Educational trends of agrarian university graduates in the region: problems and prospects

The paper presents a sociological analysis of the main trends in the development of modern agrarian education policy by a case study of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The authors conduct a survey of graduates of extramural Bachelor and Master’s Degree programs living in rural areas and employed in regional agribusiness on the basis of Bashkir State Agrarian University. The survey helps reveal the basic principles and possible modifications of students’ career choice in terms of a shortage of qualified personnel in the agricultural sector of the economy. The research provides a brief overview of the theoretical approaches to dealing with this challenge that makes it possible to highlight the major functions of the current agrarian education policy: unitary, professional, and status ones. The study findings identify the growing efficiency of the aforementioned functions and allow one to predict the behavior of qualified personnel when making a career choice in the agrarian sector of the region.