Analysis of the results of international accreditation of russian educational institutions of higher education

The article examines the results of international accreditation of study programs at Russian universities, as a procedure for establishing the compliance of the quality of the study programs or the activities of the entire university as a whole with international requirements and standards adopted in a particular foreign organization. The analysis of reports prepared by European accreditation experts and published in the external quality assurance database DEQAR, allowed for identifying groups of key comments and recommendations for improving educational activities. It showed that most of the inconsistencies with international indicators relate to study programs (concept, content, structures, methods and implementation), student support and work with graduates, organization and management of study programs; less comments were made as to learning resources, library and information resources of higher educational institution. Each group contains the most typical recommendations, formulated against the outcomes of international accreditation, and activities to assist universities in preparing for an external review with the involvement of European colleagues. Most of the recommendations arise from the peculiarities of the higher education development in our country, namely, the design of study programs in accordance with the Federal State Educational Standard, the building-up of internal quality assurance systems with a focus on state accreditation of educational activities. The inclusion of measures in the strategic plans of universities in order to implement the recommendations of European experts, will, on the one hand, allow for obtaining international accreditation in a foreign agency, and on the other hand, for creating an effective internal system for education quality assurance.