CRUST AND BREAD

EDUCATION

For the fourth year in Russia, the number of university students has exceeded the number of secondary school graduates. The United States and China have declared that for them, too, a universal "tower" is a state priority. In general, Japan has already passed a law on the mandatory ...

For the fourth year in Russia, the number of university students has exceeded the number of secondary school graduates. The United States and China have declared that for them, too, a universal "tower" is a state priority. Japan has already adopted a law on compulsory higher education. This trend has many supporters: modern society needs an educated person. However, the diploma itself loses its independent value in case of wholesale higher education: those who do not yet have it will soon have it.

Education in the market is the same product, service. And a university diploma is just a certificate of the quality of this product. In the last issue, we told how the business community, in accordance with its needs, begins to independently grope for the criteria for the quality of educational services provided by the existing system. Fact: through the creation of new systems for assessing the quality of higher education, business is beginning to stimulate competition between manufacturers. We are talking about new university rankings, which, as world experience shows, both a serious Russian employer and every more or less advanced applicant will definitely come to.

— A product has appeared on the labor market that is similar to mobile phones in terms of the degree of capture and growth in sales volumes. This product is a diploma of higher education. People began to come not for knowledge, but for a diploma,” says Professor Mikhail Boguslavsky, chief researcher at the Institute of Theory and History of Pedagogy. - It is very difficult to digest such a number of students with an aging teaching staff, with an underdeveloped, stagnant material base. During the 1990s, young teachers practically did not come to higher education. This situation affects the quality of education. The educational community is now arguing about whether we have a university that meets the European level. Some say: "MIPT", others: "And MIPT is nothing." Among specialists in the problem of quality, there is a dispute only on these two positions - MIPT or not MIPT? An abnormal situation has developed, when universities sell not education, but diplomas. Some universities sell just diplomas, while others sell branded diplomas. That's the whole difference. There is the Moscow State University brand, the MGIMO brand, the St. Petersburg State University brand, etc. Higher education is a lottery: you got to a wonderful teacher-enthusiast - you were lucky, you didn’t get it - what to do? Bad luck.

Western economists believe that entering a university is increasingly becoming a qualifying exam, and highly professional training is losing its meaning before our very eyes. The Western public disagrees with economists. Every fall, the parents of American seniors (high school students) begin a traditional ritual - they study the magazines Yu.S. News and World Report, Time and Newsweek with the latest rankings of American universities. Universities qualify in six categories - most competitive, highly competitive, very competitive, competitive, less competitive, noncompetitive ("most competitive", "most competitive", "very competitive", "competitive", "less competitive", "non-competitive") . The first category (most competitive) includes several dozen leading universities. Applicants with the majority of "excellent" grades, high SAT and TOEFL test scores can apply for these schools. Standing apart are 10-12 "super universities", which include the institutions of the Ivy league ("ivy league"), plus Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Americans study ratings very carefully and do not trust the opinions of neighbors and friends whose “daughter graduated from Princeton and now sits without a job. So our son will not go there.” Americans are smart.

First, they understand that, for all practical purposes, there is essentially no difference between the first and twentieth institutions. The chances of getting a job or reputation in the scientific world will not noticeably differ.

Secondly, for Americans, it is not so much the overall rating of the university that is important, but that it is highly rated in the specialty of interest. For future engineers, along with MIT or Stanford, you can enter more affordable universities.

The third - and very important - consideration: it is better to be an excellent student at an average university than a C student at a prestigious university. GPA (grade point average) plays a major role in job search.

In Russia, when looking for a job, the average score of a diploma has not been taken into account for a long time. We have a major role played by other factors.

We still have equally good (or bad) people without a diploma and people with a diploma - whoever is lucky. It’s just that those who have a “crust” with a well-known name on their hands are usually lucky more often. Employers are still pecking at the "brand" of the university. But myths become obsolete, and the principles of building a career change depending on the requirements of the time. The market always runs ahead of our stereotypes. Big business started counting. While the state follows the bureaucratic track beaten for decades and compiles highly specialized university ratings, businessmen are investing in education for themselves. They need trained personnel and therefore need more objective assessment systems. This is how alternative lists of higher education institutions appear from various funds financed by large business corporations. Such ratings, if you look at global trends, will appear more and more. And the Ministry of Education continues to build highly specialized ratings that affect only the distribution of budget money.

Sociologist Ekaterina Stepanyuk from the ReitOR agency says:

- The reader can decide that the ratings of the Ministry of Education and Science are bad, but ours are good. In fact, these ratings have different addressees. The Ministry derives an integral rating based on objective, measurable, verifiable indicators. This approach is also practiced in the world. We decided to go from "consumers": from school graduates, students, personnel departments, employers. Our rating is needed, in particular, by those who say to themselves: yes, the university I have chosen is cool, but I can’t go there. Then, for a reasonable choice, understandable criteria are needed. For example, “in terms of demand among employers, in terms of salary at the first place of work and in terms of tuition fees, the NN university seems to me to be the best option. I'll go there."...