This paper is aimed at providing evidence on the experience of doctoral students at Russian universities in the era of significant institutional changes related to the shift from the “master-apprentice” model of doctoral education to the model of structured doctoral programs. Based on the results of a cross-institutional online-survey of doctoral students (N = 2,034) conducted in 16 leading Russian universities, three main barriers to the completion of doctoral programs were distinguished: (1) poor supervision, (2) lack of financing and forced need to have a paid job, (3) tough requirements and a lack of competences to fulfill them. We argue that the institutional transformations, which were implemented in the last seven years, did not solve these problems, and more efforts should be done to enhance the development of doctoral programs in Russian universities in order to overcome the modern crisis of doctorate in Russia.
Doctoral education in Russia has high dropout rates. Many experts have attributed this to the generally low amounts of financial aid afforded to PhD students, which prompts them to seek out employment while pursuing a doctorate. However, current discussion is largely anecdotal in nature as it is mostly based on expert conjectures that only reflect limited statistics or rather cursory evidence from individual cases. Drawing upon findings from a 2016 survey of PhD students at leading Russian universities, we assess the extent and types of employment of postgraduates, as well as the experiences of those PhD students who balance work and study and the main challenges that confront them. We explore how such factors as one's area of employment, the type of contract worked, and the nature of the job performed affect how PhD hopefuls conceive of the educational process alongside their specific learning outcomes and career prospects. We conclude that balancing work and study can benefit both the academic performance and professional experiences of PhD students, but only insofar as the topic of one's PhD thesis research is closely aligned with what they do in the workplace. The results of the study can be used when developing measures to reform doctoral education both at the institutional and nation-state levels.
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