Forbidden admission: how to build a new logic of master's degree in Russia

State Duma deputies proposed giving the Ministry of Education and Science the right to impose restrictions on the admission of "non-core" applicants to the magistracy. Currently, about 20% of people with degrees in management, linguistics, or law are enrolled in such complex programs as chemical technology. Experts emphasize that Russia is going to change the very logic of the magistracy. The government does not like that, instead of being the next advanced academic or professionally specialized level after a specialized bachelor's degree, it has turned into a massive "social elevator". For more information about what awaits the master's degree, see the Izvestia article.

What is the essence of the bill?

The bill was prepared by deputies of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education. The document amends the law "On Education" and grants the Ministry of Education and Science the right to establish requirements for compliance with the profile of the master's degree program and previously obtained higher education, as well as to the applicant's work experience. In fact, this is an opportunity to limit the enrollment of "non-core" applicants to the master's program.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Polina Violet

The fact is that a significant part of students enroll in master's degree programs in areas that have nothing to do with their bachelor's degree. The explanatory note provides an example: In 2025, about 20% of people with degrees in management, economics, law, and linguistics were enrolled in the Chemical Technology program.

Currently, 45.1% of students continue their education in the same field as in their bachelor's degree, another 30.7% choose a related field of study, and 24.2% radically change their educational profile, Niyaz Gabdrakhmanov, academic director of the graduate program "Management in Higher Education", head of the laboratory "University Development" at the Institute of Education of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, told Izvestia. This is not always a bad thing: many perceive it as an opportunity to "expand their professional repertoire."

However, the authors of the bill believe that the quality of training often suffers, because in the magistracy a person does not have time to acquire the necessary fundamental knowledge and general professional competencies provided for by the Federal State Educational Standard.

The Master's degree in Russia is not an additional professional education program that allows for retraining, but there are separate annual programs designed for at least 250 hours of study, explained Irina Abankina, professor at the HSE Institute of Education. In the master's program, the goals are different — this is the next, higher level of education. But it is impossible to raise it if there is no entry level.

— We consider it a logical track when the guys from Phystech and Baumanki go to economics and management to expand their competencies as future managers. But when we talk about people from not the highest—rated universities with a degree in law who are going to graduate in chemical technology, it really looks like some kind of profanity," the expert said.

The authors of the bill call the initiative one of the measures to train highly qualified personnel for priority sectors of the economy. If the law is passed, strict requirements for the profile of previous education or the availability of specialized work experience may appear for a number of areas, primarily technical and natural sciences.

The Ministry of Education and Science has so far declined to comment on the bill, as it has not yet been submitted to the government for official review.

University and business: how can Russia attract half a million international students

The Ministry of Education and Science has developed selection criteria for the "white list" of recruiting agencies working with applicants from abroad

The new logic of the Master's degree

In parallel with the transition to a new national system of higher education, the very logic of graduate studies and educational trajectories is actually being re-designed, said Tatiana Klyachko, Director of the Center for Economics of Continuing Education at the Presidential Academy.

"In this model, the master's degree is increasingly viewed not as a universal "second higher education", but as the next stage of professional, research or managerial development," she told Izvestia, calling this attempt to link the master's degree profile with previous education logical.

Until now, the master's degree has often been used to get a deferral from the army, a dormitory while looking for work when moving to a large city, etc., Irina Abankina noted. In this case, it was not necessary to complete a master's degree or defend a job, which is why the university did not graduate the right specialists.

From the work of the HSE Institute of Education "Master's Degree in Russia: trends, contradictions and development prospects" it follows that the master's degree in the Russian Federation is experiencing an identity crisis, this stage of education does not have a clear division into scientific and practical. In 2023, the total number of undergraduates in Russia reached its peak since 2016 — 585,000 people. The number of master's degree programs has grown by 37% in eight years. At the same time, the level of deductions is also increasing: from 20% in admission in 2016 to 28% in admission in 2021. In 2023, the number of full-time men in the magistracy increased by 35.5 thousand people, and their share amounted to 61%.

The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs told Izvestia that they are not in favor of restrictions, but rather of stimulating seamless education, when bachelor's degree graduates continue their studies in the same direction at the magistracy.

"The problem is not in reprofiling, but in understanding trends and adapting the existing system of secondary vocational and higher education to them," the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs added.

It is noted that the main demand in business is now focused on graduates of secondary vocational rather than higher education: 65% of the country's personnel needs are formed by graduates from vocational education and training. From the point of view of higher education, design engineers, development engineers and research engineers with the skills and competencies to work in new fields and formats for the country will be in demand.

— Therefore, it may be necessary to consider the issue of involving representatives of businesses and enterprises in the formulation of requirements for applicants in selected areas that ensure technological leadership. It also seems that the proposed restrictions should be of a different nature for different directions," the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said.

Superfluous people: why is the Ministry of Education and Science reducing paid places in universities

Will it become more difficult to graduate as an economist or lawyer

Why is the Master's degree program having problems?

In turn, Timur Sokolov, head of the Department of Public Law, head of the Master's program "Justice and Advocacy" at the Faculty of Law of the National Academy of Law, who does not support the proposed bill, believes that the problem of the magistracy is not that it works without restrictions on admission not according to the profile, but how the system of the second level of higher education is organized. education.

— One of the main reasons why universities massively enroll people with non—core degrees in budget places is the need to fulfill a government task at virtually any cost. For the university, this is a matter of survival: a shortage of admission targets threatens a direct reduction in funding next year," he explained in an interview with Izvestia.

The expert sees the solution not as tightening bureaucratic requirements for admission, but as restructuring the economy of higher education: the state task should encourage universities not to chase after the "head" at any cost, but to work on the real popularization and increasing the prestige of engineering and other specialties in demand by the economy.

Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Scientific and Educational Center for the Development of Education at the Presidential Academy, Professor Vladimir Blinov also recognizes that in Russia, fulfilling state assignments and ensuring admission control figures have become an absolute priority for rectors, which pushes them to decide to "take everyone who came." At the same time, he calls the restrictions necessary. They exist in almost all developed countries, the expert notes.

However, there is no single model in the world. For example, in Austria, which was previously very loyal to applicants, in 2024 universities were allowed to introduce entrance exams for all master's and doctoral programs in order to ensure the selection of the most qualified graduates. This provoked serious protests from the European Student Union, which warned of serious barriers and "intolerable consequences for social selection and social mobility," recalls Timur Sokolov.

What are the risks of reforming the Master's degree program?

In the master's program, it is important to differentiate between two types of mobility: vertical, when competencies in a professional field are deepened, which is typical for programs focused on training research personnel, and horizontal, when a related or other profession is mastered, which is typical for applied and interdisciplinary programs, emphasizes Niyaz Gabdrakhmanov.

"Legislative restrictions on horizontal mobility may lead to a narrowing of educational opportunities for a significant proportion of applicants for whom the master's degree is a mechanism for adapting to the dynamic demands of the labor market," he believes.

For academic programs, which really involve mastering a significant amount of fundamental disciplines in a short time, enrolling students without basic training is a serious risk, the expert confirms. But for applied and interdisciplinary programs, where people come for advanced training, a change in professional vector and the formation of hybrid competencies, this is "not a shortage, but a resource," he says. Here, restrictions can be dangerous: for example, they can lead to a reduction in the influx of talent into high-tech industries from related fields. And implementing the requirements can be a difficult task.

"Universities may start to "repackage" existing courses under new names, which will not solve the quality problem, but will create an additional bureaucratic burden and reduce the transparency of the educational offer,— warns Niyaz Gabdrakhmanov.

The Ministry of Education and Science will have a lot of work to do if the bill is passed: it is important to understand what is considered related sciences, who can enroll in them, what competence requirements should be, etc. D., notes Irina Abankina.

In turn, Tatiana Klyachko admits that in a number of areas — primarily engineering, natural sciences and medicine - a master's degree really cannot fully compensate for the lack of fundamental basic training. But too strict restrictions, in her opinion, would be a mistake.

"If we create an excessively rigid model of transitions between training areas today, in a few years this may begin to slow down the adaptation of the labor market to the new demands of the economy," says the editorial interlocutor. — The key question is not whether to allow or prohibit the transition between directions, but how exactly to build rules for such transitions.

To know about the place: in the Russian Federation, they are preparing insurance for guaranteed tuition fees at the university

It will allow you to enroll, even if the accumulated amount is not enough.

According to her, the new higher education system assumes several types of master's degree programs — academic, professional and managerial. For the first one, focused on science and further research career, the requirements for the profile of previous education can indeed be quite strict. For a professional master's degree, it is logical to maintain the continuity of competencies within the specialty, but the managerial one should assume a broader composition of applicants: in this case, competencies are built on top of industry experience.

For the real benefit of higher education, it is necessary to create fundamentally new, "real interdisciplinary programs" designed at the intersection of sciences, Timur Sokolov adds. There are such programs now, although the cover of interdisciplinarity often remains a "wrapper for a banal search for applicants."

— We are not talking about the fact that a lawyer can become a chemist, but about creating hybrid areas: law and computer science (specialists in digital law, ethics of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity), physics and archaeology (application of radiocarbon dating, spectrometry and geophysical sounding methods for excavations), economics and medicine (health management, pharmacoeconomics, evaluation of medical technologies), etc.," he explains.

At the same time, there is another risk — the bill may fall under the restriction of the constitutional right to higher education on a competitive basis, the expert warns.