Change management in the field of training and certification of academic personnel implies a reliable information support in the form of statistical and sociological data that enable the monitoring of the effectiveness of the institution of doctoral education. The current system for monitoring the activities of doctoral schools does not fully meet these requirements, thus making it difficult to assess objectively the implementation of doctoral education’s main function – the training of researchers and faculty for higher education. The article attempts to fill this information lacuna by presenting an analysis of the database created by the authors which contains information about the defense of dissertations and research results of PhD students who graduated in 2013 from nine Russian universities over the five-year period after their graduation (N = 1178). Information on the results of each graduate’s research activities was obtained from open sources: the portal of the Higher Attestation Commission, the electronic catalog of the Russian State Library, Scopus and eLibrary.ru databases, as well as the database of the Industrial Property Institute. As a result of our research, it was established that the actual timeframe of doctoral students’ advancement to their academic degree is determined by discipline-related factors. In the sample as a whole, the share of persons who defended their dissertations was 45% of the total number of graduates, which is 1.7 times higher than the share of graduates who defended their dissertations in the course of their studies at the doctoral school. Approximately 90% of graduates defend their dissertations no later than two years after graduation from the doctoral school. The quantitative data of doctoral school graduates’ retention in the academic field are given, with the breakdown by discipline. On average, more than 60% of Candidate of Sciences degree holders continue their careers in academic positions. The obtained data on Russian doctoral school graduates are in good agreement with the results of monitoring doctoral programs’ graduates in Europe and the USA. The results of this work make it possible to take a fresh look at the methodology for diagnosing the effectiveness of university doctoral schools.

The article was prepared using materials from expert interviews conducted within the framework of the grant of the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society “Development of a modern model for the formation of research competencies of graduates of educational programs in fundamental areas of training and higher education specialties”. In the context of research competencies formation, the article substantiates the relevance of the appeal to the figure of a research supervisor. In this regard, it is shown that research guidance is a determining element of science education. The author examines the tasks that supervisor fulfils, the qualities that he must possess for the successful solution of these problems, the functions carried out to solve them, as well as the conditions providing the normal course of research guidance and the limitations that impede it. Among the opportunities and limitations, the article highlights such factors as qualification of scientific leaders, their motivation, the style of research guidance. Based on the analysis, problems and contradictions in the process of implementing research guidance were identified. The author formulates proposals for solutions to overcome them.

Low level of literacy of students, postgraduate students and university staff results in infelicities of style in Russian scientific papers and abstracts that might lead to manuscript rejection for publication in international journals. The author addresses the task of readability improvement of abstracts and scientific papers written by university staff members from technical and natural sciences departments. Sentence and text readability is determined not only by the number of words, i.e. the length of a sentence but also by the sentence structure and its grammar and lexical structure. The infelicities of style are caused by differences in scientific discourse between Russian and English languages. In particular, these might be nominalization, complex sentence structure, and wide use of Passive Voice in Russian sentences. Bilingual education is considered as the process of trainees’ introduction to the English-speaking world culture based upon matching Russian and English stylistic features. As the result the trainees realize the necessity of pre-translation adaptation of their texts. The author suggests some ways of pre-translation preparation of a sentence: shortening the sentence length up to 10-20 words by eliminating non-informative words and splitting a complex sentence into two or three according to the rule: one idea = one sentence. Some examples illustrate how chains of nouns in the genitive case could be substituted with other structures. Special attention is paid to parallel structures usage and eliminating non-informative words. In this way Russian authors will be able to write concise and clear texts in Russian and English in accordance with the accepted international language conventions.

The paper discusses the preliminary results of teaching academic writing to scientific and academic staff at South Ural State University (national research university) within the framework of advanced training courses. The 36 and 72-hour training programs were developed by the academic and methodological department of the Office of Academic Writing. The Office was opened at the university in 2016 in order to improve the academic literacy of the university’s academic staff, develop professional communication skills in English, and assist authors who aspire to get their papers published in top rated scientific journals indexed in the scientific citation databases Scopus and Web of Science. Upon completion of these programs, authors of scientific papers gain knowledge about the basics of academic writing, the structure of a scientific paper, the English scientific style and its lexical and grammatical features, as well as editing a paper, working with scientific citation databases, and elaborating a publishing strategy. We conducted a study from October 2016 to December 2018 and calculated data on the attendees’ affiliation (an institute or higher school), the contingent (position), and the importance of the offered training programs (the number of attendees in each course). The obtained data indicates that representatives of social-humanitarian and technical fields show a special interest in the courses. The courses of academic writing are most popular among associate professors who have experience in publishing papers in Russian. Authors are especially interested in intensive practice-oriented programs. Upon completion of the courses and with the support of the Office of Academic Writing, attendees prepared scientific texts in English and submitted them to top rated journals and conference proceedings. The educational activity of the Office of Academic Writing can be developed through elaboration and implementation of new advanced training programs, including the distance ones. Their effectiveness will be evaluated by an increase in the publication activity of the university’s employees.

The aim of the paper is to propose Rubrics for self-evaluation of graduate and postgraduate engineering programs based on the FCDI (Forecast, Conceive, Design, Implement) Standards and FFCD (Foresight, Forecast, Conceive, Design) Standards by analogy with Rubrics for self-evaluation of undergraduate engineering programs based on the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) Standards. The FCDI Standards and FFCD Standards were developed for Master’s and Doctoral engineering programs as a result of the CDIO approach evolution and by analogy with the CDIO Standards originally developed for Bachelor’s engineering programs. The CDIO/FCDI/FFCD Standards are recommended for the design and implementation of three-cycle engineering programs to train graduates for complex, innovative and research engineering activities, respectively, taking into account the features of the division of labor in the engineering profession. The 6-level scale Rubrics are helpful for evaluation the degree of Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral engineering programs compliance with the recommendations of the CDIO, FCDI and FFCD Standards, respectively.

The relevance of the research topic is predetermined by significant changes in the domestic and world educational space. Modernization of educational technologies, the emergence of an electronic library resource, the active use of the information and communication network Internet in the educational process expands the possibilities for the realization of the right to education, makes it accessible regardless of the place of residence and the material status of students. At the same time, the Russian regulatory and legal framework of the educational process at the higher education level is universalized for any educational programs, regardless of the form of their implementation and the educational technologies used, which results in the refusal of many higher education institutions from distance educational technologies. The article summarizes the domestic practice in the application of distance learning, analyzes the positions of the leading researchers on the issues examined. The authors offer their forecasts regarding the future development of digital technologies in the higher education segment of the Russian market of educational services. The article grounds the need to differentiate the requirements of the Federal state educational standards depending on the methods and forms of implementing educational programs, simplifying the requirements for conducting practices, current and intermediate monitoring of learning outcomes, and material and technical support when using distance higher education. Proposals are made to improve the methodological support and legal regulation of the implementation of educational programs using digital technologies.

The article raises the problem of the formation of entrepreneurial competencies in response to the current situation in the country’s economy, which arose due to the lack of specialists capable of organizing innovation and technology business in the Territories of advanced socio-economic development (TOSED).

The authors have analyzed the professional preferences of graduates of the National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (Russia), the University of Zagreb (Croatia), and the University of Lyon (France) and identified the reasons why graduates do not create their own business. In order to determine the necessary cluster of entrepreneurial competencies of university graduates with basic technical education, a survey involving the representatives of Russian and foreign companies working in Russia, including TOSED residents, was conducted. As a result, the authors have received a list of key entrepreneurial competencies necessary for entrepreneurial activities and the formation of graduate competence in the field of management and business.

The authors believe that for the formation of entrepreneurial competence, certain conditions must be created in the educational process for preparing a student for entrepreneurial activities, in particular a number of disciplines (entrepreneurship, technological entrepreneurship, project management, business planning) should be included in the curricula; interactive design training methods aimed to develop graduate’s readiness to create their own business should be applied. It is also necessary to provide an the interaction between universities and business structures, which are mostly the residents of TOSED.

Digitalization affects all spheres and processes including socialization of personality, which were out of influence of digital technologies decades ago. At the same time, the science community analyses primarily the impact of digitalization on economy and IT sphere. There are less investigations of the new technologies’ influence on social and cultural sphere. Moreover, the scientists that research the spiritual life of our society leave it by the wayside. The prevailing opinion is that the digital technologies will be an impulse to the cultural Renaissance of Humankind.

The article reports that the development of the social and cultural sphere is a critical part of the further technological development of the society. The wave development of the economy including the digital economy, depends on not only technologies, but on the cultural values. The success of the forth industrial revolution and its impact on the development of humankind are totally determined by the development of the culture, science and education.

The continuous modernization of the education system makes the problems of the quality of teacher training increasingly relevant. Moreover, the measures taken to improve the system of teacher education are largely confined to the introduction of new organizational and managerial mechanisms and practically do not affect the internal content and technological structure of the teacher training process.

Modern pedagogical universities are constantly looking for innovative models of training teachers that will be able to solve non-standard social and professional tasks. However, recent studies in this area do not fully take into account the nature of pedagogical activity and conditions of its formation. Thus, the need arises for a special study of the processes and means of updating the content and technologies of teacher training in order to control the level of students’ professional competencies development, as required by educational and professional standards. This means the creation of a special educational system in a pedagogical university, which can provide a harmonious and synchronous mastering by future specialists of both subject knowledge and methods of pedagogical activity.

The article provides a theoretical study aimed at identifying key patterns of designing a new content for teacher education, the basis of which is the formation of a future teacher as a subject of his own professional activity. The author describes the experience of using a subject-oriented model of education, implemented at Bashkir State Pedagogical University n.a. M. Akmulla. The effectiveness of this model is confirmed by the high level of students’ mastery of designing methods and constructing the educational process, as well as their positive experience in the implementation of educational activities.

The article discusses the importance of scientific illustration, particularly in biological research. The authors dwell on the quality criteria for scientific illustration, highlight the peculiarities of drawing microscopic objects, and give practical recommendations for drawing of biological objects. The necessity of introducing courses on scientific illustration in the educational programs of Russian universities is noted.

The paper deals with the issue of the faculty development at ITMO University by means of informal education in the context of implementation of new educational technologies in Russian institutions of higher education. The project team of the University designed and implemented a peer learning project which enables educators to share their experiences with technology and train each other to use new tools, methods, and techniques in their professional practice. The article describes the first results of the ITMO.EXPERT project, provides the analysis of its current state, and proposes measures for improving the efficiency of the project. The special focus in the paper is made on the analysis of such aspects of the ITMO.EXPERT project as the competencies that the participants are supposed to develop; the key characteristics of the target audience of the project that should be taken into consideration when planning improvements; the structure of a single workshop and the structure of the whole project.

The paper addresses the main problems of students with hearing disabilities when studying natural sciences at a technical university of a general type in the inclusive conditions. They are associated both with a low level of the school chemistry course knowledge and with their peculiarities of perception of educational materials in chemistry in connection with a defect. To overcome the difficulties, we have set a task to develop special competencies in students with hearing impairments, which contribute to their mastery of the university’s chemistry course at the level meeting the requirements of independently established university educational standards (IEES). The authors have developed and introduced in the educational process at BMSTU technological, organizational, and pedagogical decisions that contribute to forming these competencies in students with hearing impairments. The adaptive course “Cognitive technologies of supporting the discipline “Chemistry” is being implemented in parallel with the basic discipline “Chemistry” and on its material. This course is being taught at BMSTU in an accessible environment of multimedia laboratories providing special educational conditions for such students. The offered cognitive information and communication technologies contribute developing of special competencies (SC) in students with hearing disabilities. SC are compensatory and at the same time personally adaptational, they are included in the matrix of BMSTU competencies which are necessary for mastering by this category of students within inclusive programs. SC contribute to getting by students professional competencies defined by the IEES. The adaptive course showed a positive effect on performance indicators in chemistry of hearing impaired students. This is achieved by creating conditions that equalize the level of training of hearing impaired students in the educational process with the level of training of ordinary students.

These technologies can be effectively used in the process of forming special competences in students with hearing disabilities when teaching them general technical and special disciplines at various levels of higher education. They can be applied to students with other disabilities within inclusive education environment as well.

This material is the last text of Prof. A.S. Robotova received by the Editor. The text is theses to a possible article on her favorite humanitarian topic. The paper addresses the issues of the specific of online humanitarian text. The resources of online course may be found in the common for teacher and students time-space context, their emotional and cognitive affinity. The author believes that special attentions should be paid to composition and semantic expressiveness of the content. It may be reached by intellectual tension, clash of texts, facts and data, which switches on the mechanism of internal dialogue and activates student’s interest.

The paper studies the problem of developing the massive open online courses (MOOCs) that conform to the content accessibility principles for persons with disabilities. Using the browsing of MOOCs platform catalogues, a total of 56 Russian-language free MOOCs in mathematical disciplines hosted on 5 platforms has been received. By automatic testing using Web Accessibility Checker, the accessibility of the functional and informational content of the MOOCs was evaluated. 73% of MOOCs were found to conform to the syllabus subjects “Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics”, “Discrete Mathematics” and “Algebra and Geometry”; 8 basic disciplines of higher mathematics education are not covered by online education; 96,4% of the courses have accessibility limitations, especially for people with visual impairment. Accessibility problems are related to shortcomings of the platforms and MOOC developers’ errors. The results show a weak coverage by MOOCs of the basic mathematical disciplines included in the higher education curriculum in Russia and indicate the low content accessibility of the mathematical MOOCs for students with disabilities. The results of the work imply the need for: expanding the range of MOOCs to cover all basic mathematical disciplines; troubleshooting the accessibility in existing courses (pursuant to WCAG); prescription to platforms and developers to strictly adhere to WCAG in future courses.