And told about who will soon obtain stimulating salary increments and scholarships.
On Friday, March 29, Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University held a regular meeting of the Academic Council. Dmitry Mardashov, Director of the Institute for Training of Scientific and Pedagogical Staff of the university, was the keynote speaker. He noted that the implementation of the pilot project to improve the system of higher education has had a significant impact, including on the process of training of graduate students.
Now their curricula include modules of disciplines that allow young people to self-actualize both as research scientists and as teachers. For example, "Ethics of Communication and Behavior in Society", "Rhetoric", "Educational and Mentoring Work with Students", as well as the program of basic scientific competence "History and Philosophy of Science". It contains such subjects as "Methodology of experiment", "Quality and reliability of research", "Patenting" and a number of others.
Dmitry Mardashov called the main destructive factor, which in the past years reduced the effectiveness of the postgraduate school, the absence of the mandatory need to defend a dissertation for its successful completion. This demotivated many young men and women, who unwittingly lowered the requirements for their academic performance. However, today this negative trend has been broken.
"At Mining University over the last five years, the share of defenses from the total number of graduates has increased from 30 to 80%. This is several times higher than in Russia as a whole. The average score of first-year graduate students, i.e. those who are directly involved in the pilot project, is "4.6", which indicates a decent level of their theoretical training. The most important indicators such as the number of patents for inventions and utility models, as well as publication activity are also growing," said Dmitry Mardashov.
Rector Vladimir Litvinenko, commenting on his speech, emphasized that the training of scientific and pedagogical staff of higher qualification is one of the main tasks of any university. After all, not only the sustainability of the development of the entire national higher school, but also the efficiency of replenishing the intellectual elite of the country depends on its successful solution. He called the figures given in the report "positive", but urged his colleagues not to relax, as "there is still a lot of work to be done".
One of the most pressing problems, the solution of which requires an immediate response, the rector considered the need for a more careful selection of applicants for admission to graduate school. He said that only those students who already have a certain scientific background can apply for admission.
"These are our future colleagues who should be motivated to become part of the academic community, to make scientific discoveries. It is logical to assume that enrolling in graduate school is not a spontaneous, but a deliberate decision made while they were still students, where they were obliged to acquire basic scientific competence. In graduate school they consolidate their skills, not obtain them from scratch. There should be no random people here, because a spoonful of tar, as you know, spoils a barrel of honey," summarized Vladimir Litvinenko.
In conclusion, he assured the audience that the work on improving the financial well-being of Mining University employees will be continued. In particular, incentive bonuses will be introduced for supervisors of study groups, leading academic supervisors and head teachers, if, of course, they are real leaders in their course. The relevant documents will be prepared and signed in the near future.