The number of universities cannot be limited. Demand for universal higher education is a feature of post-industrial society

The author is the rector of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, editor-in-chief of the journal “Economic Policy”

In discussions about higher education in Russia, there are two critical theses that can always be heard from everyone - as they once said, from the worker to the minister. One theme is quantitative: the country produces too many specialists with higher education, while there is a shortage of technical personnel and paratechnical personnel. The second topic is qualitative: universities are blamed for their inability to train in-demand specialists, and demand is measured by the number of graduates who go to work in their specialty.

Both theses are as simple as they are meaningless. The excess of specialists with higher education and their unwillingness to work in their specialty are a manifestation of the fact that our society has long gone beyond the framework of the industrial system and the criteria for the quality of professional education that were popular throughout most of the twentieth century are not applicable to us.

It is difficult not to pay attention to the fact that a serious source of artificial demand for higher education is universal conscription. This phenomenon is completely inconsistent with the challenges of the post-industrial economy and post-industrial demography, having a distorting effect on both professional motivation and the labor market. If Bill Gates had to, in order to avoid military service, finish his studies at the university, and then write a useless thesis in full-time graduate school, then the world would probably have another good engineer or even a professor, but there would be no Microsoft company.

Modern education is continuous. The ideal of the Soviet labor model - a person who graduated from a university, went to work in his specialty and has one single entry in his work book - is currently not only the ultimate dream for a person, but also a desirable norm of behavior for society and the state. Over the course of five or six years of mastering higher education, a large number of professions appear that simply did not exist at the time of entering the university. In this regard, the emergence of two-stage education (bachelor's and master's degrees) is a response to the demands of the time, since it allows one to clarify specialization during the period of study at the university. However, this line should be continued in the form of post-graduate education programs.

The dynamism of the modern economy, in which new areas of activity and professions are constantly emerging, requires a constant change in qualifications. Otherwise, a person finds himself on the sidelines of progress and cannot be considered successful. For everyone who calls for evaluating universities by the number of graduates working in their specialty, it is enough to answer the question: how many professionally successful and famous people work in their specialty? In general, almost no one.

Another feature of post-industrial society is the demand for universal higher education. Naturally, education cannot keep up with demand, hence the rapid growth of university education while its quality deteriorates. It cannot be said that over the past 20 years higher professional education in Russia has deteriorated. There are about the same number of good education and good universities left - some have retained their positions, some have sank, and new leaders have emerged. However, we have retained the ability to teach very well to approximately 20% of school graduates, as was the case in the era of developed socialism. But almost 100% are now entering universities - and, naturally, the result is a blatant decline in average quality.

Does this mean that it is necessary to limit the number of universities? I'm sure not. If people want to get a college degree, they should have the opportunity. However, the professional community and the labor market must, in turn, have tools for assessing the quality of specialists. This is not to say that this does not exist - employers know very well which university graduates are worth what. Perhaps in a number of industries it is necessary to add a professional exam that is outside the boundaries of the university itself.

Another way to alleviate the pressure of mass demand for university education is the emergence of applied bachelor's degrees. It should provide applied vocational education (close to a vocational college), which does not require fundamental university knowledge. However, the training must be carried out at a university and be part of the university program, which will allow further education and obtaining an appropriate diploma.

The author is the rector of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, editor-in-chief of the journal “Economic Policy”

Photo: ITAR-TASS

Two senseless myths about higher education