Specialist degree

The specialist degree is an academic degree conferred by a college or university after successfully completing five years of post-secondary study.

The Specialist degree (Russian: специалист) is a five-year higher-education degree that was the only first higher-education degree in the former Soviet Union and remains common and generally preferred by employers throughout the USSR successor states. In terms of the number of instructional hours (typically, 35 to 42 classroom hours per week, 34 weeks of instruction plus 6 weeks of exams per academic year), scholastic rigor and the amount of original research required for graduation, the Specialist degree meets or exceeds the requirements and expectations of a Master's degree in the United States, Canada and the Bologna Process member countries. Commonly referred to simply as "Diplom", the Soviet/Russian-style Specialist degree is believed to have originated in the engineering education in the Russian Empire and Germany. It currently is being phased out by the bakalavr's (Baccalaureate) and magistr's (Magister or Master's) degrees.

In the early 1990s the bakalavr and magistr were introduced in all countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States except Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. However, the specialist degree (five years degree) remains the most commonly conferred master's degree in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan. The specialist degrees in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were renamed diplom. A similar degree in German-speaking countries is called the Diplom. The specialist degree was discontinued in Ukraine in 2017.

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