Effectiveness of the Postgraduate Education Institution in the Context of Comprehensive Regulation of Academic and Teaching Staff Training: the Current Status and Need for New Approaches
Authors: Sergey Pakhomov; Mikhail Petrov; Yakov P. Lobachevsky; Mikhail Kozlov; Elena Loginova; Irina Ilina3
Year: 2024

Introduction. The significance of assessing scientific skills and their
immediate outcome in the form of awarding a degree as an indicator of the postgraduate education institution's status is established,
highlighting the importance of considering the variables that affect
this indicator independently of the postgraduate education quality.
The one-sided approach and the selectivity of scientific research in
terms of assessment of the reasons for the decrease in the number of
theses defended by postgraduate students and the findings pointing
out the exclusively negative trend in the defended theses dynamics
are critically reviewed. A comprehensive perspective on the efficiency of training and certifying academic staff in the postgraduate education system is proposed. Methods. The quantitative and qualitative
analysis methods, comparative method, system approach, situational analysis, legalistic method, modelling, structural and functional analysis as well as statistical methods are used. Results and Discussion.
The key factors diminishing the effectiveness of the postgraduate
education system in terms of scientific skills assessment are outlined,
along with suggestions for improvement of the postgraduate education institution. Despite the apparent relevance of assessing the
effectiveness of the postgraduate education institution based on the
number of defended theses, such quantitative measurement alone
does not suffice for a comprehensive assessment of the postgraduate education efficiency in the knowledge economy; the tools that
reflect the state of academic staff replacement, including verifiable
indicators related to the demand for highly qualified academic staff
replacement with respect to the existing structural organisation of
science, need to be refined. Research problem scaling allowed for
an investigation into the root causes and the main related factors,
tracing the development of the processes that have resulted in the
change in the number of defended theses and their correlation with
the demographic trends and the number of graduates at the higher
education levels preceding the postgraduate one. The scope of the
delayed effect caused by a sharp decrease in the number of postgraduate school applicants due to the reduced number of higher education programmes' graduates in 2015–2016 is demonstrated. The
low effectiveness of the postgraduate education system is linked to
a decrease in the number of young people willing to become scientists combined with the insufficient motivation to engage in postgraduate programmes, resulting in disruptions in the normal replacement of academic staff. Currently, the resources that could enhance
performance of the postgraduate education system, are decomposing. Addressing this issue requires predictive and planned measures
for highly qualified academic staff replacement, including implementation of professional development and career advancement tools.
The concept of seamless regulation and coordination of related processes is established to encompass the staffing, organisational, scientific, and educational aspects, procedures for certification of scientists, support measures for postgraduate students, their advisors
and organisations hosting postgraduate programmes, as well as local
regulatory mechanisms. Switching to an improved postgraduate education model also requires streamlining and enhancing the quality of
processes at the intersection of educational relationships and those
ensuring expert assessment of scientific skills. The need to consolidate resources supporting the postgraduate education system within
a unified platform solution based on the project management principle and reengineering the key processes is outlined in terms of research and practice, including admission, training, thesis defence,
and career support to young scientists. Conclusion. The processes
of training highly qualified researchers and awarding them a degree
upon completion of their postgraduate studies are influenced by
various external and internal factors, which are aligned to each other to a varying extent to determine the overall effectiveness of the postgraduate education system. Given this, special conditions and
fine-tuning of the entire training process are required until a postgraduate student becomes an accomplished scientist. The postgraduate education system needs a restart to focus on streamlining the
key processes affecting the appeal of postgraduate education and
facilitating continued academic careers.