Under the gun?

The country needs young talented scientists. For the past few years, the highest officials of Russia have been talking about this. The words sound that the state should take care of the reproduction of qualified specialists, about the influx of young people in the science of young people. Words remain words, and the scientific youth of Siberia, who wanted to continue their studies in graduate school, has now come under the rink of an all -powerful bureaucratic machine.

Biophysicist, candidate of biological sciences, scientific secretary of the Institute of Biophysics of the SB RAS Egor Egor Tereyev attracted the attention of Polit.ru to the acute problem that all academic institutions of the country will encounter next year. The first to take the science organizations of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Egor said that not a single Academic Institute of the SB RAS has yet received a new license to conduct training in graduate school. “ But if there are no licenses until the end of the year, the military enlistment offices will begin the call of university graduates,” he emphasized.

A member of the Coordinating Council for Youth Affairs in the scientific and educational fields under the Presidential Council for Science, Technologies and Education also explained that the problem began after new requirements for graduate studies have come. “Moreover, if earlier it was only about the list of training programs and some common things, now the set of documents includes about 100 pages. These are certificates from the SES and firefighters that the premises are suitable for conducting educational activities, and contracts with a hospital and a dining room that graduate students have, where to eat and where to be treated. ”

“In addition, it is personnel, dash and literary support for each subject in the curriculum. In principle, formally, all this is understandable and even logical. But we must take into account how all these certificates are obtained in Russia, ” he said.

E. Zerueev notes that it is very difficult to understand the state’s concern for graduate students in the form of guarantees “Was a graduate student? Does he have to be treated? ”, Given the size of the graduate scholarship. “She, probably, is just enough to have lunch in this very dining room daily. For the rest, money will not remain, ” he says.

Yegor believes that “perhaps these requirements are good for universities, but at the level of the academic institute the situation looks funny,” and gives an example of his Institute of Biophysics. “It is not big with us - only about 70 researchers. Every year we accept no more than 10 graduate students into graduate school. But on the other hand, they are all provided with qualified personnel and equipment. On average, the Institute publishes about one article in a reviewed journal per year for one researcher. Maybe nothing outstanding by foreign standards. But those who are familiar with statistics on academic institutions and universities know that this is much higher than the average level in Russia. ”

Apparently, the interests of science do not care at all. “Organization with zero publication activity, but with the dining room and the conclusion of the SES will easily receive the right to accept graduate students. A successful scientific institute will be left without graduate school, ” says E. Zerueev.

And continues: “I represent the surprise of colleagues from Europe or America:

"What can you now take graduate students?"
"Yes, you know, we do not have a contract with the dining room ..."

Evgeny Vdovin , Deputy Director of the Institute of Mathematics of the SB RAS, winner of the Pierre Delin competition in 2008, in an interview with the newspaper Trinity Option (see the future number of November 10, 2009), said that all problems began when the previously existing simplified procedure for licensing academic graduate students was canceled. In 2009, a new decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 277 dated 31.03.2009 was issued, which changed the licensing procedure.

“The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences was the first to encounter an altered order. The fact is that our license ended in early 2009. The necessary documents were collected and sent at the end of 2008 to extend the license. But for some reason, the documents wandered for a very long time in the bowels of Rosobrnadzor, and then a new resolution and personnel permutations struck. As a result, the institutions of the SB RAS had to urgently collect and prepare many documents, ” he explained.

He, just as E. Zerueev, believes that if the licenses are not urgently extended, then graduate students of the first, second and third years will be called into the army. “Documents need to be prepared urgently, otherwise the military enlistment offices are already pulling their hands to our graduate students. ... Due to the Abrala with the papers initiated by Rosobrnadzor himself, graduate students are thrown out into the street with all the ensuing consequences, including an army draft , ”E. Vdovin emphasizes.

With a comment on this subject, Polit.ru turned to the vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Vasilievich Kozlov , who oversees work with young scientists on the presidium of the Academy of Sciences.

- Colleagues from the regions complain that the Ministry of Education and Science tightened the requirements for graduate schools in the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences. What's happening?

You have raised a really very important and serious question. Because what is graduate school? We continue to consider it as scientific activity. Young people under the guidance of older colleagues are engaged in research. And the main goal, the result of this work is scientific publications and the preparation of dissertation. Meanwhile, in the regulatory plan, in the law of the postgraduate education, graduate school is interpreted as another stage of postgraduate vocational education and there accents are shifted from scientific to educational activities.

This is a different understanding of the essence of graduate school now, when scientific institutions begin to end with the period of actions of graduate studies, it has come to the surface. They need to undergo licensing for a new one. Our institutions come to the regulatory authorities, and they say: "Here is a list of requirements."

- And there are hospitals, canteens, firefighters ...

Yes, and these requirements, in our opinion, are more characteristic of universities, and not for scientific institutions.

- You were negotiating with the head of the Higher Attestation Commission, academician M.P. Kirpichnikov?

This issue is not dealing with bricks, but Rosobrnadzor, led by L.N. Glebova. Apparently, negotiations with them are inevitable. We are now collecting information on the beginning of the campaign to replace, to receive new graduate studies at the Institute of RAS, and I believe that after a while I will ask Lyubov Nikolaevna Glebova about the meeting in order to discuss these issues. Nevertheless, we must find some common point of view here.

-It turns out that in the new year some graduate schools will not be able to work.

Yes, and this is a disaster. These are 10 thousand graduate students, this is a serious question. By the way, I note that since the Soviet era, the number of academic graduate students has practically not increased, and the number of graduate students in universities increased almost 4 times. I believe that this is an artificial increase, which suggests that universities interpret graduate school not like the Academy of Sciences interprets it. And here we must bring our positions closer to the Ministry of Education and Science, in Rosobrnadzor it is clear what graduate school is in academic institutions.

Polit.ru will monitor the development of events.

Photo from the site www.ranak.by .