Vladimir Putin¡¯s decision to return Russian universities to a system of Soviet-style, six-year ¡°specialist¡± degrees is likely to further isolate the country¡¯s higher education system, academics said.

In his annual state of the nation address, Mr Putin announced Russian academia¡¯s departure from the three-tier higher education system commonly adopted in Europe under the Bologna Process and around the world ¨C and adopted by most Russian universities over the past decade.

Instead of issuing bachelor¡¯s, master¡¯s and doctorate degrees, Russian universities will revert back to a Soviet-era system under which students received a ¡°specialist¡± degree, usually over the course of five to six years.

The president¡¯s announcement came almost exactly a year since Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, a decision that led most Western universities to?sever their ties?with Russian institutions,?isolating the sector.

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But the new policy drives the wedge further, said Dmitry Dubrovsky, a research fellow at the department of social science at Charles University in Prague.

The Kremlin¡¯s decision to rubbish the?Bologna Process?¨C meant to standardise education, making it more inclusive and accessible to students across Europe ¨C would effectively bring Russian students under a ¡°new Iron Curtain¡±, hampering mobility, he said.

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Dr Dubrovsky feared that most European universities would not recognise the Russian specialist degree. As a result, Russian students and researchers hoping to continue their education in Europe may have difficulty using their Russian qualifications.

¡°The most harmful story here, from my perspective, is the lack of understanding [of] how exactly this education will be valued in Europe and how it will be converted into the Bologna scheme,¡± he said.

Maia Chankseliani, an associate professor of comparative and international education at University of Oxford and an expert on higher education in post-Soviet states, agreed.

¡°This policy change that will directly impact the mobility opportunities of Russians, might be seen as part of a longer-term plan to limit the exposure of the Russian people to the wider world and to go back to the old Soviet isolationist politics,¡± she said.

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According to Dr Chankseliani¡¯s?, larger flows of students to democratic countries is linked with higher levels of democracy at home in the former Soviet countries.

She noted that Putin¡¯s announcement was foreshadowed by earlier discussions in Russian government. In May 2022, Russia¡¯s minister of education Valery Falkov said that the Bologna Process was a thing of the past and that the future of Russian education ¡°belongs to our own unique system¡± ¨C which must correspond to the national economy, Russian newspaper Vedomosti?.

Svetlana Shenderova, a scholar affiliated with Tampere University and the University of Helsinki in Finland, said that the move further complicated an already ¡°inconsistent degree system¡± in Russia whereby old-fashioned and new systems co-exist, and ¡°undermines the reputation of Russian degree programmes¡± around the world.

Beyond isolating Russian students further, the move could also buy the Kremlin more time to imprint them with pro-Kremlin propaganda, she believed, since?students will have more years of exposure to now-mandatory military training.

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¡°This extension provides time for brainwashing courses and military training of male students who further will be recruited as the officers.¡±

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com