Soviet academic credits

[Richard Robin]

RE: Would anyone happen to know the American equivalent of Soviet credit
hours? I am looking at a Soviet (1975) transcript with 3974 hours of study.
What would this mean here?


Hi, Laura and SEELANGS,



I have had to deal with this issue quite a bit. I don't know if this is
"official" practice, but I try to find out the number of contact hours for
each course. Sometimes simply asking works. Also university listings on the
Internet are a useful guide, even nearly 30 years later. A standard minimum
U.S. curriculum in a semester system runs 120 credits at approximately 1800
hours over four years, although most students end up with well over the
minimum number of credits. At GW, for example, with labs and discussion
sections (which often run longer than their credit rating), a more realistic
number is 2200 - 2500 contact hours. The number of American hours goes up
even more if we count on-topic internships as Russians do (3rd year
практика) Still, there is a discrepancy, one which often leads Russian
graduates to claim their diplomas to have master’s degree status. (The
masters degree aura is enhanced by the fact that those extra hours usually
bunch up around the student’s major.)



So if the question is whether a transcript with nearly 4000 hours over five
years is worth a master’s, there is a real quandary. The hours and their
distribution say yes. But what of the quality of the education, in which
rote still plays a major role even in analytical subjects and where open
cheating is the norm? When comparing the two systems, Russian students (even
teachers) justify cheating because of the higher load material covered in
all those extra hours!



When asked to evaluate transcripts from Russian universities in subjects
with which I am familiar (филология, РКИ, ESL, etc.), I tend to be
conservative and recommend a B.A. unless it is clear that the student in
question has experience involving true research methods.



Just my two kopecks worth.



Rich



_________________________________
Richard Robin, Associate Professor, Chair
German and Slavic Dept.
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20008
rrobin at gwu.edu
http://home.gwu.edu/~rrobin
Читаю по-русски во всех кодировках.
Chitayu po-russki vo vsex kodirovkax.

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