Describe the legislative status of double diplomas in your country.

Article 33 of the Federal Law "On Higher and Postgraduate Professional Education" (O vysshem I poslevuzovskom professionalnom obrazovanii) no. 125-FZ of 22 August 1996 stipulates the right of Russian HEIs to participate in international cooperation, programmes of bilateral and multilateral student exchanges, training foreign citizens in compliance with governmental agreements, agreements with federal and agency bodies for state management of education, as well as under direct agreements reached by Russian HEIs with foreign citizens and foreign legal entities.

In compliance with current legislation, higher educational institutions have the right to reach agreements with foreign partners regarding joint activity, which are not seen as international agreements and, therefore, do not require long-term coordination at the government level.

The option that HEI graduates may receive the diploma of a foreign HEI together with the education certificate of the Russian HEI, is not forbidden by law and falls under the competence of academic councils and rectorates of HEIs.

At the current time, 715 of Russian HEIs (50% of the total number) have educational agreements with foreign partners. This includes 546 state and 169 private HEIs.

Joint programmes are implemented by 104 HEIs and three HEI affiliations. A total of 345 educational programmes are implemented jointly with Russian and foreign partners, including in 309 state and 36 private HEIs.

A total of 168,958 students study in joint programmes (2.3% of the total number of students):

- 159,177 students in state HEIs or 2.6% (including 650 students at affiliations);

- 9,781 students in private HEIs or 0.7% (including 1,133 students at affiliations).

In 2005, joint diplomas of Russian and foreign HEIs were earned by 31,374 graduates of state HEIs (or 3.1%) and 1,630 graduates of private HEIs (0.8%), i.e. a total of 33,004 (2.7% of the total number of graduates).

In order to attract foreign citizens to study at Russian HEIs, 113 HEIs (95 state and 18 private) as well as in 40 affiliations, educational programmes are provided in foreign languages, predominantly in English. A total of 462 higher educational programmes are delivered in foreign languages.

In 2005, under the framework of the Federal Target Programme for Development of Education in 2006-2010, a project was implemented involving evaluation of the experience of issuing double diplomas by Russian HEIs and the principles of the organisation of this type of cooperation, models for assuring education quality, and achievements and complications related to the issuance of such diplomas.

The research thus conducted explored the experience of double diploma programmes at the bachelor’s, master’s, specialist and MBA levels, as well as several cases of postgraduate studies. Various models of joint educational programmes have been developed: franchising programmes, validated by a foreign university but implemented in a Russian HEI, and developed and delivered jointly (including those

involving international groups of students with subsequent study in all (two or three) participating universities). At Russian universities, various forms of joint training programmes are provided: intramural and intramural/correspondence, as well as completely distance learning programmes.

For the first time, the development of 14 master’s programmes jointly with British and Finnish universities was supported under the framework of this project, as well as receiving financial assistance under the BRIDGE (British Council) and Cross-Border University (Finland Ministry of Education) projects.

One of the managerial decisions upon completion of the project was the introduction of an information request to implement double diploma programmes under the framework of an accreditation module, making it possible to receive more objective data.