Vitebsk State University named after P.M. Masherov is the leader in the export of educational services in the Republic of Belarus. The success of the university in attracting foreign citizens to study is due to the high quality of the educational process, the availability of highly qualified teaching staff, modern material and technical base, including good social and living conditions created for students to live.

In 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a decrease in the number of international students in relation to 2020 and 2019 (Table 1). Because of this, the increase in the recruitment of Chinese citizens in the 2020/2021 academic year did not lead to an increase in the academic load on teachers and a decrease in the quality of education (Table 2). The reduction in the number of students allowed the university to increase attention to every foreign student, primarily from China.

Table 1

Information on the number of foreign citizens who studied at the I and II stages of higher education at the university in the period from 2019 to 2021:

Table 2

Information on the number of Chinese citizens enrolled at the university for higher education at the II stage, and the number of Chinese citizens who were awarded a Master's degree in the period from 2019 to 2021:

The increase in the number of students from China is a consequence of the reorientation of the university and the education system of the Republic of Belarus as a whole to the People's Republic of China as a country with which relations have been developing dynamically in recent years. The expansion of cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the People's Republic of China in the political, scientific, technical and educational spheres is largely a consequence of mutual understanding and personal friendly relations between President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping.

The enrollment of foreign citizens in the specialties of the Master’s course in English from October 2020 to August 2021 was carried out in the specialties presented in Table 3:

Table 3

Education in the Master’s course (in English) is conducted in the following specialties from October 2020 to August 2021:

Training in these specialties (with the exception of the specialty "Jurisprudence", accredited by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus in 2020) was conducted for several years. The terms of education of the abovementioned specialties in accordance with Article 206 of the Education Code and paragraph 4.4 of the Educational Standard for the specialty of higher education of the II stage – 1 year (10 months of the educational process and 2 months of vacation) in full-time education, they are the same for Belarusian and foreign citizens.

                In the process of implementing the Master's course educational programmes using information and communication technologies, daily monitoring of the conduct and attendance of classes by students and their performance of educational tasks was provided.

To organize work using information and communication technologies, methodological recommendations were developed for the formation of a virtual educational environment of the university on the Moodle platform, the implementation of the educational process and the interaction of students with teachers were carried out through a separate Internet resource specially created for these purposes https://chmag.vsu.by, as well as the ZOOM video conferencing program, the WeChat messenger.

Chmag.vsu.by contains complete educational and methodological support for all disciplines of the curricula, educational curricula, lectures; reference notes, tasks for self-examination, exam /credit questions; tasks for laboratory, practical and self-guided work; control materials; references; reference materials; thematic presentations and additional material. For real-time consultations, chmag.vsu.by provides programs that allow synchronous and asynchronous information exchange. Each of these programmes allows you to communicate from different geographical locations, if you have access to the Internet.

Electronic resources posted on the website can be used in classes under the guidance of a teacher and independently as self-guided work. Assignments for academic disciplines posted in сhmag.vsu.by, aimed at the formation of systemic thinking and activation of creative potential, the ability to find non-standard ways of obtaining, understanding and processing information. Master’s course students for the use of electronic educational resources have the necessary level of personal computer proficiency, each of them is assigned a login and password to log in to the system. Working with e-mail is a mandatory form of reporting on the results of practical training in the Master’s course.

When organizing the educational process with the use of ICT, VSU named after P.M. Masherov ensured the fulfillment of all the requirements of existing educational standards and curricula in terms of the volume of contact work of students with teaching staff.

In pursuance of the Order of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus dated from July 29, 2021 No. 577 "On measures to improve the quality of training at the II stage of higher education", the university has implemented the following activities.

Admission of foreign citizens in 2021/2022 academic year for higher education of the II stage (acceptance of documents, entrance examinations and enrollment) was carried out in accordance with the Rules of admission of persons for higher education of the II stage, approved by Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated 02.02.2012 No. 110. The cases of admission to the Master's course programmes of foreign citizens who do not speak the language of instruction and professional knowledge in volumes sufficient to cover the content of the educational programmes of higher education of the II stage were completely excluded.

The admission of foreign citizens to receive higher education of the II stage (acceptance of documents, entrance examinations and enrollment), as well as the conduct of training sessions, current and final certification, are organized when they are directly in the classrooms and laboratories of the university, taking into account measures to prevent infection caused by coronavirus.

The university ensured the arrival of foreign students to continue their education directly in the classrooms and laboratories of the university, taking into account measures to prevent infection caused by coronavirus.

The university has taken measures to attract to teaching in the Master's course programmes in the English language teachers from among the teaching staff with a high level of the English language proficiency.

VSU named after P.M. Masherov trains Master’s students in accordance with the current Educational standards of specialties, standardized curricula and curricula, educational curricula of higher education institutions in academic disciplines for each specialty.

The work has been carried out to strengthen the scientific and methodological support of the educational process. The curricula for the specialties of the Master’s course programmes are developed on the basis of the standardized curricula, taking into account modern achievements in pedagogical science, culture, the real needs of the education system, as well as new regulatory documents of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus. The structure, list and volume of disciplines by cycles in the curriculum correspond to the standardized curriculum and the current educational standard.

The schedule of the educational process in the specialties of the Master’s course is reflected in the curriculum. The fulfillment of the schedule of the educational process is reflected in the class schedule, which provides for the constant personal participation of the student in regular training sessions and certification. When drawing up the class schedule, the requirements of the educational standards of the Master’s course are taken into account (the volume of compulsory classroom classes for full-time education is set within 16-26 classroom hours per week, except for optional classes and classes in additional types of education). Each of the Master’s course student is provided with educational literature and educational and methodological materials.

Individual consultations with university teachers were organized for Chinese citizens studying at the II stage of higher education, including in English.

Within the implementation of the Order of the Minister of Education of the Republic of Belarus No. 517 dated from August 22, 2022 “On experimental and innovative activities in the 2022/2023 academic year”, Educational Establishment “Vitebsk State University named after P.M. Masherov”, the Republic of Belarus, is the official platform for the implementation of the pilot project “Improving the content of training foreign citizens in Master’s programmes using distance learning technologies”.

The pilot project is aimed at improving Master’s programmes and organizing the educational process using distance learning technologies with a standard training period of up to 2 years for citizens of the People's Republic of China and other foreign countries as a condition for increasing competitiveness in the global educational space.

Enrollment of foreign citizens for mastering the content of the Master’s programmes using distance learning technologies at VSU named after P.M. Masherov is carried out in 2022/2023 academic year for a period of study of up to 2 years in the following specialties:

To master the content of the Master's programme the applicant enters VSU named after P.M. Masherov in accordance with the Rules for the admission of persons for higher education of the second stage, approved by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated from 02 February, 2012 № 110 (as amended by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers dated from 7 August, 2019 № 526).

The implementation of the Master's programme is organized in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, the norms of international treaties, local regulations of VSU named after P.M. Masherov, regulating educational and international activities, educational standards of higher education in specialties.

When organizing admission to educational programmes VSU named after P.M. Masherov notifies students about the procedure for implementing the educational programme. Participation in these educational programmes is voluntary.

The educational process is implemented in accordance with the curricula, schedules of the educational process, programmes of academic disciplines developed by VSU named after P.M. Masherov, and approved by the Rector of the university. According to the decision of the supervisors of the educational programmes, external experts may be involved in the process of assessing the quality of educational outcomes.

Current and intermediate quality control of education in educational programmes is implemented with the identification of the student's personality. When organizing the pilot project, the current (intermediate) assessment (credit tests) is carried out using distance learning technologies; the examination session and the final attestation (defence of Master's theses) is held in the classroom upon arrival. The expected date of arrival at the university is October, 2022, graduation date is 30 June, 2024.

Based on the results of successful mastering the content of educational programmes, graduates are awarded a Master's degree diploma with the degree of "Master of Science".