Bologna Process in Russia: Common Rules or Inequality Chance?

 Russia joined the Bologna process in 2003. It has to become a full partner of the European system of education, but it has not happened. Europe joined the Bologna process through the objective processes taking place in contemporary European society (the emergence of transnational production and scientific associations, the formation of a single labor market, migration etc).  For the Russian education system the  accession to the Bologna process is an artificial process. From seven major provisions of the Bologna Declaration, Russia realized only one. A two-tier system of education has established: Bachelor's and master's programs.

The research focuses on the problems of convertibility of the Russian master's degrees with European diplomas. The major research objective was to examine the quality of higher education and the possibility of convertibility of Russian higher education diplomas. The research methodology combines qualitative and quantitative methods (depth interviews with experts and questionnaire).

Findings and discussion.  Transition to the new system of higher education does not guarantee the majority of domestic graduates of universities the same equal opportunities for employment  that  graduates of European universities  have.  It was selected several federal universities that were competitive in the global job market before Russia's accession to the Bologna process. The other universities must meet the needs of the local labor market. It is the main reason for the low level of training of graduates. The domestic industry is a major consumer of the graduates and it lags behind the European standards. That’s why there is no sense of raising the bar of education. In addition, the provincial universities have a large number of extra students who are poorly trained. It leads to the gap in the level of training of graduates of European and national universities and it reduces the chances of successful employment  for graduates of Russian universities.