Russian govt. approves bill on two-tier university education

MOSCOW, March 9 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government has approved a draft law on a transition to a two-tier university education system at its meeting Friday.

"Higher education is ready to switch to a two-tier system," Russia's first deputy prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, said at the meeting.

Under the bill, Bachelor's and Master's courses will be introduced at Russian higher education establishments.

The document could come into effect September 1, 2007.

Russia's education and science minister, Andrei Fursenko, said the Bachelor's and Master's courses were meant to be independent higher education levels meeting separate state standards and governed by different certification and qualification rules.

Higher education establishments would also obtain licenses, certification and accreditation individually for Bachelor's and Master's programs, Fursenko said.

The minister said the new system would help improve the use of budgetary funds and eliminate structural discrepancies between the demand and supply of experts with higher education degrees on the labor market.