Master’s Degree in Russia: “The Garden of Forking Paths” in Education

This article is the first in a series of papers dedicated to the career and educational trajectories of recent Master’s graduates in Russia. The research focuses on the specifics of educational transitions from Bachelor’s to Master’s degrees and is based on administrative data for Russia (Monitoring of Graduate Employment), which covers all university graduates in the country. The data show that 66% of Master’s graduates are recent Bachelor’s graduates who have continued their studies within five years of their previous education. 36% of full-time bachelor’s graduates enter a master’s programme in the first few years after graduation, and 93% of them do not take a break from their studies. About a quarter of continuing Bachelor’s graduates change their field of study at Master’s level. Changing university or region is much less common, although part-time bachelor graduates and those who took a break between bachelor and master are more likely to do so. A series of probit regressions were used to identify characteristics associated with continuing on to a Master’s degree, as well as changing field of study, university or region of study when moving from undergraduate to postgraduate study. The results show that graduates in technical and scientific fields, who studied full-time at more selective universities and who have high levels of academic achievement, are more likely to continue their studies at Master’s level. The more time elapses after a Bachelor’s degree, the more likely Master’s students are to change their educational trajectory, including their field of study, university, and region of study. Honours graduates from selective Bachelor programmes are less likely than others to change their educational trajectory. The specificity of educational transitions allows us to identify several segments of Master’s education (the same educational pathway as Bachelor’s and ‘basic education’), which may lead to different labour market outcomes of graduates