One of the problems hindering the development of the engineering sector is the deep divide between high school and university: the dominance of the Unified State Exam (EGE) destroys systemic thinking and interdisciplinary connections, forming a fragmented, "clip-like" perception among adolescents. Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University has developed a system of "seamless" transition that synthesizes elements of both domestic and international educational models.
The isolation of high school students from a real university environment and practical engineering activities creates serious barriers to their professional socialization. Early involvement in the student community becomes the solution. High school students are integrated into the Mining University's student clubs, scientific communities, and specialized classes, and they begin working in laboratories under the guidance of faculty and university students.
The modern school curriculum frequently shifts the focus from acquiring deep, genuine knowledge to narrow preparation for the Unified State Exam, which makes evaluating an applicant based exclusively on exam scores unobjective. The implementation of an integral assessment system, which mandates the inclusion of the high school transcript's grade point average, makes it possible to fairly reward a pupil for stable, multi-year hard work and to select students who are much more resilient to heavy university workloads.
The problem facing technical higher educational institutions is that applicants frequently enroll in engineering specialties by compensating for weak knowledge in core subjects—such as physics, chemistry, and mathematics—with high scores in the Russian language, which distorts the objective assessment of their preparation. The solution was the transition of the Russian language Unified State Exam to a "pass/fail" format: the result (a minimum of 45 points) now serves merely as a strict admission threshold and is not included in the total sum of competitive points. This approach eliminates the masking of gaps in the exact sciences while simultaneously preserving a crucial principle: an engineer is a bearer of the cultural code, for whom clear mastery of their native language is necessary for the development of systemic, "analog" thinking.
The traditional education system conditions schoolchildren for the passive consumption of knowledge, leaving no room for initiative. The Mining University's solution was the "School Leader" competition, which provides a special enrollment quota for proactive high school students: by presenting their own scientific or engineering project, young men and women are guaranteed admission to the university, thereby shifting the focus from passive assimilation to active creation.
It is difficult for first-year students to immerse themselves in the university environment, and gaps in their high school knowledge hinder their mastery of the university curriculum, causing shock from the new demands even among yesterday's straight-A students. Therefore, during their first six months, an adaptation module called "Likbez" (remedial education) is implemented for them. Within this framework, gaps in physics, mathematics, and technical drawing are eliminated, and skills for working with patents and scientific literature are formed. This approach ensures comfortable academic adaptation for students and equalizes their starting opportunities for the successful mastery of engineering disciplines.
Applicants often find themselves enrolled in an undesired specialty due to youthful misconceptions about the profession or simply because they lack the competitive score required for their chosen field. The solution was the flexibility of educational trajectories, giving students the right to make mistakes and search for themselves: the top 20% of students based on the results of the first two years are given the opportunity to transfer to another field of study within the university. By that time, having completed the fundamental “core” of training and worked with mentors, they make a conscious professional choice, overcoming the initial limitations they faced upon admission.
The system of “seamless” education implemented at the Mining University, of course, does not solve all issues related to the adaptation of school students to the requirements of higher education. However, as three years of practice show, it sharply increases young people’s stress resilience and academic performance. In addition, the experiment is a living process, and the university has several more sociocultural and methodological developments in its portfolio that are currently undergoing experimental testing.