Quote Originally Posted by Romik View Post
You seems muddle some things. Before masters - bachelors is not like "образование техникума". It does not make the difference that way.
"college degree" - what you understand upon it? As I know there are different colleges out there - ones that give higher education and community ones that give professional education.
According to Знак о получении среднего профессионального образования (технического техникума) (з373) college and техникум are very close in a kind of education they provide. It's 3-4 years of a post-high-school kind of education that is named a bachelor degree. Среднее [специальное] образование. No muddling. That kind of education is not free in the western countries for an average student. There are scholarships which help, but they do not cover for the entire tuition fee. The master's university degree is equivalent to высшее образование (5-6 years of the university) and is de facto free for all the full-time master's students (yes, you have to pay for it by grading the other students' assignments working and hour or two a week, but I think that practically means free; haven't heard anyone complaining). Also, the university provides additional jobs (be it the teaching or the research) to almost all full-time master's students. That job is usually not very time-demanding and is very useful to the students, so it's just a kind of another course the students have to take. That helps to completely pay off the student loan the students had to take once they started their first year of bachelor. I call that a practically free high education for those who study well. The communist ideology on the other hand postulates the planned economy which includes the planned number of the specialists every year. Those students do not pay for their education since everything belongs to the state. Upon the graduation those students can only take the government's job and can only accept the rate established by the government. Be it a 120р. or $200 or $5000. That money can only buy the personal property (like fifty pairs of gloves, for example). Not a private property. The places to live are also distributed by the government the way they see fit. So, the kind of education you earned would probably correlate with a kind of job you're doing but much less with the quality of life you enjoy. That is a communist ideology and its relationship with the [free] education. Your education belongs to the state the same way anything else does. The education is free, but it's not yours. No muddling.