Correspondence courses in jurisprudence will be cancelled. “This is contrary to the Constitution”: what will the abolition of correspondence education in Russia lead to? Law universities in Russia with distance learning
On the territory of the Russian Federation, the form of education that provides for obtaining knowledge by correspondence may be cancelled. Previously, correspondence courses provided an opportunity to obtain higher education at a minimal cost.
Correspondence courses in the Russian Federation may be canceled in 2019
Information about upcoming changes in the education system was announced by Elena Kouzova, who is the first deputy minister of education in the Chelyabinsk region. Speaking, the official explained that the innovations will affect not only higher educational institutions in Chelyabinsk, but also all universities operating in the country. In order to optimize the system of obtaining higher education, part-time and part-time education will be introduced. One of the main differences from previous training will be year-round attendance. It is also planned to increase the cost of obtaining a diploma using this form.
What changes do officials plan to introduce to distance learning?
Anatoly Yakushev, who is the director of the Chelyabinsk branch of the Financial University, announced that it is planned to introduce a modified system on the basis of this institution in 2019. Throughout the academic year, students will attend classes in the evening. Three times a week, from 6:20 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., the material will be read. It is also planned to increase the cost of training. If a full-time student pays 110 thousand rubles, and part-time - 45 thousand rubles, on average the new form of education will be from 80 to 90 thousand rubles.
Elena Kouzova added that the implementation of the announced changes will significantly improve the level of student training. Full information on the implementation of this form of training will be received at the beginning of next year (after the final formation of orders from the Ministry of Education and Science). When asked whether teachers at universities will be able to cope with the additional workload, First Deputy Minister Elena Kouzova answered in the affirmative. Currently, there is no acute shortage of personnel in higher education institutions.
Teachers will take advantage of the opportunity to receive additional funds by conducting classes with students who have decided to study in this form. Information that distance learning is planned to be abolished has been actively circulated by officials since 2016. Some universities have decided to independently cancel the opportunity to receive education if they do not regularly attend the institution.
Why is it worth enrolling part-time at the Faculty of Law before September 1, 2017?
By order* of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, from September 1, 2017, all universities in the country have excluded the possibility of obtaining a first higher legal education through correspondence courses. This is not an invention of university marketers to increase the excitement among applicants, but a fact supported by the signature of the new Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva.
The restriction applies only to the first higher education. Students who are already studying part-time in this profession will have time to complete their studies and receive diplomas.
The innovation will affect only newly admitted students. Therefore, if you do not yet have a higher education and want to become a lawyer, have time to enroll before September 1, 2017.
What are the advantages of distance learning?
Distance education is an opportunity to combine work and study,
Correspondence education is several times cheaper than full-time education.
Who needs a higher legal education?
A higher legal education is quite in demand among citizens who need this education in order to obtain higher positions. These include law enforcement agencies, courts, and state civil and military services.
Why do legal practitioners disagree with the new order?
“Correspondence students of the legal profession are more interested, see deeper and approach practical problems faster,” Kommersant quotes Svetlana Volodina, vice-president of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of Russia, as saying. According to her, part-time students have to master most of the information on their own, which better prepares them for practice than full-time students, who are accustomed mainly to theoretical training. “We need to leave the possibility of obtaining a correspondence legal education, even if it is the first,” Mrs. Volodina is sure.**
Hurry up with your entry!
In the context of current economic instability and rising unemployment, the demand for distance learning is only increasing. It is likely that in the future, in addition to jurisprudence, the possibility of obtaining higher education by correspondence may be excluded for other areas.***
One way or another, big changes seem to be coming to higher education.
And those who were planning to study in absentia had better hurry up with admissionuntil September 1, 2017, while Russian higher education institutions still provide such an opportunity.
*Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia No. 1511 dated December 1, 2016 “On approval of the federal state educational standard of higher education in the field of preparation 40.03.01 Jurisprudence (undergraduate level)”
Tamara Lyalenkova : Today we will talk about the abolition of correspondence education in some areas, as recently announced by the head of Rosobrnadzor Sergei Kravtsov. In the new academic year, applicants for the most popular specialties - economists, lawyers, managers and those who would like to study state and municipal management - will not be able to enroll in the correspondence department. In the Moscow studio, representatives of precisely these areas of training are the director of the Center for Economics of Continuing Education at the Institute of Applied Economic Research, RANEPA Tatiana Klyachko, Deputy Director of the Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics Sergey Malinovsky and Head of the Department of Profile Training and Work with Applicants of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya.
It seems to me that there are two important points here - one economic, the other ideological. How do you understand why this happened? Perhaps, in general, how is the fight against correspondence education going on, and the first such trial areas to be abandoned are the humanities, the least popular in academic circles? It is commonly said that there are too many economists and lawyers, the quality of education is not very good, so let’s reduce them. Do you think there is an economic component or an ideological one, which is really a lot, and we don’t need them?
Tatiana Klyachko : Firstly, of course, the ideological component prevails. Indeed, it seems that there are many economists and lawyers, especially bad ones, but in general there are never many good ones. Therefore, the bad thing, of course, is that they study in these specialties, and in some sense they are discredited by those who receive them. And, in general, from the point of view of society, the easiest way is to cover it up. We are closing the economy, management, public administration, and jurisprudence. It seems like there are so many of them, well, in extreme cases, they will go to full-time. Moreover, the student population is falling sharply. Let’s just say there aren’t enough full-time students anymore. Therefore, forcing a switch from part-time to full-time under the banner of improving the quality of education seems to be quite rational for those who make these decisions.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Tatyana Lvovna, but it seemed to me that as far as economists and lawyers were concerned, gradually the budget positions there were somehow being reduced. And in general, there are a lot of paid branches of these particular ones. Thus, it seems to me that there will be a redistribution of correspondence not to full-time, but to paid full-time.
Tatiana Klyachko : Naturally, there is a fee for full-time. This is, on the one hand. On the other hand, it is very important to understand that, in principle, in economics and management, for example, there were only 10% of budget places, and 90% were paid places. Because we give up correspondence or transfer everyone to full-time, this ratio most likely will not change.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Just expensive.
Tatiana Klyachko : We can expect that it will change a lot, which will become, say, 5% of budget places and 95 - paid ones. Because the population pays for these places. The population is ready for them to be paid. It is already accustomed to this, unlike, say, engineering specialties. Therefore, it is easier to put up with this. In addition, fees for economics and management are still significantly lower than for technical specialties, because now our ministry is trying to ensure that tuition fees for paid places are the same as the per capita funding standard for budget places. Since the standard for economics and management is the lowest in bachelor’s degrees, then, accordingly, the fees for these specialties are the lowest in the market. Let's move everyone to the in-person meeting. They will pay, they can pay. Although, I think that what is planned will not happen after all.
Sergey Malinovsky : I just think that there is no economy here at all. Moreover, we roughly estimated what losses would be caused by these most popular areas, for which 95% of the population pays... If we take the average cost of education in both places, it varies greatly depending on the profile of the university, but on average this is 100 thousand rubles. per year, and multiply by the number of students who were accepted in these areas last year, this is approximately 200 thousand people, so we get approximately 20 billion rubles. losses, i.e. withdrawal of household investments from the higher education system. Some of them will be converted into demand for other programs. But here I would cautiously predict that it is the correspondence students who will switch to paid full-time studies simply because there is already a lot of competition there - 7-9 applications for the number of accepted ones. The contingent is quite special. Most of them initially chose the correspondence course of study.
Tamara Lyalenkova : It seemed a little strange to me. Correspondence - some are paid, some are free. If free, budget-funded correspondence education is reduced, then it is clear that there is still some saving for the state.
Sergey Malinovsky : There are only 5% of them. Therefore, I wouldn’t even talk about them. This is not a shortcut item.
Tatiana Klyachko : In addition, this 5% for full-time and part-time students is a common figure. And, in general, universities have long been making money on these specialties and, to a large extent, on distance learning. Why? Because now they are trying to keep tuition fees at the level of per capita funding standards, that is, at the level that the state would pay for a student. But for absentee students this standard is 10% of full-time students. Accordingly, if you have, for example, 100 thousand full-time students, then on a part-time basis it is 10. Accordingly, the university sets the price, say, 15-20 thousand for this student. He wins compared to what the state pays him, and, on the other hand, this is still a fairly acceptable price level for a paying student. Accordingly, people go there. What we will most likely get if economics, management and jurisprudence go away from the classroom. We will get a surge of interest in sociology, in psychology...
Sergey Malinovsky : Towards substitutes.
Tatiana Klyachko : Yes, because they will be cheap too. If they don’t give us economics, then we’ll sit on sociology, psychology, cultural studies, something like that, but not at all on technical specialties. Because technical specialties, firstly, are more expensive for the state, and secondly, they are still much more difficult to study by correspondence. And those who went into economics, management and jurisprudence were initially not ready to study any technical things. Therefore, they will switch to something more or less similar. I don’t know how interesting this will be for the state. Our population is very flexible. It will find a way out of all situations. And, let’s say, the goals set by politics, well, yes, there will be fewer bad economists, there will be more bad sociologists, there will be more bad psychologists. By the way, I would say that this is still even more dangerous. A bad psychologist is worse than a bad economist.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Let’s finally decide how bad correspondence education really is. One of the motives for abolishing correspondence education is that it is a low-quality education. Probably, this was precisely the additional opportunity to earn money at different universities. Recently, all this was reduced, i.e. such wrong directions were removed from specialized universities.
Sergey Malinovsky : And they continue to shrink.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Perhaps this is part of that very policy - this cutting off of branches. Although it is not clear how universities will continue to exist, because they are also in a difficult economic situation. How bad is education? Or is it normal for those people who decide to go and study by correspondence?
Tatiana Klyachko : It just says here that admission to first education will not be allowed. Second, for God's sake, get it.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Well, Livanov said it, but in fact, in my opinion, it’s somehow accurate...
Sergey Malinovsky : No, they agreed on this.
Tatiana Klyachko : A person has received secondary vocational education, say, economic or technical, legal, accounting. And so he wants to get himself either economic or managerial, because he has already taken some position. And in order to grow, make a career, and generally work well, it would be advisable for him to receive a “full-fledged” economic or management education, confirmed by a diploma. Now he will not be able to do this because it is closed to him. And we will again find that instead of acquiring the competencies that he really needs, he will be forced to study sociology.
Sergey Malinovsky : Or not receive anything.
Tatiana Klyachko : Or not receive anything. Most likely, this will not happen, and he will go to psychology, will go to cultural studies, because he needs these certificates so that he can officially gain a foothold in the workplace in which he is already sitting. Because he can no longer sit here with the average professional. This can be a problem for a wide range of people in management professions. For people who came from the army and who need to work for various reasons. They would also like to receive, say, a management or legal education, but they cannot.
And here one more question arises. Do we need a legal education only so that a person can work as a lawyer? Or do we need economic and legal education so that people understand what is happening in the economy, what is happening in our legal field? And in this sense, correspondence or distance education, about which we say that we must develop it, is coming under attack completely unexpectedly, in many ways for those people who made this decision, based on the fact that simply correspondence education is always worse than full-time education. I think that, firstly, this is not always the case, and secondly, we can cut off a very large contingent of people who would benefit from it.
Sergey Malinovsky : If we are talking about open secondary education, then at the moment this is 40% of all correspondence students. They just came with their first education. This is a fairly large part of distance students. They, of course, will be the first to suffer.
The most frightening thing here is this regime - everyone is treated with the same brush. Correspondence education is very different. To be honest, I would take into account the specifics of the industry, for which correspondence education is an important element of both the socialization of their employees and some kind of motivation, promotion and retention of them in places that are often not the most attractive.
Tamara Lyalenkova : The latest analytics, which were presented by the recruiting portal Superjob, indicate that this year many more people went to secondary specialized education. The number of those entering universities has decreased by 23%. Compared to 8% of previous years, 23% chose secondary specialized education, which is understandable. It has already become more expensive to study, it is not possible to travel, families cannot support their students in big cities, or they are simply worried that the child has some initial skill so that he does not later disappear on the labor market. It is clear that this is exactly the cohort that may then want to get a correspondence education while already working and earning money.
Tatiana Klyachko : He wants.
Sergey Malinovsky : But he can’t.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Svetlana, how do you understand what happened? How might this affect your university?
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Nothing terrible has happened yet. But I think that this will affect everyone, first of all, those universities where there is a large contingent of distance learning. We have a fairly large contingent of correspondence students.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Are you accepting now?
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Yes.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Yes, but this does not mean that the admission targets that were allocated and approved to us will not be implemented. Yes, we accept. Perhaps this will be the last year of admission by correspondence, if there are appropriate regulatory documents. But while they are not there, we accept students by correspondence, and we will complete the education of those whom we have accepted.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Yes, it was agreed that those who study can continue their studies.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Yes. Another question is that in general the concept of abolishing correspondence education is being very vigorously discussed. There are ardent opponents, there are ardent supporters. But how can we avoid pursuing form at the expense of content? Perhaps it would make sense to make complaints not about the form of education, but about the quality, about the content of the program. Because there are programs in some universities that do not prepare enough in the full-time form, but there are examples in the world that prepare quite well in the correspondence form as well. If we now monitor globalization trends, we will understand that online education is developing so much. And this is objectively beyond our desires. If we cancel correspondence courses, well, this contingent will go to foreign universities and study there remotely.
Tatiana Klyachko : Hardly.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Some of them will leave, some will study full-time, and some will not receive an education at all. As a result, we may see in a few years that the level of education in the country will begin to fall. This, of course, will be sad for us.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Do you want to say that correspondence students from good universities will go to study at universities that are not very good or what?
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : No no. If there is a complete abolition of distance learning, then those college graduates, for example, who then go to study by correspondence, some of them will choose online some of the programs that are available. Maybe these will be additional education programs or some others. Some of them, most likely, will not continue to study, because they simply do not have the opportunity, given the current market conditions, to rent apartments somewhere in large cities and live there while receiving full-time education. But some part will probably still go to waste.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Maybe there is an oversupply of professionals in the labor market? I mean people with higher education. And thus it is clear that this number of people who study at universities is such deferred unemployment. Maybe this is a story that will help reduce the number of people with higher education.
Tatiana Klyachko : So correspondence students are, as a rule, working people. And if they don’t work, then at least let them study.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Yes, but then they move to that step, which is supposedly intended for graduates of universities who have paid and studied on the budget. Maybe just such a blur? Don't you need so many people with higher education?
Sergey Malinovsky : Here is the dilemma. We need people with higher education, albeit poor, but this is a direct definition of human capital. Or we need people who have no education, but as long as it is not bad. From my point of view, if the population and households are ready to invest in distance education, this should not be prevented in any way. Another question is that, of course, the state could somehow more actively control the quality of education. Or, at least, come up with some kind of system of correct information about correspondence education so that market mechanisms would work when correspondence education would be converted, for example, into a lower salary. I believe that the more people we have with higher education, the better. When you talk about an oversupply of personnel for the labor market, here we do not have the Soviet system, when we had a specific person assigned to each position. The same economists and lawyers enter the labor market and find employment. The main thing is that a person feels a little differently. He went through the socialization of higher education, which is also important in itself. By killing distance education through these programs, we are losing approximately a quarter of the entire higher education system. Our access to education is decreasing by a quarter. I wouldn’t say that our quality of education will deteriorate because of this, but accessibility will definitely drop.
Tatiana Klyachko : I’m just afraid that universities will restructure, quickly open these programs, and the quality will drop for some period.
Sergey Malinovsky : Well, 2-3 years at least.
Tatiana Klyachko : Then again you can expect it to catch up. In any case, I would not fight pseudo-education with such strange methods. Generally speaking, before making a decision, I would very seriously look at the quality of the contingent - how many adults there are, who go there just to get a degree, and who go there because they really need some specific knowledge. After all, correspondence education does not provide a deferment from the army. Consequently, this motive does not work there. You can't sit there. We have approximately 1 million 250 thousand students - these are people over 25 years old. These are people who are already quite consciously choosing their path in the field of higher education. Maybe we'll see how many of them study part-time. Now that this is accepted, simply based on some general considerations that correspondence education is bad, I can agree that, most likely, yes, the quality of distance education in general is lower. But if we are already saying that the very content of the concept of correspondence education is changing, it is becoming distance education, and these are different technologies...
Sergey Malinovsky : With no less face-to-face contacts, in fact.
Tatiana Klyachko : Yes, face-to-face contacts, they work with you. You are always handing in some work. And maybe you are even more tightly controlled than a full-time student. Let's figure it out - who should be closed because they do not provide quality programs, and who should be left because they provide the education that is now in demand in the higher education market.
Sergey Malinovsky : We know very little about the absentee student. The latest sociological data for 2011, which was compiled by the Higher School of Economics on behalf of the ministry. After that, a lot of things have changed, but we still don’t know anything, just from a sociological perspective. We know approximately the groups into which correspondence students are divided - this is 40% of those who went after school in the first three years after leaving school, 40% are secondary vocational students and only 10-15% are adults. But we have little idea of what sits inside these trajectories. In 2011, the majority, 80%, stated that the key motive for their choice of correspondence courses was the need to combine education and professional activities. Whether this is true now, we don’t know. It would be good to now conduct a cross-section of correspondence students specifically, to know what kind of people they are, what has changed over the past 5 years. I don't think they will reach the end, especially on the eve of the election cycle. There is a feeling that this will be some kind of very experimental pilot version. It is unlikely that it will be as large-scale as it sounds now.
Tamara Lyalenkova : That is why these humanitarian areas were chosen, which all the time, as a saying, do not always rightly sound as an example of such low-quality education. On the other hand, research has been showing for several years that students start working quite early. And that's not very good. 2-3 courses say that this is a normal situation, let them work. In this regard, correspondence distance education could be a way out. If a person ends up in a good corporation where he works full-time, then he can get there by receiving a diploma that may be useful to him someday by switching to distance learning. In this sense, such a person is deprived of this opportunity. It turns out that he will either study poorly, not catch up with some academic history, but at the same time make good money and have prospects for the future.
Svetlana, these changes regarding correspondence education, are they related to the economic component, or is it still some kind of ideology that still has such a bias towards technical and engineering specialties and the persecution of humanities?
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : It cannot be said that this is an ideology of persecution of humanitarians. It’s just that over the past 20 years, most of the students who have received an education have studied humanities and economics. This is often due to the way the system of professional activity in our country is structured. It's no secret that often a secretary is hired only with a diploma of higher education. And it is much easier for those studying economics or the humanities to obtain a diploma of higher education than a degree in physics, chemistry or medicine. People just for the sake of it. To get a job, they must get a diploma. Therefore, they try to get it by any means. In addition, we had another wave, starting in the 90s, when economists and lawyers were one of the most in-demand professions. Therefore, of course, this needs to be brought into line. But the question is - what methods. Leave quality training? I support my colleagues that it would be better to simply impose more stringent requirements on the quality of training, while leaving the forms of training, establishing the same rules of the game for everyone.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Do you understand who comes to you for distance learning?
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Yes. I agree with my colleagues that the proportions probably remain the same. College graduates come who have already received part of their profession and got a job. Some people come already adults. They come for a profession, for new technologies, sometimes even for connections, for this aura that surrounds people who meet in the same study group. There are people - school graduates who did not enroll for some reason in previous years. Some of the other people are those who enter while already studying at some university. They go to another university by correspondence to get a second education at the same time. Often these formations are different.
Sergey Malinovsky : This group will not suffer. There is no talk about this yet. So far no one is aiming for a second higher education degree in absentia.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : But it is not considered the second highest until it has completed the first. Therefore, he enters the first part-time course. Therefore these people will suffer.
Tamara Lyalenkova : These are those who are highly motivated and are ready to devote themselves to their studies for 3-4 years and get the maximum. And they are denied this opportunity.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Yes, but, as a rule, this is a small percentage - 5-10%. These people are very motivated. But mostly these are college graduates.
Tatiana Klyachko : Now there is still one emerging danger, because the branch network of universities is rapidly shrinking. The contingent is being reduced, and the branch part is being rapidly reduced. And people who previously could enroll full-time at a branch and get an education there... Just as in the 90s, higher education went to the regions, spread throughout all the cells of these regions, now it is leaving there. The network is tightening. And if we now cut off some part of correspondence, or better still, distance education, we can greatly reduce the quality of education in the regions. When we started talking about poor correspondence education, it was a different situation. On the rise, when the contingents grew...
Tamara Lyalenkova : There were not enough teachers.
Tatiana Klyachko : Yes. As this all unfolded, then it was necessary to talk all the time about the quality and reduce the availability of poor education. Now the availability of poor education also needs to be reduced, but at the same time we must understand that the network is different, the contingents are different, the economic situation is different. Therefore, giving people the opportunity to study remotely is much better than these young people not receiving education. Because there is another problem. SPO are regional budgets. If the contingent there grows, in principle, vocational education is publicly available and free, we may end up with an increase in a very serious burden on regional budgets, which are already in a very difficult situation. Therefore, we will again push these young people out to pay for much worse. We will say that there are no budget places, although this contradicts the requirements of the Constitution. The guys will go to study by correspondence at a secondary vocational level, which is even more fun in terms of the quality of education.
Tamara Lyalenkova : That is, correspondence secondary education. Is it possible?
Tatiana Klyachko : Why not? Why can’t he study to become an accountant at SPO?!
Tamara Lyalenkova : Maybe.
Tatiana Klyachko : He can study to be some kind of planner in the Open Source. After all, the structure of secondary vocational education in recent years has been very strongly correlated with the structure of higher education.
Sergey Malinovsky : Following demand.
Tatiana Klyachko : Those who could not immediately enter universities, they went to secondary vocational training, and then went to universities. And so now we will drag this correspondence education to a lower level. People will receive a lower-quality education already at the secondary vocational level in absentia, and then they will begin to decide what to do with this not very high-quality education when they can no longer go to a university in absentia. This means that some hybrid forms will begin to emerge, as often happens now. A person goes to study once a week on Saturdays. This is considered part-time, i.e. evening. And this practice of reduction no longer applies to him. This means that a person studies once a week - and everything is fine. We will again receive pseudo-education in a new reincarnation. Then we will fight him. This process can be endless.
Sergey Malinovsky : I would also note that in some regional higher education systems the tension due to this decision, if it takes place, will be quite serious. Because in approximately half of the regions, more than 2/3 of training in these most popular specialties is carried out in correspondence format. If we immediately remove this opportunity, then the regional higher education system simply loses these areas of training. This means that while it has time to rebuild, it will lose its applicants, who will simply go to the neighboring region. The very regions in which the majority of these areas of training are provided by correspondence format are precisely the least attractive system. Where students travel least to their universities, they will suffer the most. These are well-known regions - the North-West, Siberia, the Far East and some national republics. These are the Murmansk region, the Arkhangelsk region, these are regions such as Kurgan, Kamchatka, the Jewish Autonomous Okrug.
Tamara Lyalenkova : There will be washout.
Sergey Malinovsky : Roughly speaking, in my opinion, in the Jewish Autonomous Region 80% of economists, lawyers and slightly less state municipal managers are trained in correspondence format. Accordingly, the next similar demand will not find its embodiment. Some of them, of course, will spread to full-time programs, if they are available in sufficient quantities in the Jewish Autonomous Region. I think that people will move to stronger regions where full-time educational programs in these areas have been preserved.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Here we also need to add that when face-to-face training is of sufficient quality, it is quite expensive. Here we need to remember the price of educational services. And if we say that, for example, training costs 10 thousand a year, then it is immediately clear that this is profanation. For 10 thousand a year it is impossible to find so many teachers who would spend so many hours with students. This comes out to 50 kopecks. at one o'clock. Here we may encounter the fact that in the regions, in order to teach full-time students, such qualifications of teachers are not enough. And the qualifications of teachers in Moscow, for example, who have sufficient knowledge that can bring it, it simply does not find the proper level of distribution at the level of modern technology, when it is quite possible to make a video lecture from your personal computer. If this can be done online, then why not.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Not necessarily online. Because plus everything there is a lot of technology. The availability of information resources is now completely different than it was before.
Svetlana, what format does your correspondence work in?
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : We have correspondence courses in several formats. Traditional distance learning for students who come sessionally twice a year has also been preserved. They have an orientation exam session. There is also a training schedule that includes classes on Saturdays, i.e. this is for those who live in Moscow and can attend classes. And there is a huge portal with a large knowledge base called the “University Educational Portal”. It contains video lectures, teaching aids, collections, games, etc. All this is presented for each relevant discipline. We have distance programs called the Institute of Open and Distance Learning. Open education involves distance learning. We even launched several master's programs in a distance format.
In particular, I am the winner of Potanin’s grant to create such an online program in financial mathematics and market analysis. I would like to develop online learning. The idea is that people from afar, from the same, for example, the Jewish Autonomous Region or from the Khabarovsk Territory, can remotely join the Reuters database, which is provided remotely. And our teacher would teach them online how to carry out such financial analytics. Of course, you can hardly teach this in absentia, but the distance learning form is quite possible.
Tamara Lyalenkova : If you remove correspondence education, you can come up with some other forms. Probably everyone will do the same.
Sergey Malinovsky : I would say that there may be two directions that would save correspondence education. The first is some kind of professional and public accreditation, which would confirm the quality of distance education, so that the state does not interfere with or reduce the opportunity for households to invest in the higher education system. The second is the possible reorientation of correspondence educational programs into more full-time programs in the sense that it is necessary to increase the amount of face-to-face contact precisely through information technology. Many distance education providers, I think, are now ready for this.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : It is also necessary to take into account that it is necessary to make changes to the requirements for job responsibilities. Because often in those positions where higher education is not required, now every employer considers it his duty to stipulate that if you are a driver, then you must have a higher financial education.
Sergey Malinovsky : If the driver is in the bank.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Yes, if he carries money.
Tatiana Klyachko : Must understand what he is carrying.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : Plus, professional standards are a must. Probably, there must still be some new quality. What difference does it make what form it will be? If it's good quality, then...
Tatiana Klyachko : All over the world, a bachelor’s degree is already a stage not so much of professionalization as of socialization. A person already perceives the world differently. He has a different cultural background, etc. Professional education sometimes begins only at the master’s level. Therefore, we must understand for ourselves. We've moved to this two-tier system. If socialization, then how should it necessarily take place in person, or can it take place, well, at least through remote technologies of communication with a teacher. Because it seems to me that the inclusion of the younger generation in the educational process should be the most important goal that we must achieve.
Sergey Malinovsky : Moreover, they are willing to pay for it themselves.
Tatiana Klyachko : Yes! But whether it is full-time or part-time, it must be good. And monitoring the quality of this education is the most important thing.
Tamara Lyalenkova : This is, in fact, the function of Rosobrnadzor - monitoring the quality of education. You are representatives of quite different directions. Why exactly these directions caused... In any case, Dmitry Livanov said that these directions cannot be taught in absentia. When they said correspondence, they meant remote. It seems to me that these are exactly the areas that can be studied by correspondence. Is it possible to study economics, acquire a profession, a specialty by correspondence?
Tatiana Klyachko : I think that if we make a very good interactive course, if we create what can be called knowledge bases for people, then they will be able to master some things themselves. And the fact that all over the world this open distance education is conquering the masses, it is now pointless to fight it. Now we need to catch this wave and try to make it as high quality as possible. Because if not, then the market will be filled by economists and lawyers who received this education in China, India, or somewhere else. If we want to attract them to us later, it will be, in my opinion, somewhat ridiculous. We have the Far East. They need to provide good quality education. We can involve the universities that operate there in this. And at the same time it would be good to create consortia. We can make the same “bushes” in other regions. You just need to put some effort and resources into it. And then, on the contrary, a new educational network, new educational technologies, and new knowledge can grow from this. As soon as we create this in such a serious format, we will receive a huge base for additional professional education. We lack this continuous professional education. And therefore, now we need to think not about cutting something off, but about how to develop something of high quality, interesting, and in demand by the population on a different basis. Moreover, in a difficult economic situation, we need, first of all, to educate the population. It should be, as it were, tied to this education, because then, roughly speaking, it will have no time to engage in any kind of asocial activity.
Tamara Lyalenkova : For some reason this reminded me of the story about flagship universities, that some universities will become transmitters of some good correspondence education. Sergey, how do you imagine?
Sergey Malinovsky : Is it possible to teach political science in a correspondence format? I think yes. Political science is such a special specialty. I think that it is possible to give a general picture of the world, to immerse a person in some of the first rudiments of liberal education in absentia. Indeed, it is probably difficult to train a good political analyst, at least in the traditional format, when a person comes twice a year and takes a test. Because when a person leaves for his other city, where he came from, he simply immerses himself in some of his routine affairs. There are not enough incentives here that would help a person become more involved in the educational process.
Why were these specialties chosen? Because there is a global distrust among decision makers in the entire distance education segment, and these four specialties make up approximately half of the distance education segment. I think that the question here is not about form, because at the same time, with its second hand, the Ministry of Education, in my opinion, is developing a good project for the development of online learning, the formation of a national platform... Distrust of the format, i.e. fundamentally, this is impossible , I don't think anyone seriously believes this. And there is a lack of trust directly in the providers of these services. And it is actually justified.
Svetlana Bryukhovetskaya : I think that the correspondence form definitely has a right to exist. At the same time, what we are talking about - distance education - is not a form of education. This is technology. It can be full-time with a distance format, or it can be part-time with a distance format. The scope of this distance learning format, i.e. presence when you are in different places but in touch with the teacher, must be established clearly enough so that communication with the teacher is not lost. I think that when the question comes about deciding on a normative establishment of a ban or permission to further continue distance learning, you just need to turn to those successful examples that you can rely on.
For example, there is the Financial Analysts Association. They have no education at all. They just have an exam and that's it. Everyone studies by correspondence - buy books and study. If you don't pass the exam, study again. And the exam costs some money. Therefore, everyone who goes to take this exam understands how prepared they must be. And the one who passed it is a priori considered one of the best financial analysts in his cohort and receives a corresponding salary bonus. Second example. At our university we have the so-called London Project. This is a distance learning course offered by the University of London. The guys study on their own for a year, choosing certain disciplines for their bachelor's degree. And at the end of May, teachers come and take exams. If you pass, well done, if you fail, you take the same course again. Therefore, the guys already understand the degree of responsibility in advance and prepare for it seriously. They study part-time, but they are very strong guys.
Tamara Lyalenkova : Here another question will be about Russian employers, how they look at the format of education and take into account, perhaps, the foreign certificates that Russian students receive.
Commentary by the head of the department of criminal law and criminology, prof. G.A. Esakova to a leading publication
The admissions campaign at Russian universities is coming to an end. The main intrigue this year was the fate of distance learning programs in a number of specialties, in particular, legal and economics. At least after a number of statements by representatives of relevant departments, the media wrote about the ban on correspondence education for lawyers and economists from September 1 of this year almost as a fait accompli. However, the Ministry of Education and Science does not plan to change anything in the near future.
“To abandon this form of education, it is necessary to change the state standard,” explained Vice-Rector of RANEPA Maxim Nazarov. - “New federal educational standards are planned only from 2017, so at least until September 1 of next year the correspondence form will exist. Perhaps some special law will be issued earlier that will cancel this, but for now this is impossible: just by order of the minister to cancel Correspondence courses are not possible."
According to the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education Oleg Smolin, he, being categorically disagree with this initiative, sent to the head of the Ministry of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov request, which tried to explain that this decision was wrong and “will lead to colossal harmful consequences.”
“I received a five-page answer,” says the parliamentarian. - “Four and a half pages are quotations from laws that I know. Half of the page contains things that I, in general, also know, but they are important. The answer says that such changes can only be introduced on the basis of changes in state educational standards for higher education. And now the ministry has no proposals on this matter. That is, the issue has been postponed for at least a year, which is not bad. Although earlier this was talked about as a probable fact from September 1 of this year." In fact, it was postponed until next year, and for the coming year, as you know, “either the vizier, or Khoja, or a donkey...”
While the government has not made any concrete decisions, the initiative continues to cause heated discussions. A number of experts and university leaders are convinced that in such important specialties as law, people need to be trained with a maximum academic load.
“We do not have correspondence education: we are confident that high-quality training can only be carried out personally in the classroom,” said the vice-rector of the Russian School of Economics Zarema Kasabieva. - “The basis of our master’s education is the personal contact of the professor with the student. If the decision to abolish correspondence education in a number of specialties is made, over time this may affect the situation in the country as a whole. It seems strange when lawyers study only in absentia, from textbooks. Not in vain in American universities this is hard, very intense training in classrooms, with full involvement. But here you can only come to take exams, and sometimes, unfortunately, for money. I don’t want to offend anyone: in Soviet times there was an excellent correspondence law university, but in fact there was daytime and evening training."
However, the vice-rector of MPGU Igor Remorenko believes that modern methods and technologies allow working students to master academic disciplines in full. There should not be any difficulties for people who study and work due to distance technologies and e-learning, he believes.
Vice-Rector of RANEPA Maxim Nazarov I agree that lawyers should be trained more thoroughly. At the same time, in his opinion, closing distance learning in other specialties would be unnecessary.
“People with secondary vocational education who work in municipalities often go into state and municipal administration; they need specialized education. In my opinion, it is not worth closing the correspondence course for this specialty,” says Nazarov.
“People who already work in the field of management, small business, have extensive experience, as a rule, during distance learning, show a higher level of knowledge than those who receive their first education at a hospital,” agrees deputy Oleg Smolin. - “I am now in Omsk helping the head of a local organization of disabled people get a free education at a private university. She is a very smart woman. She will not be a professional lawyer, but she desperately needs a legal education to work at the head of a public organization. We have a paradoxical situation: with one "On the other hand, our government is trying to turn us all into lawyers - Russian laws are such that it is impossible for a normal person to read them. And on the other hand, it also proposes that we give legal education only to those who are full-time students."
According to experts, up to 70% Law students receive education by correspondence at various regional universities. Formally, their status after receiving a diploma is no different from the status of graduates of the best universities. These people become investigators, judges, prosecutors. And this worries many people.
“Limit the recruitment rules for the professions of judges, prosecutors, etc. to certain universities if you think that the education in other universities is of poor quality,” Oleg Smolin objects in this regard. - “On this basis, you cannot violate the rights of other people, especially since you are forcing them to become lawyers.”
Head of the Department of Criminal Law, National Research University Higher School of Economics Gennady Esakov believes that Smolin’s proposal will not solve the problem: if you determine the list of universities whose graduates have the right to occupy certain positions, it will expand endlessly, he said.
Gennady Yesakov noted that correspondence legal education is a relic of the Soviet era, when, after the defeat of the Tsarist law school, the Bolsheviks were faced with the need to train personnel. As they progressed in their careers, employees with the right social background and primary education entered correspondence universities and had a diploma by the time they took up a higher position.
However, now this is an anachronism, Gennady Yesakov believes, and proposes two options for solving the problem: either really eliminate correspondence training for lawyers as such, or leave it, but introduce a system of qualifying exams for judges, prosecutors and lawyers.
Material taken from the site
In mid-2016, there was active talk about the adoption of a law abolishing the possibility of obtaining correspondence education in certain specialties:
Economist;
Manager in the direction of "Public Administration".
It was planned to introduce restrictions from September 1. The main initiator of the innovation is the head of Rosobrnadzor Sergei Kravtsov.
Before the law to abolish correspondence education was first discussed, other representatives of the educational system spoke about the negative effect of this form of education.
Official and unofficial reasons for canceling correspondence education
It is not yet known whether there will be restrictions on obtaining the first higher education, whether correspondence education will be abolished completely, or whether this initiative will extend to specific specialties.
The main reasons for introducing the law:
Improving the quality of training. The actual effectiveness of this method of acquiring knowledge is minimal. Most people get it “for the crust.” They don't realize that employers are following this trend. Nowadays it is difficult to get a job even for full-time workers without work experience;
According to Kravtsov, a number of universities have turned into shops selling diplomas. In fact, they are unable to provide quality education. The destruction of such institutions will reduce problems for students;
Redirecting flows of students studying for specialties needed by the country. Now we need engineers and representatives of other technical specialties;
Budget optimization. Useless correspondence students on budget training waste taxpayers' funds. Universities make good profits without providing quality education.
The correspondence education system is a relic of the 20s of the 20th century. It has not shown good results in all the years of its existence.
Results of 2016. Terms of the law. Which specialties does it apply to?
Has correspondence education been canceled or not? At the moment, the law has not entered into force. Students can study part-time in all offered specialties.
However, it is obvious that representatives of Rosobrnadzor and the leadership of universities will develop effective steps to provide an alternative and move away from this method of education. The opportunity to obtain a second diploma will remain for established, employed adults. Unlike most part-time students, for whom higher education will be the first, they strive to gain knowledge to improve their qualifications, making significant efforts.
Pros and cons of the adopted law
If the law comes into force, we can talk about movement towards improving the quality of education, minimizing corruption and improving the work of universities, which are rapidly enriching themselves through correspondence courses. But this regulatory act will affect the interests of those who, for certain reasons, cannot continue full-time education (for example, young mothers). We will soon know whether the new law will come into force.
