Bakalavr (Bachelor)

A Bakalavr (Bachelor) degree is the first level of higher professional education in Russia.

According to the State Educational Standard of Higher Professional Education the fundamental educational bakalavr degree programme suppose a term of study at least for four years. Bakalavr degree programmes cover all feilds of knowledge except medicine.

A bakalavr degree programme differs from Specialist and Magistr (Master) programmes not only by a shorter term of study (at least four years), but by the absence of narrow specializing. The bakalavr gets a fundamental training without particular specialization since bakalavr degree programmes have a general scientific and professional nature in the contrast to specialist and magistr degree programmes.

A bakalavr diploma gives its holder a right to exercise a professional activity as it is an acknowledged diploma of higher professional education, and at the same time it gives a possibility to continue education according to the chosen speciality or to change speciality during the further admission to magistr studies.

The advantages of bakalavr studies come to the following:

1. A bakalavr qualification is used in international practice and clear for employers abroad. Foreign employers often engage bakalavrs even not determining their specilization as for the office work they just need an educated person able to work with information and people, capable to make different documents;

2. A fundamental nature of training without particular specialization allows to change the profession easily if necessary. The matter is that according to the State Educational Standard of Higher Professional Educational bakalavr training programmes for different specialities are constructed in a way that allows to turn to one of a number of compatible professions during two years of magistr training. At the same time the training of a bakalavr for a magistr degree is classified as the next level of education, that is when education is financed from federal budget funds the student has to pay nothing.