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Международное общество по инженерной педагогике (IGIP) и Европейское общество по инженерной педагогике (SEFI) являются двумя основными европейским обществами по инженерному образованию. Девиз «Разнообразие объединяет - Разнообразие в инженерном образовании» был выбран как общая тема, в соответствии с которой, с 19-го по 25-го сентября 2010 года в г Трнава (Словакия) проходил 39-й Международный совместный симпозиум IGIP - SEFI. Симпозиум проходил на базе Словацкого технического университета на факультете производственных материалов и технологий в Трнаве. От Казанского государственного университета на симпозиуме был представлен устный доклад: Grigory Matushanskiy, Roza Bakeeva, Alsu Suleymanova «Integration of educational programs of preparing of PhD in Education in Europe and candidate of pedagogical sciences in Russia» (Интеграция образовательных программ подготовки доктора философии (PhD) в сфере образования в Европе и кандидата педагогических наук в России), подготовленный заведующим кафедрой педагогики и психологии профессионального образования КГЭУ, доктором педагогических наук, профессором Григорием Ушеровичем Матушан-ским. Полный текст доклада, представленного на симпозиуме, приводится ниже.
G. Matushanskiy, R Bakeeva, A. Suleymanova
INTEGRATION OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OF PREPARING OF PHD IN EDUCATION IN EUROPE AND CANDIDATE OF PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES IN RUSSIA
Целью представленной работы являлось проведение сравнительного анализа образовательных программ подготовки доктора философии в сфере образования в Европе и кандидата педагогических наук в России. Авторами сделана попытка оценки кредитной стоимости отдельных компонентов учебнообразовательной и научно-исследовательской частей программы российской аспирантуры.
Ключевые слова: доктор философии в сфере образования, кандидат педагогических наук, образовательные программы.
At present European countries face structural and quality changes in education systems, which are conceptually and practically associated with Bologna process and the commitments expressed in the Bologna Declaration.
The Bologna Declaration is to be the main initiative to create convergence of higher education system at European level. Undergraduate and postgraduate degrees earned in various countries will be acknowledged in other countries in case they are readable to correctly determine the qualification of the holder. The signatory countries of the Bologna Process are ready to blur the boundaries between the national sectors of higher education. The new converged system is based on the three-level hierarchy of degrees: Bachelor, Master and Doctor. In order to achieve compatibility of study modules in different academic programs of higher education across the collaborating European countries, they implemented the credit-unit system to assess the academic load, such as ECTS credits.
In European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) one academic year corresponds to 60 ECTS-credits, one semester (half-year) corresponds to 30 credits,
while 20 credits are awarded for a trimester. Recently ECTS has been complemented by European Credit Accumulation (ECA). Credit system has become the key factor in harmonization of European higher education. It contributes to the reforms of academic programs, offering readable and comparable degree programs at all levels of higher education.
In Russia the credit terminology is not fully established as it resorts to various synonymous terms such as academic credits, units, ECTS-credits, credit points as synonyms. At first the credit system (or credit points system) was used to enhance academic mobility and to acknowledge the academic performance of students participating in exchange programs with partner universities. Afterwards, universities aimed at using the credit system for implementing asynchronous education and transfer to continuing education. Number of credits awarded to the student for successfully completed courses or program units is determined according to the recommendations of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation outlined in the information letter № 14-52-988 IN/13 dated 28.11.02. The total number of credits for all core curriculum courses amounts 30 per semester. Currently we target at introducing transfer and accumulative credits into the Russian higher education. As Russia joined the Bologna Process, it has to unconditionally adopt the European credit system. Therefore, the experiments on implementing the credit system in higher education are conducted in several leading universities of Russia, among them Peoples’ Friendship University in Russia (PFUR).
PFUR has successfully adopted the credit system, based on ECTS. When awarding credits only the general academic workload is measured. One national credit is equivalent to 36 hours of general student workload, which includes attending lectures and other classes, completing laboratory and practical assignments, writing tests, preparation for lectures and seminars, reading academic and scientific literature, writing summaries, abstracts, essays and articles, etc. It also includes writing term papers, the bachelor degree thesis, the diploma thesis (undergraduate degree paper), a postgraduate thesis or dissertation, as well as presentations at seminars and conferences, research paper defences. Credits are also allocated to all kinds of practical training and study placement and other kinds of instructor-led and extracurricular activities. On appropriate assessment of the outcomes achieved, a student is awarded credits corresponding to the student workload for the course.
Academic credits are also used in Ph.D. degree programs abroad where we face the question of credit transfers. Postgraduate programs include many
academic courses and independent research presentations accounted for by the
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postgraduate student. Therefore, we find it reasonable to implement the unified credit system for assessing the completed academic and scientific work. According to the Bologna Declaration postgraduate study represents the third, the highest cycle of tertiary education. Doctoral students aim not only at obtaining modern knowledge but mostly at contributing their own independent creative research results into it. The academic degree of Doctor of Philosophy is conferred upon those who completed the doctoral course successfully.
The goal of this paper is to compare academic degree programs for Ph.D. in Pedagogics offered in several European and US universities and to attempt at integrating the core curriculum of the selected program into the degree program for Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences in Russia. To achieve this goal we compared the Ph.D. degree programs offered at Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Kazakh National Pedagogical University named after Abay, L. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (Kazakhstan), World Information Distributed University (Switzerland), Walden University (USA), George Mason University (USA).
The comparative analysis reveals the following common features [1].
1. Master’s degree holders are admitted into Ph.D. programs. However, in some cases the Bachelor’s or Specialist degree holders are eligible too. In addition, students can either be required to take exams in their major subject or foreign languages, submit a portfolio of published work, or be interviewed in his/her area of specialization.
2. The form of education is full-time, part-time, or distant. The length of study determined by the form of education and the initial academic degree ranges from 3 to 5 years.
3. The requirements for a Ph.D. include coursework and research. A candidate must submit a thesis or dissertation. The postgraduate degree program operates on a credit system.
4. The required coursework usually lasts an academic year (the first year of study) and amounts to 60 credits. However, in various universities it can range from 30 to 90 credits per year.
5. The required scholarly component for a Ph.D. includes academic and experimental research, published articles, and submitting a thesis or dissertation. The latter amounts to 10-30 credits.
As an example of such degree program we analyzed the doctoral program on Didactics of Technical Professional Subjects (Engineering Pedagogies) offered by the Institute of Engineering Pedagogies and Humanities at the Faculty
of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava (Slovak University of Technol-
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ogy in Bratislava).
The coursework within this degree program includes such courses as Pedagogical Research Methodology, Psychology, Engineering Pedagogies, The English Language and Didactics of Technical Professional Subjects. The coursework lasts the first year of study and amounts to 60 credits. The performance is assessed at the State Final Examination [2].
The scholarly component of the program encompasses the research on the subject of thesis and the submission of thesis. The research is assessed by the published work of the Ph.D. candidate, by his or her active participation at conferences and peer citation. The components have different credit value amounting to 120 credits in total.
In Russia the Provisional Requirements set the goals of postgraduate degree programs, admission requirements, and the amount of study.
Specialist’s (the first level higher education degree in Russia granted usually after 5 years of undergraduate study) and Master’s degree holders are eligible to apply for post graduate studies in Russia. Students are enrolled on a competitive basis after taking admission exams. For full-time study the period of study is 3 years, for part-time it is extended to 4 years. The student workload of the 3 year full-time study program amounts to 156 weeks per year which include the required coursework of 20 weeks, 54 hours of instructor-based and self-guided work per week (1080 hours total), 120 weeks of research on the writing and submitting the dissertation of the Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences (6480 hours total) and at least 16 weeks of vacation.
The core curriculum has several components: academic and professional subjects, elective subjects, teaching practice, independent research work, final assessment of the postgraduate student, writing the dissertation, submitting the dissertation to the Dissertation Council for Conferring Candidate of Science Degrees.
As before the individual curriculum of a postgraduate student includes 3 qualifying exams (in specialty subject, Foreign Language and History and Philosophy of Science) and preparation for tertiary teaching as a Teaching Assistant. The programs of the first two exams focus on some area of studies incorporating groups of related specialties, while the specialty subject exam program should incorporate several exams in the specialty subjects in the field of study.
Table 1 shows the structure of coursework and research work in branches of knowledge according to the State Educational Standard of Postgraduate Professional Education [3].
Postgraduate studies in Russia can be exemplified by the postgraduate
degree program to attain the Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences degree with
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specialty 13.00.08 in Theory and Methodology of Professional Education which is offered by the Department of Pedagogies and Psychology of Professional Education at Kazan State Power-Engineering University. The postgraduate students take academic and professional subjects, their competence is assessed through qualifying examinations for the Candidate’s degree in History and Philosophy of Science, Foreign Language, Theory and Methodology of Professional Development. These three subjects amount to total of 300 hours which can equal 8 credits. The specialty subjects, elected by the postgraduate student, amount to total of 180 hours, or 5 credits. In our example these are Methodology and Methods of Research, Experimental Statistics.
The third part of the program is elective courses prescribed by University Academic Councils amounting to 500 hours, or 14 credits. Most commonly, as in our example, this is the certified program in Tertiary Teaching which is taught in accordance with the State Requirements and its successful completion is awarded with the Diploma on Professional Training in Tertiary Teaching. The program prescribes such courses as Human Psychology, Pedagogies, Essentials of Higher Education Organization, Information Technology in Science and Education, Pedagogical Engineering and others. The personal competency is assessed by the qualification paper. This part of the program includes teaching practice amounting 100 hours, or 3 credits. So, the total amount of course-work is equivalent to 30 ECTS-credits.
The research component of the postgraduate program in Russia amounts to 112 weeks, or 6048 hours, which are divided between the research (60 weeks) and dissertation writing (52 weeks). 8 weeks are allocated for the dissertation submission and presentation. Thus, the research component amounts to 120 weeks, or 6480 hours. Let us try to determine the credit value of this component.
An average dissertation has 160 pages and consists of introduction, body comprising of 2 chapters which reflect and disclose the object and the subject of research, methods being used, experimental findings), conclusion and bibliography. Self-abstract of the dissertation summarizes its contents and lists published work of the degree candidate. The published work includes 1-2 articles published in journals recommended by the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles; 3-4 articles in academic periodicals, 3-5 published papers in international, national and regional conference proceedings and 1-2 study guides or teaching aids. Thus, on average the total number of published works ranges from 8 to 13.
In European postgraduate studies the ECTS-credit value of all kinds of work is determined. Thus, if we apply the ECTS used at Slovak University of
Technology in Bratislava to the postgraduate student workload described
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above, we will have the following data: for an article published in journals recommended by the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles the student would be awarded 14 credits, 12 credits - for an article in academic periodicals, 6 credits - for teaching materials, 6 credits - for international conference participation, 4 credits - for participation in the local conference, 8 credits - for dissertation submission. Thus, our average postgraduate student could achieve from 90 to 140 credits.
Table 1. Structure of coursework and research work in branches of knowledge according to the State Educational Standard of Postgraduate Professional Education
Index Type of activity and name of subject Workload in hours Assessment form
Structure of coursework
OD.AF.OO Academic and professional subjects of postgraduate studies 480 -
0D.AF.01 History and Philosophy of Science and Education (in branches of knowledge) 100 Examination for Candidate’s degree
ODLF.02 Foreign Language 100 Examination for Candidate’s degree
0DAF.03 Specialty subjects in the field of study including elective subjects 280 Examination for Candidate’s degree
— Teaching Methods and Academic Work 600 —
FD.L.OO Academic courses in accordance with the State Requirements for the Additional Qualification in Tertiary Teaching 500 In accordance with the State Requirements for the Additional Qualification in Tertiary Teaching
PP.A.OO Teaching practice: presenting mock lectures, tutoring, consulting laboratory and practice. 100 —
Total time for academic programme: 1080 hours (20 weeks)
Structure of research work
NIR A 00 Work on dissertation: theoretical, experimental and publication of research results. According to individual plan of postgraduate work. —
Total time for research work 6048 hours (112 weeks)
Concluding our argument, firstly, we should agree that the credit value of the research component of the postgraduate program in Russia is rather arbitrary. However, we insist that the calculated amount of workload during the degree program is quite reliable. Secondly, it is reasonable to consider that the
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Russian Candidate of Science degree corresponds to the European Ph.D. both by the research workload and qualification requirements. Thirdly, the academic coursework within the Russian postgraduate program needs intensification by approximately 30 credits. As the credit value of the research component does not exceed 120 credits on average, this will not lead to the increased overall workload but will allow to converge the postgraduate degree programs of Ph.D. in Europe and Candidate of Sciences in Russia by allocating 60 plus 120 ECTS-credits for them.
The aforementioned argument leads to the conclusion that both the European Ph.D. degree programs and the Russian Candidate of Sciences degree programs belong to the third cycle of postgraduate study, have identical functions, similar duration, comparable components and qualification requirements. The coursework of European degree programs is awarded with more credits than in Russia, while Russian postgraduate programs offer a wider variety of subjects of lower ECTS-credit value. The research component of both compared postgraduate programs is identical. It should be mentioned, though, that European Ph.D. degrees are nostrified in Russia as Candidate of Sciences, but not vice versa, except nostrification of Russian degrees in France. Therefore, we should address the issue of nostrification of Russian postgraduate degrees abroad or awarding Russian degree holders credits for their postgraduate research and additional professional development using European Credit Accumulation.
References
1. Matushanskiy G.U., Suleimanova A.R. «Educational programs of preparation of the PhD in Education». Bulletin of Kazan State Power Engineering University, 2010, No. 1, pp. 149-159.
2. Turek I., Hrmo R. «Learning in doctoral candidacy on a specialty «Engineering education» in Slovakian Republic». IGIP «Report», 2007, No. 36, pp. 22-28.
3. Temporary requirements to the basic educational program of the post-graduate professional education. Moscow, 2002.
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