On September 13, the roundtable session “Higher Education during the Pandemic: challenges and solutions” was held in TASS. Within the session, the research “Quality of Education in Russian Universities: what we have realized during the pandemic” has been presented by the experts from 13 Russian universities, including MCU, Higher School of Economics (HSE University), and Tomsk State University (TSU), among others.
Valery Falkov, Minister of Higher Education and Science of the Russian Federation, has opened the session stating that the research had allowed experts to consider the situation of the last 1.5 years from different angles. The pandemic have highlighted all the problems of higher education but leading universities that have paid attention to diverse aspects, have managed to maintain the high quality of education. Besides, psychological support for students has to be consistent and high-quality which has been emphasized by the minister.
In addition, the discussion has been dedicated to other issues, including:
- How the system of higher education had responded to the challenges of the pandemic;
- Which digital mechanisms had been introduced in universities;
- Why it is crucial to involve students in the system of managing the quality of education;
- If the quality of knowledge received depends on the learning formats.
MCU Rector Igor Remorenko has commented on the results of the research:
The research that we conducted, considered the analysis of what happened to the learning processes and how education had changed. For example, various electronic educational sources have been used, and extracurricular courses have become more significant. The fact that teaching staff has begun to more actively use electronic sources and design courses contributed to the involvement of students. At the same time, the content of education has diversified. There have appeared the elements that are easy to master through training sessions, training simulators, and individual learning. The research led us to the conclusion that learning requires mixed formats and in-depth teamwork in terms of the education content.