An important factor of research university development : the role of a pre-masters program for international students

This paper considers the important practicality, scientific and methodological principles in the design of the pre-masters program in National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (or simply TPU). TPU is a university that mainly provides technical education, particularly education in engineering, science and technology disciplines. The design of the pre-masters program also considers the incorporation of educational technology for its realization for the international students, who received the bachelor's degrees in other countries in English language and want to study masters programs in Russian language in Russia. According to the results of a comparative analysis that explored the experiences of the international students from English-speaking and Russian-speaking universities in the world within their pre-bachelors and pre-masters programs, this paper explains the differences between these programs and the specific features of the pre-masters programs. Further, this paper reports the analysis results of the implementation, monitoring and outcomes of the pre-masters program in TPU. It also presents some proposals for its further development.