Gavan "Chevrolet" and graduate schools in Russia

On September 5, 2017, speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum to students and employees of the Far Eastern Federal University, Minister Olga Vasilieva said that "graduate school should end with the defense of the dissertation." Soon this innovation will go on public discussion on the portal pravo.gov.ru and will become a formal requirement. Sergey Popov , Astrophysicist, Dok. physical. Sciences, Vedas. scientific. sore. GAISH of Moscow State University, a professor at the Russian Academy of Sciences, commented on this event on his blog in the Live Journal. We publish his post in the author’s edition for the TRV-hunger.

Even those who have never been to Havana saw wonderful retro cars on which tourists ride. In many ways, the science system in Russia in general and graduate school in particular remind me of these machines. And the minister’s attempts to reform something is the repair of such machines.

You can discuss what color they are painted, you can rearrange the steering wheel from right to left. You can change the upholstery either on one seat, then on the other (depending on the current concept). But all this is not related to a normal auto industry or the ability of citizens to buy a modern car.

The fact that the fundamentally new ideas about how graduate school should work is only four years after the start of the implementation of the previous ones (and even taking into account the radicality of innovations), in my opinion, suggests that, firstly, there is no sequence, continuity and responsibility in the actions of the government, and secondly, that all this really affects (except for bureaucracy-I sympathize with colleagues).

The previous decision contained a certain logic. The science system in the country works poorly, there is almost zero mobility, there is almost no real competitiveness anywhere (we don’t consider Skolkovo), in the institutes - a bunch of specialists of a low (by the standards of leading countries) qualifications, professors are actually teachers, and not a good level, etc. The system where the bulk of graduate students does little to compare them with colleagues in a decent European or American (Japanese, Australian, etc.) university - therefore we will give graduate students more training load and even meaningless pedigree. In the new decision, I do not see logic if we consider the general context of science in Russia (and graduate school - this should no longer be about education, but about science in which the new minister apparently understands less).

In the short term, this will lead to or to the fact that nothing will change (well, they will scold the leaders for not providing a sufficient number of defense, but the leaders are already used to the fact that they are scolded for failure to comply with any impossible requirements like the President’s May decrees), or there will be a stream of very weak protection. In the long term-we are waiting for the next minister, who will still radically change something.

The main problem of graduate school is not that it is necessary to take or undergo pedagogical practice, but that the normal system of the organization of science does not work. This is already seen by the absence, say, any noticeable number of Chinese-Indian post-Dods in Russia. This is a good indicator.

A normal, established science forms a request for graduate students (because why still go to graduate school, if not to engage in science or something very related? By the way, we have quite often, especially among the humanities and representatives of the socio-economic bloc, people go to graduate school, not because they plan an academic career).

There will be a sane request - normal rules will appear to fulfill it. Without this, any actions of ministers are attempts to improve the Gavan “Chevrolet” of 1955.

Discussion see https://sergepolar.livejournal.com/3369863.html