DIGITALIZATION OF THE RUSSIAN MASTER’S DEGREE PROGRAMS IN THE CONTEXT OF DIGITAL INEQUALITY IN THE REGIONS

This paper presents the results of a survey of students and teachers of master’s degree programs in the regions of Russia, conducted in 2019 in six Federal districts: North-Western, Siberian, Ural, Central, Volga, and Southern. The purpose of the study was to identify key trends in the development of the Russian master’s degree programs. The study of training is based on quantitative methods of sociology-a survey of students, the number of 1140 and teachers of the master’s degree, the number of 713. We focused on risks and barriers of digital competences: is an insufficient resource base of regional universities, the digital divide and distrust of the “digital”. Differences in the formation of digital competencies in the framework of the hypothesis were associated with the factor of social inequality. Digital competence is understood as the user’s confidence and critical approach to the technical use of information society (IST) tools in the field of leisure, work, and social communication. The main indicators of digital competence in the study were: 1) search and process necessary information from various sources, including specialized databases; 2) ability to use information technologies and ensure information security; 3) skills in presenting research results in the form of articles, reports, reports; 4) ability to work with data, including “big” data.Digital inequality in the regions, recorded in 2018 by SKOLKOVO researchers, is reflected in our study using the method of self-assessment of the formation of digital competencies. The North Caucasus, southern and Siberian Federal districts occupy the lowest positions in the digitalization rating “Digital Russia” for 2018. Based on the selected indicators, aggregate indices of digital competence formation based on students ‘ self-assessment was built. In results study, the lowest index of digital competence formation is noted among undergraduates of the southern Federal districts (index 0.24) and the Siberian (index 0.22 districts). At the same time, students highly appreciate the contribution of the master’s degree to the formation of digital competencies. Despite good skills in working with information and ways to find it, undergraduates note a poor knowledge of IT technologies and ways to protect information.

Keywords: digital competence, higher education, digital inequality, Russian master’s