Research activities of graduate students of Russian universities: problems and solutions

At present, a new stage of reforming postgraduate studies as the third stage of higher education has been identified. All measures taken by the state are aimed at increasing the number of defenses of dissertations for the degree of candidate of sciences at the end of graduate school. However, the percentage of PhD graduates who have defended their dissertations has been steadily declining every year. +e purpose of the study is to identify the problems of research activities of graduate students of Russian universities and propose ways to solve them. +e following methods were used to collect data: analysis of official documents, online survey and free interview. 386 postgraduate students from 42 Russian universities took part in the survey. As a result of the study, the main problems of research activities of postgraduate students of Russian universities were identified: low performance of postgraduate studies (in 2019, only 10,5% of graduate students defended their dissertations); lack of necessary resources (financial, material and technical, etc.) for conducting empirical research, experiment, this problem is especially relevant for representatives of technical specialties; low publication activity of graduate students; insufficient support of the research activities of graduate students by the scientific supervisor, the graduate department and other structures of the university; the need to combine work with graduate school; insufficient level of financial support for research activities of graduate students from the state and the university; lack of the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities among postgraduates to carry out research activities and write a dissertation for the degree of candidate of sciences; problems in the organization of the educational process in graduate school. Based on the results of the study, proposals were made that can contribute to solving the identified problems in the selection of graduate students, the development of the educational component of postgraduate programs, state final attestation, publication activity and financial support for graduate students.

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