Rebooting Master’s Programs in an Updated Higher Education System: Management Track

The relevance of the research topic is the importance of higher education programs in the implementation of one of the key functions of a modern university to form a graduate’s picture of the world of an educated person and acquire skills for successful professional activity. The article substantiates proposals that contribute to updating the Russian model of master’s training in the management track in the direction of increasing its efficiency, competitiveness and relevance. Research objectives: to consider the role of the master’s degree institute in the context of value creation by universities; justify one of the possible approaches to the design of a master’s program, which is based on the implementation of new principles for the creation and implementation of an educational product (using the example of direction 38.04.01 — Economics); consider the “double degree” format as part of a package proposal for the implementation of an MBA program and a master’s program (in the direction of 04/38/02 — Management); justify the need to include disciplines on venture financing and risk management of technological projects in the structure of the master’s training curriculum. Research methods: systematic approach, logical analysis, synthesis, content analysis of open sources, including official documents of a regulatory nature. Results. Ensuring high quality and sustainability of master’s programs is possible based on the implementation of the principle of the “four Us” (uniqueness, recognition, sustainability, satisfaction). To successfully solve the problems of ensuring the demand and competitiveness of the educational product in order to increase the value created by universities, taking into account new requirements for updating the domestic higher education system, it is necessary to update the ongoing master’s programs based on reengineering. It is recommended that master’s programs be updated in accordance with the developed principles of reengineering: taking into account transformational mega-trends when developing program content; strengthening the management component in the curriculum structure; increasing the level of originality of content through the development of “professorial” courses and reflecting this in the KPI system; the possibility of reformatting the curriculum into a block-modular format; participation of employers in the implementation of the master’s training curriculum in order to solve pressing problems of the real sector of the economy; formation of scientific groups of students to carry out research on current research topics with the possibility of using the results obtained in preparing reports on design and analytical work and writing a final qualifying thesis. The following are proposed as criteria for the success of a master’s program in Economics as elements of a university’s KPI system: the presence in the curriculum of disciplines that reflect transformational mega-trends, original “professorial” courses and disciplines of a management nature. Main conclusions (discussion). The project of launching an MBA program in a “double degree” format with an additional option providing the possibility of obtaining a “Master of Management” degree seems quite promising. The MBA program requires teaching the disciplines “Venture Business and Innovation Financing” and “Risk Management of Technological Projects.”