Designing a pre-masters engineering program for international students: Tomsk Polytechnic University Experience, Russia

This paper evaluates methodological principles that underpin the design of a pre-masters program offered to international students in Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) as an essential course leading to the master programs. TPU is a university that mainly provides engineering education. It is the first university in Russia that created a pre-masters program model for international students based on students’ competence and on adopting the most appropriate design approach for such programs. The research methods used here include observation and survey as the most suitable data collection techniques. The subjects of this research were international students who held bachelor degrees in those countries where English or other languages is spoken and who wished to progress to TPU master programs in Russia using the Russian language. This paper presents the results of the analysis of the implemented surveys for the graduates of the pre-masters program in TPU during the years 2013, 2014 and 2016 with monitoring and evaluation. It focuses on the specific features of the pre-masters program. The researchers investigated methods of studying the Russian language in order to achieve specific educational goals within a short period (7-10 months). They also provided a report on how to determine an optimal set of general and specialist courses for the pre-masters program. In addition, the paper presents proposals for further improvements and re-development of the program.