Problems and prospects for improving the legal regulation of the institution of state accreditation in the sphere of tertiary education

Abstract

Introduction. The large-scale reform of the higher education system in our country, associated with the introduction of a new model of higher education levels, will undoubtedly require a review of the list of specialties and fields of study, as well as the adoption of new federal state educational standards that define the quality of education assessed within the framework of state accreditation. In light of the recent introduction of «regulatory guillotine» mechanisms in the field of education, approaches to implementing state accreditation procedures need to be reconsidered. This determines the relevance of studying the problems and prospects for the development of state accreditation as an institution that guarantees the provision of public services in the field of higher education while ensuring the proper quality of education.Objective. An assessment of the legal regulation of state accreditation of higher education institutions to determine whether it meets the current requirements for ensuring the quality of education, and the development of recommendations for its improvement.Methods. The work employs general scientific and special scientific methods (systemic, logical, functional, historical-legal, formal-legal, and comparative-legal). The materials include scientific works by Russian and foreign authors, as well as legislation in the field of education and a number of policy documents defining the directions of state policy in this area and in the field of self-regulation.Results and conclusions. Based on a critical assessment of the existing legal regulation of the procedure for state accreditation, the author identified the shortcomings of the Russian system of state accreditation in the sphere of tertiary education and proposed directions for improving legislation in this area. The paper highlights the need to align accreditation indicators with the criteria for the quality of education. The author concluded that the labor market is not ready to differentiate education documents based on whether or not educational programs have state accreditation. The author has developed new approaches to regulating state accreditation in the field of higher education, based on replacing accreditation in state universities for their core educational programs with a more effective tool of intra-departmental control by the founding state bodies, transferring the functions of state accreditation of higher education to self-regulatory professional associations, and conducting a broader assessment of the quality of education during state control (supervision) in the field of education – based on modified indicators of accreditation monitoring that truly reflect the level of training and the creation of conditions for the high-quality acquisition of professional competencies.