Higher education abroad is better? Is the “prestigious” diploma an advantage?

Teachers and international students answer in the project "They will take (not) to the future"

What are the fundamental differences in our education from foreign, why “study is not in Russia” is the dream of many students, and how “prestige” education meets today's realities. About this on the example of Oxford, Gettingen, Yele and other universities were told by Oleg Morozov, senior researcher at Igity named after A.V. Poletaeva - NIU HSE, as well as students who returned from training abroad.

- What education is considered prestigious today? How is "prestige" determined?

- Prestigion is often confused with demand.

The demanded professions in the labor market, the demand for which the proposal is one thing, is the common ideas about the “good” and “bad” professions that are formed by applicants and their parents under the influence of the media or after visiting the open day at the university is another.

In sociology, the prestige of the profession is not due to objective characteristics, such as income, but a subjective perception, formed on the basis of a person’s understanding and level of labor complexity, measures of moral responsibility and many other factors. Material reward is only one of them. It is interesting to study such perception, and this has been done for a long time, you just need to understand that your personal ideas about the prestigious profession may not help you with employment. I remember that in 2019, Gazeta.RU published the results of the study of the All -Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Labor of Russia, according to which gynecologists, welders, engineers and ITSHRI were the most popular in Russia.

I’m afraid, if we talk about prestige from the point of view of the sociology of professions, anyone will be in the leaders, but not a welder and not a gynecologist.

Most likely, this will be either an official, and some leading link, or an entrepreneur. In addition, it is necessary to share a prestigious profession and a prestigious educational program in a particular university. The latter is highly dependent on the competition and the cost of training.

Some people think: if the program is popular, then then it will be easier to find work. This is wrong.

Let me remind you that we live in a country where almost half of the graduates have problems with employment.

- What main models of education exist in other countries, which are considered progressive?

- I will not say anything about progressiveness, because it all depends on who and how it believes: one thing is international university ratings, another is an informal recognition within the country and abroad. And to the first and to the second there are complaints. Since, as we agreed at the beginning, educational models exist only in theory, I would prefer to talk more about them, but about educational practices and features, and they strongly depend on the country, region or even university.

In each state, state or canton, higher education is unique, and this is normal, because every university has its own story.

A Russian -speaking person, getting into Western universities, is faced with fundamentally different administrative systems. They are more complex, more old, there are more freedom inside them than in Russian, although they are also very hierarchical, though in their own way. Well, for example:

What is the difference between American and British universities from Russian? First of all, colleges, the meaning of which without immersion in history is very difficult to understand.

In the UK , entering, say, at Oxford University, a person must choose a college - one of 38 available at the moment. Practical classes (English Tutorials) are most often held in college buildings, and the university organizes lectures. The latter and gives graduates diplomas. Colleges are young and old, large and small, they differ from each other by the number of specialties, the location of the corps, symbols, traditions and some other nuances. Each college has its own history, its own symbolic capital, on which a lot depends on the academic world.

And here is an example with Germany . There are no colleges, but there is a system of faculties, institutions and seminars. The system is complex, tied on the specifics of each individual land, and there are 16 in Germany today, not counting free cities, where there are also characteristics. A seminar in Germany can be not only a practical lesson, like ours, but also an administrative unit. For example, the University of Hettingen has a philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy, Romanesque Philology, German Philology, Scandinavity, the Study of the History of this Earth (Historische Landesforschung) and many others. You go along the corridor, and there is an inscription: the seminar is open on such days at such and such a time. Why are philology and history studied at the Faculty of Philosophy? So historically - German philosophical faculties covered many disciplines of humanitarian and natural science profiles. However, in the same Germany there are young educational institutions, such as Berlin Free University, the structure of which will be very different from what is in Gettingen, Freiburg, Marburg, Tubingen and other old university cities.

INTERVIEW

Henry,

What is the difference in the approaches to the formation between Switzerland and England?

- Assessment. In Switzerland, the student receives only one rating - for the exam at the end of the semester. The exeter takes into account interim exams and written work.

- The formation of ideas about the “real world”: my university in especially much pays special attention to working with specific examples and cases.

The most important thing is that your studies give you?

- In Switzerland, I did not do individual projects, only group because This is important in the field of business - to find an approach to any people. The practical advice of businessmen who came to us and shared experience were useful.

In England there is something similar: graduates are invited to courses and communicate with students.

In the exeter, they pay much attention to the problems of the environment, the development of “green” business - they tell us about climate change, the role of the state and private companies in the processes caused by it.

Is there a concept of “prestigious education” and “prestigious profession” in your environment, and what do they mean by them?

- In Switzerland, there is an idea of ​​a “prestigious profession”, which is why universities pay so much attention to the practical side and teach specific skills that large companies need. Universities strive for partnership with different companies so that it is easier for students to start a career.

In England, the focus moves to the prestige of the educational organization. All teachers are engaged in scientific activities, someone works in the Ministry of Education. It is the status of teachers who makes the university prestigious.

- And if we talk only about study, what differences between Russia and the Western countries would be identified?

-Firstly, American and European curricula contain more elective courses, that is, a student’s choice of choice.

Secondly, there are fewer courses themselves. For example, at Yale University , students listen to about 4-5 courses per semester. Freshmen of Russian universities can have 10 or more, even if not to be a “physical education”, BZD and the like.

Thirdly, Western education is generally designed for a deeper development of the subject,

And Russian universities are still in advance-focusing on latitude.

At the same University of Yale, students listen to a course on the history of the Civil War in the United States or on the history of the Great French Revolution. In Russia, there are either no such courses at all (we read the whole history of America and France in two or three hundred years), or they are negligible. This difference between them and us is easy to see if you go to the Coursera platform and study the theme of foreign online courses. In Germany, I know, courses can only be lecture or only seminars, which is also somewhat different from Russian realities.

INTERVIEW

Nikolai,

Comparing the study at the Foreign University with the experience of friends from Russia, what are the main differences in the approaches to education?

- a high level of responsibility and freedom - you choose classes and draw up a curriculum;

- There are no faculties as such, so in the classroom you meet people from different programs, and this gives diverse;

- We do not have training groups, therefore it is more difficult to socialize, but communicate with a large number of people.

The most important thing, in your opinion, what gives you/gave you studies at the university:

- I myself am responsible for my success and future; independence develops;

- self -discipline;

- Do not be afraid to ask and find out.

Is there a concept of “prestigious education” and “prestigious profession” in your environment, and what do they mean by them?

- prestigious education - universities of the ivy League;

- Profession - in my field - to be a doctor of a narrow and complex specialty (cardiac surgeon).

If we talk about professional implementation, how does the university helps this? Does the idea of ​​how to move after the release form, or is the influence of the environment and personal initiatives more affects?

- The university helps in employment after studying, and during - the workshop as gets to work, go to the magistracy;

- distributions with vacancies for specific programs, it is possible to leave to work in another state or country;

- A special service for the selection of newly released students and their employment.

The university helps students, but the final choice of people - to accept this assistance or not; There are a lot of people who are seriously related to their studies and practice, work in my environment.

In America and Europe, you can choose not only minoras (English minor), non -core courses, but also Major , a specialized direction, and this choice is much wider than our universities offer. Take, for example, the program of the Free Science and Art University of Freiburg. All courses there have a total amount of 240 loans (loans or credit units-know-how of the Bologna system). 64 of loans - elective courses, 56 - mandatory, and 120 - Meijor courses, and Major on program 4 and inside each have its own specializations. Students of different years of study can be recorded for courses.

Skhur classmates and four -year students can listen to a lecture in one audience or participate together in group seminar work.

Today in Russia such situations are also found, but rarely, and in people who have received education in the USSR, in the 1990s or 2000s, this does not fit in their heads.

That is, we are talking about a world where each student chooses his own curriculum - what he himself wants to study.

This is another manifestation of the principle of freedom of education.

In Russia, elective courses are disastrous. Our curriculums are drawn up and approved by the administrations of faculties or universities, there most subjects have already been determined, students are studying on them. Someone believes that the Russian specificity is better-more courses, those exams, therefore, is more difficult to study. Is it bad?

Some of my colleagues love to issue the features of Russian higher education for indispensable virtues. I do not agree. Firstly, a heavy training load is not a plus, but a minus. Because of this, people are depressed because of this, someone drops their studies. In addition, if a person studies fewer courses in a year, this does not mean that he receives less knowledge.

Once again: the program can be configured for a deep development of the subject. Secondly, as I said, the wider the choice, the better. If a person can make his schedule himself, then he can plan the time, for example, to reduce the load in one half -year or free specific days of the year - there are more opportunities to combine study with work. In Russia, such a combination is a huge problem, and after all, more and more students want to work, go to a driving school, learn foreign languages ​​or play sports. Thirdly, and this is the most important thing, the construction of an individual curriculum is also part of the education:

The student learns to make decisions and bear responsibility for them, that is, he really enters into adulthood.

- Are there any areas in which education is not needed at all? What can it be in these areas?

-For some reason, I first thought about entrepreneurs.

The most famous of them either did not study at universities at all, or threw him halfway - Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, for example.

But in art, of course, the approach to education should also be special. Many revolutions in art began with artists who contrasted themselves with an academic tradition and were not afraid to discover a new one. If it were not for the courage and readiness for experiments, would the Wanderers appear in Russia? It is difficult to teach creative professions if a person has no potential. Only this does not mean that we should now close all the workshops, studios and the Academy of Art. Even a very talented person needs to master the secrets of your favorite craft, look at the experience of its predecessors and take the best out of it.

Therefore, in creativity, yes, professional education is not necessary, but it should still exist. I repeat, the more choice, the better.

- You may object that with such a system, students will not receive the basic knowledge assigned to them in their specialty.

-They will receive, because some percentage of mandatory courses is still preserved. And then, all these fears that, they say, the Western students have too narrow horizons due to elective courses and they do not know “basic things”, look far-fetched. We live in the 21st century, in the world with a terribly rapidly developing information field. We read much more, look and say than the people of past eras.

Today it’s time to abandon such concepts as “base” or “basic knowledge”. There are no more mandatory knowledge laid down to everyone.

I work in the "TSU" with young colleagues. We all are 30 years old. We arrived from different regions, studied in different educational institutions and conduct different courses. You have no idea how different we all have a “base”. Why should someone decide for me that I should know and what not?

The “Culture three” team worked on the material (project “Politics Space”): Anya Kalyuzhnaya and Irina Ponomarenko .