Currently, enhancement of doctoral education performance is becoming one of the central tasks for state policy in the field of science and education. In 2013–2015 Russian doctoral education experienced radical transformations aimed to increase the performance of doctoral programs and enhance the quality of dissertations. First, doctoral education moved towards the structured (educational) model. Second, norms and rules of the work of dissertation boards changed significantly. The purpose of this study is to explore how these reforms affected the performance of doctoral education. The empirical base for the study comprises the data on dissertations defense of graduates of 2018 at 12 Russian universities (N=1022), which were collected by the authors using the web scraping technique. The main findings obtained from the analysis of these data are threefold. First, time-to-degree has increased with most of the dissertations now being defended only after the completion of the programs. Second, in social sciences, this delay of defense has intensified abnormally (80% of dissertation in this field are defended after the program completion). Third, the actual performance, i.e., one that takes into account dissertations defended after the program completion, has decreased significantly in social sciences and humanities. These results show that the traditional practice to evaluate performance based on the proportion of graduates who defend their dissertations during the normative period of time does not reflect the reality. To made adequate managerial decisions regarding doctoral education, it is necessary to arrange the monitoring of dynamics of dissertations that are defended after the program completion both on institution and state levels.

Pedagogical sciences occupy a significant place in the system of training and certification of highly qualified scientific personnel. During the period from 2011 to 2020, about 10 thousand dissertations were defended in pedagogical sciences, which is 6.5% of the total number of defenses within the entire certification system. The subject of dissertations should correspond to the challenges of modern society and be aimed at the topical problems of youth education. The purpose of the study is a general assessment of the system of training and certification of candidates and doctors of pedagogical sciences, the development and testing of a method for identifying the mainstream in the subject of dissertation research and quantifying the implementation of priority pedagogical research directions in dissertation works for a ten-year retrospective period.

The results of the analysis revealed a reduction in the number of dissertation defenses in pedagogical sciences, which is in line with the general trend of reducing defenses, aging of dissertation councils members, a small number of young doctors of sciences. Thematic analysis of dissertations has shown that research meets the challenges of modern society, while there is a slight thematic delay associated with the time duration of the procedure for preparing and defending a dissertation. The largest number of dissertations was devoted to various issues of higher education in comparison with the other levels of education. Among the academic disciplines, foreign language, mathematics, Russian language and computer science have gained the greatest popularity in the subject of dissertation research. The thematic mainstream includes the formation of professional and communication competencies.

The master’s degree is an obligatory stage for those who are planning to enter PhD. That is why it should have a clear academic track. Embedding the master’s degree in the academic track allows universities to sum up their efforts to support young scientists. There is an urgent need to support scientific centers in Russian universities. When the universities are competing for academic leadership, academic tracks become the ground for the development strategies.

Previous researches showed that most students were ready to choose an academic track when they were master’s students. Thus, the academic track starts long before entering the doctoral programs. The study results reveal that master’s students do not have an opportunity to build an individual academic track within “hybrid” master’s programs. The Russian master’s degree programs shortly involve young researchers in projects, and this applies to all types of universities, including the research ones. The structure and ways of involving students in science do not differ in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Master’s students who choose academic track do it without changing the major program. However, this trend doesn’t cover all the students. Master’s students use academic tracks to upgrade their professional skills for the further career but not at university or scientific institution.

Gender imbalance among students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a worldwide problem leading to negative social and economic consequences. Despite the widespread “myth of gender equality” in Russia, this problem is also relevant for our country. The share of male students in most STEM fields in Russian universities significantly exceeds the share of female students, especially in engineering and technical fields. The article is aimed at analyzing the existing experience of combating gender stereotypes in STEM educational programs. It provides an overview of seven types of practices: 1) informing girls about gender stereotypes and their negative consequences; 2) practices aimed at developing “growth mindset”; 3) influence through “role models” and the formation of friendship networks based on interest in STEM; 4) class composition management; 5) organization of active learning; 6) emphasis on the public benefit of career in STEM; 7) creating a positive climate through working with stereotypes of male teachers and students. The article also discusses the applicability of these practices in the Russian educational context.

The article explores the factors of career mobility choice by international graduates of regional universities, which directly affect their employment in the regions. As a result of the analysis of foreign experience, the authors come to a conclusion that locally-trained international graduates’ employment is an effective tool for replacing the migration outflow from the periphery to megalopolises. A strong positive correlation is proved between the share of international graduates in the normalized student body and the rate of migration growth for the period 2015–2020 in the peripheral subjects in the Northwestern federal district of the Russian Federation. Eight variants of educational migrants’ migration trajectories are identified and described as a combination of two choices: educational and career mobility. Based on the generalization of Russian and foreign approaches, factors of international graduates’ career mobility choice at national, regional, sectoral, university, and individual levels are systematized. Within the online survey of international graduates of Russian regional universities, influence of factors of each level on the choice of a migration trajectory was determined, the influence of the experience of living in the region and studying at the university on changing the migration trajectory was shown. It has been proved that international graduates from the CIS and Baltic countries can make the greatest contribution to the regional economy of the Russian peripheral regions. Recommendations for executive authorities and universities have been developed to stimulate international graduates’ post-study employment in the region of study. As a direction for further research, it seems expedient to develop a model for determining the needs of regional economy in locally-trained international graduates, as well as to test such a model in the peripheral territorial subjects of the Russian Federation.

The publication focuses on the guidelines for the formation of entrepreneurship education as an important direction in the space of Russian higher education. Based on the functional map of entrepreneurship as a special type of professional activity and the allocation of groups of professional entrepreneurial functions, the article substantiates the appropriateness of including professional entrepreneurship competencies in educational programs on entrepreneurship. The formation of entrepreneurship competencies in graduates is regarded as achieving key learning outcomes based on the application of competency-based and practice-oriented approaches. In this conceptual context, the prospects for the implementation of the «Startup as a Diploma» program are considered.

It is noted that in the absence of agreement on the recognition of entrepreneurship as an independent direction of higher education in the Russian Federation, universities are forced to search for non-standard ways to build entrepreneurship education programs aimed at the formation of necessary competencies by graduates. The authors draw attention to the possibility for graduates to obtain professional qualifications simultaneously in two types of professional activity as a result of mastering educational programs on entrepreneurship in universities, which traditionally have an industry orientation.

The current results of the activities of the Federal Innovative Educational Platform created for the development of models of continuous entrepreneurship education have shown inexpediency of compulsory inclusion of entrepreneurship programs in bachelor’s and master’s degrees in management. The article supports the idea of separating entrepreneurship education as an independent direction of higher education in Russia and provides the corresponding arguments.

Quality assessment of entrepreneurship education and its’ results is an important problem in higher education. The task becomes even more relevant with the necessity of technological modernization in times of economic crisis. In particular, it is necessary to develop a system of criteria that would not only serve educational purposes, but also simulate the emerging of new market enterprises, which remains problematic so far now, despite the active measures from the government to support student initiatives. The lack of attention towards contemporary international ratings in the field of startup evaluation appears to be a significant limitation. Analysis of the related field will help with defining the criteria for entrepreneurial project assessment. The present paper aims to fill this gap. As a result, suggestions for projects’ evaluation were developed that include both financial and non-financial criteria, applicable to the student initiatives, and taking into account their specifics.

The article provides an analysis of approaches to the entrepreneurship education organization at university with an example of an empirical study of its psychological and pedagogical components. The relevance of the student entrepreneurship competencies in all areas of training is due to the request for the implementation of the cross-functional principle in modern management. The basis of such formation is mastering by students of a three-level structure: the competencies fostering the development of an entrepreneur personality, creating projects and entrepreneurial interaction. A systematic understanding of students’ entrepreneurship competencies is reflected in the model of entrepreneurship learning in the framework of the university educational environment, which includes both infrastructural and psychological and pedagogical components that directly affect the personal development of students. The effectiveness of the entrepreneurship education model at the university was evaluated on a sample of 105 students of Sevastopol State University (SevGU). As a key individual psychological competence for the training of an entrepreneurial type specialist, we viewed the degree of responsibility for the results of activities (internality). The assessment of internality was carried out according to the method of diagnosing the level of subjective control, based on the concept of the locus of personality control. Comparison of the degree of responsibility of students was carried out between students majoring in management and students majoring in economics. The redesign of the educational process for management majors based on the model of entrepreneurship education at university created additional opportunities for the purposeful formation of entrepreneurial thinking among students and their development as future entrepreneurial managers. This modification of the organizational and pedagogical conditions was reflected in the results of the study. The value of internality (responsibility) on most of the presented scales is more than twice as high for management students than for economics students . The results of the study confirmed the importance of organizing entrepreneurial education at university for the development of personal qualities inherent in an entrepreneurship behavior model, gaining experience in solving entrepreneurship problems, and increasing the likelihood of successful implementation of professional activities by students.

The entrepreneurial intention takes a major role in providing a new business creation. Despite major studies that have shown that entrepreneurship education is influential in driving intentions, few discuss this relationship by involving individual entrepreneurial orientation and internship motivation. This study is designed to investigate determinant factors affecting university students’ entrepreneurial intentions. To understand the nexus between entrepreneurship education and college students’ entrepreneurial intention, the hypotheses provide the intermediary role of entrepreneurial orientation, and this study presents evidence from Indonesia on the link between internships and intention for business. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS), the findings indicate that students’ entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurship education can drive students’ internship motivation and intention for entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it is de monstrated that internship motivation can moderate the link between entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurship education, and university students’ entrepreneurial intention.