Russian and American Systems of Higher Education

Denezhkina Ksenia group 411

ESSAY

Russian and American Systems of Higher Education

Each country is only and unique in all aspects. But we should have the same aim for our future. Good education is the way to people’s unity and equality. I want to prove it by comparing Russian and American systems of higher education.

  In my opinion nowadays the American educational system is quite similar to the Russian one.

I tried to understand the similarity between the professional degrees. Are they common? Yes, they are. The first university level degree is the Bachelor’s degree. This is the equivalent to the American Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts. In both countries a student should spend 4 years at the university in order to get it. Perhaps the only difference is in the quality of the education, but this is another question. 

The next degree which is quite similar to both countries is a Master’s degree. It requires two years of hard-working studying.

After a Master's degree, students can continue to study towards a Doctoral degree. Studies last for 3 years. In America it requires a minimum of two years work beyond the Master’s degree level.

Unfortunately, we shouldn’t forget that our system of higher education is changing now. That’s why it is difficult to compare it with any other.

The degree’s differences are not as great as it seemed before the changing of the Russian educational system. There are also some similarities in the academic calendar. The academic year in both countries is usually nine months, divided into two terms. Studies usually begin in September and end in July. Each university has its own curriculum. 

As we see, our system of higher education doesn’t differ a lot. But we couldn’t say so several years ago.

 Also I don’t prove the fact that this system is good, easy and universal. The reason for it is very clear: now we have no constant and steady system of higher education in Russia. Every university has to accept new changes and rules every month and year. As for me, it is easier to understand the foreign system than ours. I can’t be sure that in the future my type of the diploma will be of high demand. I only hope so.

In conclusion I want to add that we shouldn’t equalize the Russian and the American systems of higher education. Nowadays we just have a splendid opportunity to find the similarities in them.