The discussion panel “Trends in Master’s Studies: International Experience” became the centerpiece of the practical day of the conference. Sharing their experiences and vision of what modern Master’s should look like were heads of Master’s studies departments, researchers and professors of Europe’s leading universities: Oili Kohonen, head of international Master’s programs at the University of Eastern Finland, Tobias Stüdemann, representative of the Free University of Berlin in Moscow, Bert Coryn, coordinator of Master’s programs in the field of photonics at Ghent University, Mosamba Kah, head of international Master’s program in solar energy at the National University of Science and Technology MISiS, and Michael Lees, professor at the University of Amsterdam. They were joined by the winners of the 2018-2019 Potanin Scholarship for educators. Maria Didkovskaia, head of ITMO University’s Internationalization Department, moderated the discussion.
Why we need Master’s education and what goals it should achieve
Speaking about the key tasks of Master’s studies, Tobias Stüdemann suggested that in the context of the German educational system, Master’s studies are necessary as a level that first and foremost ensures the specialization of students. While Bachelor’s studies provide fundamental, general knowledge, Master’s studies give students the opportunity to decide on their future career and acquire more in-depth competencies and skills.
“If we were to look at the situation from the labor market point of view, we’d discover that in many ways, it also can’t go very far without Master’s studies. Big companies and industrial partners need people who already have a specialization and a sufficiently in-depth knowledge of their professional field. Their second key requirement concerns internationalization: they want to take on graduates who already have some international experience, including the experience of having worked as part of an international team. And this is exactly the kind of experience one can obtain as part of Master’s studies,” noted the expert.
According to Michael Lees, both in the UK, where he’s from, and the Netherlands, where he works, you can’t have a successful career as a researcher if you don’t have a Master’s degree up your sleeve. Pursuing their Master’s studies, future researchers acquire the skills integral for the future development of their professional potential. It is there that they get the opportunity to start working on real-world research projects, which in the University of Amsterdam can not only come from the academia but also be commissioned by companies serving as industrial partners of the university.
Another advantage of Master’s degree programs is that they provide the opportunity to unite specialists from different backgrounds and develop the interdisciplinary approach to education.
“We bring together students with different competencies ranging from physics to chemistry and biology. We introduce them to computer-enabled research methods and explain how to use them and what opportunities they open for researchers. The main thing is for them to immerse themselves into such a research environment, learn to ask the right questions, and familiarize themselves with the methodology in order to then produce the right kind of research,” said Michael Lees.
Specialists in Russia have also started to fully grasp the advantages of the Master’s level education, believes Mosamba Kah. Having obtained his PhD degree in the UK, for the past five years the researcher has been working in Russia.
“When I first came to Moscow in 2011, there was a rather combative discussion on changing the national educational system and shifting to the Bologna model,” shared Mosamba. “Master’s studies give flexibility necessary for a world-class education. When I was just starting out at MISiS, we only had one Master’s program in English, but were already having discussions about how we were going to ensure export of knowledge and skills. Apart from that, already back then we made the decision to combine in one program several self-sufficient, as it seemed, scientific fields to create something that would go beyond the regular materials science, and what we got as a result was a program that tapped into one of the hottest topics in the scientific community: interdisciplinarity.”
The expert also underlined that Master’s studies allow for effective collaboration with partners from other universities. In this context, Master’s is the first and one of the most key steps for further internationalization of universities.
Ghent University’s Bert Coryn wholeheartedly agreed with this point, adding that going international has become a common practice in Master’s studies in Belgium, and universities see it as a key priority of development of their Master’s programs. While during the first-level university education students concentrate on acquiring knowledge and skills at their home university, the second level that are Master’s studies present them with a wide range of opportunities to gain international experience at partner universities all over the globe. These opportunities include summer schools, internships, exchange semesters, courses and many other formats.
How to assemble interdisciplinary teams and ensure academic freedom and individual learning trajectories
Another question that sparked an active discussion referred to the balance of the main courses students attend as part of their specialization (major) and additional learning opportunities (minor), which is also known as academic freedom.
According to Tobias Stüdemann, the preferable approach is letting each and every university independently create their own Master’s programs. This approach also implies that students can choose the courses they deem necessary for their personal development and future career, under the condition that they get enough credits required for their major.
“I think it would be great to give students freedom of choice, because it is they that are ultimately responsible for their future career and professional development. A university’s task in this regard is to give them this opportunity to develop themselves,” shared the expert. “As far as I know, it’s becoming more and more popular in Russia for companies, research centers and industrial partners to engage in education. It’s another option that’s highly worth considering.”
As noted by Michael Lees, the University of Amsterdam’s Master’s programs are also very flexible in their nature. But whilst enjoying the freedom of choosing between a range of additional subjects, students still have to hold up to their major. This is checked for by the examination committee, which decides whether a computer science major has enough knowledge of their field to perform professional tasks.
Whatever the approach taken, the speakers agreed that the day of one-specialization professionals had gone. Even if a student pursues an in-demand specialization in the fields of programming or physics, it’s always better to expand your knowledge with something that is conventionally seen to be far away from these fields. For it is the intersection of different sciences that gives rise of the most interesting projects, believe the experts.
“If your research interests lie in only one field of scientific knowledge, this means that you have but a limited set of skills and aren’t likely to think big,” commented Tobias Stüdemann. “Both the labor market and numerous examples from real-world economics show that we need specialists who are motivated to go beyond their main specialization. If you’re studying photovoltaics, the technologies behind the solar battery production, why not combine it with economics or social studies? Yours is the issue that has the potential to directly impact society and production at large, so these additions are very valuable. This is a very popular topic in Germany.”
As added by Michael Lees, uniting specialists with different backgrounds in the framework of one program is far from easy. For example, it’s not rare that students who want to pursue computer science as their Master’s degree don’t have enough mathematical knowledge. But this problem can be solved if prior to the start of Master’s studies and at the first lecture of their Master’s, students are given basic information and skills they should possess to be able to work in teams and obtain more specialized knowledge going forward. It is a specialist’s ability and motivation to master all the basics that shows their willingness to immerse into a new professional field, highlights the expert. To that end, the University of Amsterdam hosts individual interviews which identify a prospective student’s priorities and interests; apart from everything else, it also allows for building their individual learning trajectory.
