On December, 13, 2016 a "round table" on "Preparation of the teaching staff: problems and ways to improve" was held in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. The "round table" moderator was the Chairman of the Committee on Education V.A. Nikonov. State Duma deputies, representatives of ministries, the Higher Attestation Commission under the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, representatives of educational expert community took part in the discussion.
The key speaker was the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation L.M. Ogorodova. In her speech, she briefly reminded about the history and objectives of the PhD programs, spoke about such issues as the content of PhD programs, change of the place of PhD graduates in the labor market, assessment of need for PhD graduates, the availability of PhD study, technologies of implementation of PhD programs, State final examination, connection of PhD education with thesis defense, a promising model of graduate school. In her speech L.M. Ogorodova repeatedly noted with appreciation the assistance of the expert community in addressing the challenges of higher education, emphasizing the role of the "platform" in the State Duma, which acts in the role of the Expert Council for Higher Education.
The Chairperson of the Expert Council of the RF State Duma Committee of Education, MEPhI rector M.N. Strikhanov made a supplementary report. In his speech, a number of features of PhD system in modern conditions were revealed in modern conditions, when doing PhD has become the third step in higher education. A number of issues were marked, where the regulatory framework needs to be clarified, in particular, in taking State Final Examination by PhD graduates. The report also highlighted that the thesis defense is the most important result of the PhD studies, but separated in time (2-3 years) with graduating from PhD. Those who successfully graduate get a state diploma. The indicators of the university or research organization need to determine the percentage of graduate defense in 2-3 years after graduating from PhD. It is also important to pay special attention to solving the problems of training of the teaching staff in those regions where there are no PhD thesis councils, but not at the expense of the research quality.
A presentations was made by the Chairperson of the Higher Attestation Commission under the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation V.M.Filippov. He spoke about general principles of opening of dissertation councils in the organizations, issues of regional universities, complexity to keep up for dissertation councils and theses. At the same time, he stressed that is not expected to cut the number of dissertation councils in the near future.
Then presentations were made by more than twenty specialists, including representatives of the Russian Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transport of Russia, Russian Academy of Sciences, research organizations, a number of leading regional and sectoral universities.
Making a conclusion, V.A. Nikonov stressed the positive outcome of the discussion, the importance of such events for the development of regulatory education support, thanked the expert community and expressed hope for further joint productive work.
