The Ministry of Education informed TASS that leading universities will start the transition to a new system on September 1, with a "mass transition" planned for the 2027-2028 academic year, which will affect all higher educational institutions in the country, regardless of their ownership and departmental affiliation. The ministry assures that the changes will not be abrupt for students.
Ksenia Goryacheva, the first deputy chair of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education, noted that as a result of the transition, the "bachelor" and "master" formats will be abolished. The specialized level will represent an updated format of master's programs with a focus on professional, managerial, and research trajectories. Graduates of basic programs will now be able to participate in competitions for budget places, which was previously prohibited. Starting September 1, 11 more universities will abandon the Bologna system, in addition to the six that have already done so as part of a pilot project. These include institutions such as Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, as well as Ural, Far Eastern, and Southern Federal Universities.
The rejection of the Bologna system, which facilitated international ties among universities and made it easier for students to continue their studies abroad, occurred against the backdrop of military actions in Ukraine. State Duma Vice-Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy emphasized the necessity of such measures to avoid "ideological defeat" and not to "lose our schoolchildren and citizens." The head of the Ministry of Education and Science, Valery Falkov, noted that the interests of the national economy should be at the core of the educational system.
In May 2023, President Vladimir Putin approved a decree to begin the reform of higher education in Russia. The pilot project covers universities such as MAI, MISiS, MPGU, Saint Petersburg Mining University, Baltic Federal University named after Kant, and Tomsk State University.
The Bologna system was introduced to create a unified educational space among leading European countries that signed the Bologna Declaration in 1999. It implied a two-tier system of higher education: bachelor's (four years) and master's (two years). Currently, 49 countries participate in the Bologna process, and Russia joined it in 2003.
