In 2022, 9.5 thousand candidates of science appeared in Russia – almost 45% more than in 2020

In 2022, 9.5 thousand candidates of science appeared in Russia – almost 45% more than in 2020. Experts associate this with a “new round of graduate school reforms,” but note that it is too early to speak confidently about its success—we must wait for “the development of this trend.” The most popular specialty among candidates of science last year was clinical medicine. Experts interviewed by Kommersant note that the quality of dissertations in this area raises questions, and its popularity is associated primarily with career requirements.

The Institute for Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics compared data on the defense of candidate dissertations since 2010. Their number peaked in 2011: then 22,712 people in the country received a PhD degree. Moreover, 18,923 defenses took place in universities (83%), another 3,645 – in the councils of research organizations (16%) and 144 – in other organizations, for example, additional professional education (0.6%).

In those same years, the process of tightening the requirements for dissertations and dissertation councils began. In 2013, the government changed the way academic degrees are awarded. Among other things, the number of scientific publications required for defense has increased, but conference reports and preprints are no longer taken into account. This led to a sharp reduction in the number of defenses. In 2014, only 10,364 candidates of sciences appeared in Russia (79% of defenses took place in universities, 20.5% in academic institutions and 0.6% in other organizations).

“The tightening of requirements, as expected, led to a decrease in the number of protections: throughout the 2010s it decreased almost every year, and in the pandemic year of 2020 it reached a minimum,” notes ISSEK. At that time, 6,594 people received a Candidate of Science degree (77% in universities, 22% in academic institutions, and 1.1% in other organizations).

After this, the number of defenses began to gradually increase. This trend at HSE is explained by a “new round of graduate school reforms.” Thus, in 2020, the preparation of a Ph.D. dissertation again became a prerequisite for graduating from graduate school. Now the graduate receives a certificate of completion of graduate school, as well as a commission conclusion “on the compliance of the dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Sciences with the established criteria.” If the commission does not give a positive conclusion on the dissertation, the graduate will receive only a certificate of postgraduate study instead of a certificate. The requirements for the composition and work of dissertation councils have also changed, for example, the minimum number of council members has decreased from 19 to 11 people.

In 2022, 9,544 people have already become candidates of science. About 76% of defenses took place in universities, another 22.3% – in the councils of research organizations, and 1.6% – in other organizations. ISSEK emphasizes that 18.3% completed their defense during the preparation period or ahead of schedule; researchers call this a “positive trend.”

However, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Khokhlov believes that it is too early to talk about the effectiveness of the reform that has returned “scientific postgraduate studies.” “To be able to say this with confidence, it is necessary to conduct a more detailed analysis of the data on the defenses of graduate students,” the scientist believes. “We must wait for the development of this trend. There is an alternative explanation – there was a minimum of protections in the covid year of 2020, and then there was some recovery, including due to the implementation of protections postponed due to covid.”

Vice President for Biomedical Research at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, co-founder of the Dissernet project, Mikhail Gelfand, associates the increase in protection with stricter control by the Ministry of Education and Science. “It is now much more profitable for universities to bring their graduate students to the defense, since the funding of the university and how many places will be allocated in graduate school for the next year will depend on this,” says the scientist. He is also confident that it is necessary to analyze not only general figures, but also specific specialties due to which growth occurs, “because defenses themselves do not always develop real science.”

The largest number of candidate dissertation defenses in 2022 were in the following areas of training: “Clinical Medicine” (1.2 thousand people, or 13.1% of the total number of those defended), “Economics” (784 people, 8.2%), “Physics and Astronomy” (600 people, 6.3%), “Linguistics and Literary Studies” (592 people, 6.2%) and “Biological Sciences” (480 people, 5%). These top 5 areas account for a total of about 40% of defenses. It is noteworthy that this list does not yet include the field of “Informatics and Computer Science,” which ranks second in terms of the number of postgraduate students in 2022. In terms of the number of defenses (387 people), it is in seventh place. The top 10 areas also included chemical sciences, pedagogy, law, history and archeology, as well as earth sciences.

However, experts note that the quality of “medical” scientific work raises questions. “A significant part of the people who were deprived of their scientific degrees in 2022 are doctors,” notes Mikhail Gelfand. At the same time, Dissernet considers the main problem of medical dissertations not even plagiarism, but outright falsification of data. At best, a person appropriates someone else’s scientific work and changes the period of study and the clinic in it, says Mr. Gelfand. “But diseases and treatments often change, but numerical results and analyzes remain the same or change randomly. These are no longer written off, but radically unreliable results,” the scientist complains.

HSE Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences and Dissernet participant Vasily Vlasov points out that a large number of defenses in clinical medicine “reflects a really active factor” in healthcare. “People with a PhD have a much greater chance of becoming the head of a department, not to mention the chief physician of a hospital,” says the expert. “Of course, to head a department, you don’t have to have a PhD; in Europe, many strong healthcare systems do without such a requirement. But each country has its own traditions.” And in commercial medicine, having an academic degree allows you to get more money, because “in the eyes of the patient, a doctor with a degree is more credible.” Nevertheless, Mr. Vlasov believes that most often medical dissertations are “quite honest.”

Vladimir Sinyukov, vice-rector for research at the Kutafin Moscow State Law Academy, believes that the restoration of the level of candidate defenses was the result of a whole set of measures – “this is the development of science at universities, and support for young scientists, and consistent reforms of graduate school itself.” He also notes that the decrease in the number of defenses in previous years was “a natural result of the changes,” as the number of certification commissions decreased and the requirements for the quality of work became more stringent. “Now, restoration is gradually taking place, and the dissertations themselves are already an order of magnitude higher in quality,” Mr. Sinyukov is confident. “Officials no longer defend themselves “for status.” We see an influx of young specialists in the academy, aimed at conceptual research, without fitting into any ideologies.” The expert is confident that the main thing is not just to increase the number of defended dissertations, but also to maintain their quality – and “so far we have been able to achieve this.”

Polina Yachmennikova