Matvienko criticized “naphthalene specialties” and private universities

One of the bright statements of the head of the Federation Council was her words about the need for a decisive revision of the list of specialties in Russian universities. Matvienko called for the removal of “naphthalene, obsolete even by the name of the profession.” The Senate speaker stressed that everything that is “already outdated, that does not work for the quality of the country, do not need, we must boldly cancel.”.

In her opinion, universities retain an excessive number of areas of training that are not in demand by the labor market. As “excessive” she called such areas of higher education as “Public Relations and PR”, as well as “Management” of different levels.

Matvienko also demanded an analysis of the effectiveness of correspondence education. The main question she posed was: is it possible to train a qualified engineer in this format? The speaker expressed hope that doctors are not trained in absentia, and suggested that the correspondence format can be in demand primarily for improving the skills of already working specialists.

In general, the most severe criticism of the Chairman of the upper house of Parliament subjected the sphere of private higher education. Matviyenko proposed to appeal to the government with a recommendation to suspend the licensing of new universities until the restoration of order in this area and clarification of legislation.

“Today, anyone can establish a higher education institution. Licenses are issued, in fact, by application procedure, the speaker said. According to her, a whole layer of private educational institutions has appeared in Russia, which only imitate educational activities.

The parliamentarian separately noted that there is nothing wrong with the very phenomenon of private universities - this is a world practice, but they must provide high-quality training of specialists. She urged to take into account the views of governors and local ministries of education when opening new universities. This initiative follows logically from the previous one: if private universities are opened uncontrollably, then regional authorities should have levers of influence on this process in order to prevent the emergence of educational institutions that train unclaimed specialists.

The meeting in the Federation Council took place against the background of large-scale work to tighten regulation in the field of higher education. According to the head of Rosobrnadzor Anzor Muzaev, the agency, together with the government and parliament, has already formed a package of proposals to strengthen control over non-state higher education.

Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov, in turn, reported that the restrictions on paid admission this year affected 40 superfluous for the labor market specialties, primarily management, economics and law. They reduced 97,000 paid seats. He also announced measures to change the rules for admission of Olympiads to universities.

Matviyenko’s proposals reflect the dissatisfaction with the state of our higher education that has accumulated in the upper house of parliament. The logic of her speech can be described as “quality is more important than quantity”. The speaker consistently pointed out that the VO system is overblown: too many universities, too many specialties, too many forms of training that do not give the desired result.

However, the implementation of all initiatives will require overcoming serious resistance. The suspension of licensing of new universities can be perceived as a blow to private education and restriction of competition. Revision of the list of specialties is a long process and will inevitably cause lobbying pressure from universities that do not want to lose recruitment. Analysis of the effectiveness of distance learning, although it seems logical, in practice will require large-scale research and the development of new evaluation criteria.

But since such questions were raised at the level of the Federation Council, changes are inevitable. And, most likely, the topic of problems of higher education goes from the category of discussion to the category of practical tasks. Matviyenko makes it clear that simply (or cleverly) talking is no longer enough – concrete actions are needed.