Challenges of the new higher education system in Russia for universities of culture and arts

Abstract

The article examines the consequences of the Russian higher school transition to the national higher education system (the pilot project of the 2023/24–2029/30 academic years) for universities of culture and arts. Based on the analysis of normative legal acts, official admission statistics and scholarly literature, the distinctive features of the creative segment are identified: the prevalence of the specialist programme, the continuous educational vertical «school – college – university», a specific format of training highly qualified personnel (assistantship-traineeship), and admission grounded in creative entrance tests. Five groups of challenges are systematised: the unification of levels while preserving the long creative specialist programme; the contradiction between the logic of a broad basic core with late specialisation and early narrow specialisation in the arts; the reassignment of assistantship-traineeship to the level of specialised higher education; the alignment of admission target figures and creative tests with the new architecture of levels; and the international dimension of qualification recognition after the withdrawal from the Bologna process. Directions of adaptation are proposed: differentiated federal state educational standards for the arts, legal consolidation of the creative final work, and coordination between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia.