DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY-ORIENTED, STUDENT-CENTRED MASTER-LEVEL EDUCATION IN THE FIELD OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES IN BELARUS

This work presents the development of industry-oriented, student-centred master-level education in the field of physical sciences in Belarus. It is important to facilitate the Bologna process in the Belarusian higher educational system facing a transition from a “5+1” system (former Soviet system) to the Bologna “4+2” system. The project also faces the labour market needs in the field of physics specialties (like nanomaterials, photonics, applied physics, …) taking the upcoming changes into account.

The approaches developed and applied in this project facilitated a creation of an integrated, logically connected system of educational methods and tools. The renewed training of master students in physical sciences are characterized by practice-oriented courses, programs and educational tools (e.g. using digital learning environments and e-books). An exchange of good practices between three European universities (Riga Technical University, KU Leuven, University of Cyprus) improved educational (e.g. defining, educating and evaluating appropriate learning outcomes) and linguistic competences of the Belarusian teaching staff.

Feedback from stakeholders (students, teachers, researchers, employers, labour market, a national accreditation institution) has been obtained during the entire project life cycle and has been taken into account. The new curricula are developed and adjusted according to the stakeholders’ feedback in five stages:
• Gap analysis
• Development of curricular
• Accreditation
• Obtaining feedback from stakeholders
• Analyses and adjustments

At the “gap analysis” stage, a survey (“ex-ante”) was conducted involving eight teams from four leading Belarusian universities (Belarusian State University, Belarusian State Technological University, Francisk Skorina Gomel State University, Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno), the Belarusian Physical Society, the Research Institute for Nuclear Problems of BSU, and the Republican Association of Nano-Industry. The survey contains three parts. The first part is related to the industry – academia secondments and the second is devoted to the adjustment of the educational tasks to the labour market needs in this sector. The third part is dedicated to the identification of missing skills and abilities. The results of the survey have been used during the development of the curricula content for the new 2-year master students.

This paper describes methods of obtaining feedback from the selected groups of students and teaching staff during at the development stage of the courses. We describe the courses testing methods and evaluations during the autumn study semester in academic year 2017-2018, after the courses were accredited. The paper also discusses the methods and results of the “post-ante” survey of future employers. We compare and analyse the inputs of stakeholders into the development of new curricular with the post-ante survey results. The expectations of the stakeholders at the beginning of the project and the vision close to its end show a good correlation. A more comprehensive analysis will be available in a few months, when courses testing and evaluation during the spring study semester of academic year 2017-2018 will be completed.

This research is based on the ERASMUS+ project “The Improvement of master-level education in the field of physical sciences in Belarusian universities (Physics)” implemented in 2015-18.