Postgraduate graduates pointed out difficulties in implementing research and development results

A quarter of the surveyed (25%) graduates of graduate school indicated difficulties with the practical application and implementation of research and development (R&D) results, including their commercialization, showed a survey conducted by the Institute of Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. Thus, 20% of respondents consider their level of proficiency in this skill to be low, another 5% indicated that they do not possess it at all. Another 25% of respondents rated their readiness for the practical implementation of developments as high, while the majority of respondents — 51% — called it average.

ISSEK reports that a total of 1,453 people who entered graduate school no earlier than 2008 and completed their studies before 2021 participated in the study. As follows from the survey results, graduates best mastered the skill of working with basic software (text editors and spreadsheets): 74% of respondents consider their level to be high, 25% – average. Former graduate students’ self-assessment of their basic and advanced theoretical knowledge in the professional field is somewhat lower (58% stated a high level, 40% – an average level). Only 1% of respondents admitted to a low level of their theoretical knowledge.

ISSEK experts call the generally weak influence of graduate school on the ability of graduates to apply in practice and implement the results of research and development of intellectual property as an “alarming signal.” Thus, for a third of graduates (33%), the role of graduate school is insignificant in the formation of this skill, and a fifth (19%) did not feel it at all.

It should be noted that graduates are more positive in assessing their “flexible” competencies. The top three leading skills are: the ability to learn (77%), independence and self-organization (64%), and the ability to take responsibility (62%). It is noted that the contribution of graduate school to the development of flexible and practice-oriented skills is generally much lower than to the development of professional ones. Meanwhile, as Natalya Shmatko, head of the human capital research department at ISSEK, notes, it is the combination of soft skills and specialized knowledge that is now especially valued in a variety of fields and increases the chances of candidates in the labor market (see also Kommersant on December 2).

Venera Petrova