quality and content of their education lies on the shoulders of the university. In addition, as always, there were several major mistakes in its implementation. However, ask any Mogilyanka student if he wants to study like his peers from the University, KPI or KIMO. The author has never been able to get a positive answer.