Development of soft skills in higher education: students' opinion

Abstract

The need to systematize and formalize soft skills in curricula makes the study relevant. This becomes especially important in the context of a fundamental reform of the national education system in Russia. The reliance on the world's best educational practices will allow creating effective training programs in order to increase the demand for university graduates. In the article the research conducted to assess the satisfaction of university students (on the example of MGIMO MFA of Russia) with the development of soft skills during the mastering of academic disciplines is presented. At the first stage of the research, scientific articles in which the authors classify soft skills were selected and analyzed, and a list of the most professionally significant soft skills was compiled and used as a basis for the developed questionnaire. At the second stage, a survey of students was conducted. There were 135 students who participated in the survey. It was found out that a high percentage of the respondents find soft skills important for their future career. However, according to the students, insufficient attention is paid to the development of soft skills in the process of higher education, so young people mostly do not associate their mastery of certain skills with their studies at university. Despite the fact that in recent years researchers have paid attention to the study of soft skills, university curricula do not regulate the improvement of skills. The missing formalization of soft skills in university curricula creates obstacles for their development in the process of studying at the university. This study confirms the relevance of updating the curriculum and educational framework

Keywords

• soft skills
• nonprofessional skills
• higher education
• student survey
• development of skills in higher education
• modernization of curricula
• employment
• academic program