Organization of postgraduate students training in the technical field of sciences

E.I. Muratova, S.I. Dvoretsky, E.Yu. Voyakina

Department of Science

Tambov State Technical University (TSTU) Tambov, Russia

oda@admin.tstu.ru

Abstract – The article presents the analysis of the changes occurring in the system of postgraduate professional education in the context of impact on its sustainable operation and development. The models of the structure of basic educational programmes at postgraduate level are considered. The article presents recommendations for improvement of educational, research and innovative components of postgraduate training in the technical field of sciences. An approach to design of individual educational routes is suggested according to personal and professional preferences of postgraduate students. Control mechanisms of scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel on priority areas of modernization and technological development of the Russian economy are studied. The role of individual structural units of the Department of Science at Tambov State Technical University (TSTU) is shown as increasing the quality of scientific personnel training during the reform of postgraduate professional education.

Keywords – innovative educational programmes, management, postgraduate education, scientific and educational cluster, structure of educational programmes, technical sciences.

I. INTRODUCTION

The strategy of innovative development of Russia is based on the realization of the intellectual potential of the country and therefore it requires high level and quality of professional education. Objectives related to staffing of science, education and high-tech sectors of the economy are now the focus of the government as well as scientific and educational community. Postgraduate programmes are increasingly viewed as a fundamental platform not only in terms of highly qualified specialists training for science and education, but also for high-tech industries that determine the success of the transition to an innovative model of economic development [1-3].

In recent years, some important legal acts aimed at reforming the system of postgraduate education and ensuring its sustainable development have been adopted at federal and industrial levels. It has noticeably affected the functioning of the postgraduate school: postgraduate education has become increasingly focused on strategic priorities in the field of science, engineering and technology. However, a deep study of postgraduate educational programmes structure, conditions for their implementation, administration of postgraduate training and evaluation criteria of the results of mastering these educational programmes together with the strategic priorities in the field of science, engineering and technology is still required.

II. STRUCTURE AND DESIGN OF POSTGRADUATE TRAINING PROGRAMMES IN THE TECHNICAL FIELD

OF SCIENCES

Specialists involved in the problems of postgraduate professional education have repeatedly raised the question of the necessity of a harmonious combination of educational, research and innovative components in postgraduate educational programmes. Recent publications indicate that many dissertations, even successfully defended, are not applied to practice and are out of touch with the realities of the innovative development of the industry, the region and the country as a whole; that most postgraduate students are not prepared enough for the commercialization of intellectual property. However, the federal state requirements for postgraduate professional educational programmes entered into force in 2011 record only educational and research components (Fig. 1a). We believe that in order to meet the challenges of the competitive training of highly qualified personnel possessing not only knowledge but also practical competences and capable of strategic thinking and innovative behaviour in their professional fields, it is necessary to highlight the innovative component in the structure of training (Fig.1b).

)

b)

FIG. 1. MODEL STRUCTURE OF POSTGRADUATE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES:

A) CURRENT B) PERSPECTIVE

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The integration of educational, research and innovative components of postgraduate educational programmes can lead to synergies and transition of postgraduate students to a new level – the level of innovative thinking. The result of training in integrated programmes should be the focus of postgraduate students on the project-based approach that helps them to do their dissertation research. Obviously, the “core” of the dissertation, i.e. its scientific novelty, theoretical and practical significance, is situated just at the intersection of the above-mentioned components of postgraduate programmes (Fig. 1b). The results of postgraduate students’ dissertation research in the technical field of sciences, that a priori possess some technical novelty, must be positioned as an innovative product and compete in the market of technological and technical innovation. At the same time we do not say about a sharp change of postgraduate programmes content to commercialization of the dissertation research results, but about building such programmes that integrate educational, research and innovative activity of postgraduate students through the systematic use of available resources and opportunities.

For this purpose we should analyze the existing structure of training programmes for scientific-pedagogical personnel in postgraduate school.

The educational component occupies approximately 13% of the programme complexity – 27 out of 210 according to the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). Usually it is reduced to the formal study of five or six courses designed to expand and deepen knowledge in the subject area, develop communicative, management and organizational skills, and pass three candidate exams. The disadvantages of the educational component of most postgraduate training programmes are the shortage of practice-oriented courses, the eclecticism, and the partial duplication of the higher education programmes content.

The research component of scientific-pedagogical personnel training has a sufficiently large volume (180 ECTS), and if the implementation of programmes has an extended training period it may be increased up to 235 ECTS. It is almost not structured and is mainly regulated by the content of the individual plan for postgraduate students’ work. At the same time the aim of postgraduate training is actually reduced to a narrower problem: conducting specific research in a particular scientific area in the form of a dissertation.

As for the innovative component of postgraduate training, it is usually only declared, though it may appear in both educational and research components of the programmes implemented mainly at the national research and federal universities [2]. In the recommended structure of general cultural (universal and general professional) competences for postgraduate and internship programmes posted on the website of the Federal state educational standards of higher professional education there are no competences related to the field of innovation.

Table 1 summarizes the recommendations for improving educational, research and innovative components of postgraduate training in the technical field of sciences, partly tested at TSTU.

TABLE 1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE POSTGRADUATE PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES

Educational component

Research component Innovative component

Improving the structure of training on the basis of graduate and postgraduate educational programmes continuity and their modular construction.

Clear structuring of the research component by type and duration of work performed by postgraduate students and reporting forms.

Determining the structure and the content of the innovative component of postgraduate training.

Giving postgraduate students the opportunity to choose individual educational routes.

Organizing and holding research workshops with obligatory participation of each postgraduate student.

Holding workshops on commercialization of research and development results.

Transferring elective courses in the curriculum to their compulsory status for studying.

Organizing postgraduate students’ participation in contests, grants, federal and international programmes and conferences at various levels.

Organizing postgraduate students’ participation in programmes of the innovative activity support in in the scientific and technical sphere.

Making educational-methodical and scientific issues for organizing postgraduate students’ independent work.

Creating wide access for postgraduate students to journals indexed by international information systems of science citations.

Forming readiness to work in a team and ability to bring research work to making an innovative product.

Developing the network form of interaction in order to ensure the mobility of postgraduate students and lecturers.

Expanding the practice of conducting the research on the basis of research and educational centers and centres for collective use.

Increasing the requirements for inventive activity and the presence of objects of intellectual property.

Introduction of innovative educational technologies.

Transferring the results of postgraduate students’ research into educational process.

Accounting indicators characterizing innovative activity of postgraduate students in the assessment of their work.

Improving the mechanisms for monitoring and assessing the quality of mastering the educational component.

Improving the mechanisms for monitoring and assessing the quality of mastering the research component.

Improving the mechanisms for monitoring and assessingthe quality of mastering the innovative component.

The design of educational programmes should be based on

the principles of a systematic approach to the development of the training structure which will ensure the integration of the modules of the educational, research and innovative components. However, the structure of the programme must be flexible and be characterized by a high degree of diversification and individualization of the training character.

The federal state requirements to the structure and the content of postgraduate programmes require the choice of subjects for a postgraduate student in the established volume. The possibility to choose subjects is a significant step towards student-centered training, but in order to build an individual educational route, some additional modules of educational, research and innovative components are required to suit personal and professional preferences of postgraduate students. Fig. 2 shows an example of two options of individual educational routes in postgraduate training. Large circles indicate the components

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required for the development of mastering the postgraduate programme; smaller circles indicate an elective component.

)

b)

innovative ( ), research ( ) and educational ( ) components of postgraduate

educational programmes

FIG. 2. INDIVIDUAL EDUCATIONAL ROUTES OF POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

The selection and structuring of postgraduate educational programmes content should be started with designing the passport of competences. In this case, the passport of competences of all specialties related to the technical field of sciences should contain a core group of competences relevant to methodology of science and organization of research and innovative activity, while the elective part of competences should be formed according to the passport of the relevant specialty of scientific workers. Postgraduate students should also have an opportunity to acquire additional competences through the ability to select individual educational routes. Solving this problem it is necessary to take into account the experience of foreign colleagues working in this field, for example [4]. The design of postgraduate programmes on the basis of competence approach will encourage the convergence of Russian and European postgraduate education and will help to solve the problem of scientific degrees equivalence.

III. MECHANISMS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF TRAINING PROGRAMMES FOR POSTGRADUATE

STUDENTS IN PRIORITY AREAS OF SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

The design and implementation of innovation-driven programmes involves changing the management forms of postgraduate training, developing network forms of cooperation between universities, scientific-research organizations and knowledge-intensive industries.

The full-scale implementation of postgraduate training in the technical field of sciences is possible only if the dissertation research is done in priority areas of science, engineering and technology in scientific and educational clusters, which are available in renowned scientific schools, well-functioning research and educational centres, and specialized small innovative enterprises [5]. In such structures, as it is described in detail in [2], we can observe the ideal conditions for the integration of educational, research and innovative activity of postgraduate students in the process of mastering educational programmes and participating in the full life cycle of high-tech products (Table 2).

TABLE 2. DISTRIBUTION OF POSTGRADUATE AND DOCTORAL STUDENTS ACCORDING TO

PRIORITY AREAS OF SCIENCE AT TSTU

Priority areas of science

development («Growth points »)

Quantity

research schools

research and educational

centers

small

innovative enter-prises

post-

graduate specialties

post-

graduate students

doctoral students

Nano- technology and nanomaterials. Industry of nanosystems

2

2

2

2

19

3

Energy and resource saving and environmental management

4

6

1

5

56

4

Information Systems and Devices

4

2

4

6

60

5

Technologies of life support and human protection

1

2

2

4

13

2

In total 11 12 9 17 148 14

Currently, TSTU has created favorable conditions for the integration of educational, research and innovative components of postgraduate training due to both the improvement of curricula and internal audit of the educational programmes quality in the process of preparation for accreditation procedure, as well as due to the changes in the structure of the Department of Science at TSTU (Fig. 3).

FIG. 3 STRUCTURE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AT TSTU

Formerly, working with postgraduate students was largely the prerogative of supervisors, Postgraduate and Doctorate Department, and chairs that provided training for candidate exams in foreign languages and history and philosophy of

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science. But now information and analytical as well as consulting and methodical support for postgraduate students on enhancing the effectiveness of the research, development, engineering and technological works, patent and licensing activity, the rise of citation index, business planning and support of innovative projects, the fundamentals of innovative business and other relevant issues can provide the employees of Department of Basic and Applied Research and Department of Innovation. Establishment of Dissertation Councils Office as a structural unit of Postgraduate and Doctorate Department streamlined the procedures for the preliminary examination of dissertations, checks of dissertation texts for the presence of incorrect borrowings or plagiarism that helps to ensure methodological support for candidates for a degree at the final stage of documental preparation.

An effective mechanism for the process of training programmes management in postgraduate education is a rating system within postgraduate students’ attestation where some indicators reflecting the efficiency of educational, research and innovative activity can be reflected. This system has been practiced at TSTU since 2010 and is updated in accordance with the objectives of reforming the system of postgraduate education and priority areas of the university development.

We will try to illustrate the ability to control the efficiency of the educational, research and innovative activities of postgraduate students through a rating system. In late 2010, the indicator called “Participant (winner) of the Youth Research and Innovation Competition” has been introduced into the rating of a postgraduate student. The aim of introducing this indicator is to assess the innovative activity of postgraduate students and their readiness to position the results of their dissertation research as an innovative product that can compete in the market of technological and technical innovations. In order to achieve high rates of this indicator we used a system approach to building the innovative culture of postgraduate students through integrating different elective courses (such as “Innovation in Science and Technology”) into the curricula of all technical specialties, holding specialized workshops for postgraduate students and supervisors by specialists from Business Incubator “Innovation”, Center for Technology Transfer and Patent and Intellectual Property Protection Office. This led not only to a significant increase in the number of participants and expansion of project topics in 2011-2012 (Fig. 4), but also to the noticeable improvement in their quality.

FIG. 4. POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION DYNAMICS IN CONTESTS

OF INNOVATIVE PROJECTS

The need to improve the publication and citation activity as one of the main criteria for high-ranking universities has led to the introduction to the rating system of postgraduate students 2013 such an indicator as the number of article citations in peer-reviewed scientific journals, indexed in different databases (e.g. Web of Science, Scopus, etc.).

Creation of new infrastructure elements, monitoring the results of postgraduate training as well as prompt update of educational programmes structure and the conditions for their implementation allows us to coordinate educational, scientific and innovative activities based on the systematic use of available resources and opportunities.

IV. CONCLUSION

The Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation in 2014-2015 is planning to create a new model of postgraduate school. We hope that in designing the model, home and foreign traditions and innovations in postgraduate training will be taken into account and this model will allow to provide the balanced development of postgraduate educational system.

Current innovative transformations, which are actively introduced in the preparation of scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel, need a strategically verified system at federal, regional and university levels that will be able to provide balanced and continuous improvement of all postgraduate educational programmes components, resources and conditions for their implementation.

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