There are not so many specialists with a scientific degree in Ukrainian IT. We asked candidates of science who work in IT companies why they decided to go to graduate school, what they had to face, what experience and skills they got, where the degree came in handy.

Artem Chernodub, Chief Scientist at Clikque Technology, visiting lecturer at UCU, 10 years in IT

Candidate of Science (Engineering) with a degree in Systems and Means of Artificial Intelligence, IPMMS NASU.

Dissertation topic: "Teaching dynamic neural networks on problems of long-term forecasting", 2016

At school, I knew for sure that I wanted to become a programmer, I entered the profile faculty of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. But while preparing a bachelor's degree at the base department, I saw how a self-learning satellite control system based on neural networks works - and was amazed! I decided that from now on I want to do only this: neural networks, machine learning, pattern recognition. Going to graduate school was a natural next step; there was no other way to study neural networks in 2007. It should be noted that now, 10 years later, the situation has changed a lot: an industrial community of the direction of artificial intelligence has appeared and is growing rapidly, non-academic IT conferences on the topic of AI (AI Ukraine, Data Science Lab, etc.), AI-hackathons and opportunities for Online Learning: Coursera / Udacity / Udemy / Prometheus. And junior positions in the DS / ML direction just appear, earlier it was a great rarity.

An academic degree is a thing necessary for engaging in scientific and teaching activities. In the IT industry, the presence of a Ph.D. on the vacancy topic, usually "is a plus", that is, good, but not necessary. As for my personal experience, from the positive stories that happened to me after receiving my degree last year, I was invited to lecture on the course "Introduction to Deep Learning" at the Ukrainian Catholic University. I also won a short-term DAAD research grant for an internship in Germany - I would not have been able to apply for it without a Ph.D. For my current position (Chief Scientist), a PhD was also a strong pro.

Skills and experience are divided into two classes here: direct skills in the specialty and the practice of doing scientific work, writing a dissertation in general. In the first part, I think I was very lucky: neural networks and machine learning, which 10 years ago were the subject of attention except for a group of AI fans like me, are now in great demand in IT and are becoming more popular every day.

As for the second part, it must be said that studying in graduate school and writing a dissertation is a chance to focus on some deep problem, study it from all sides, learn all existing known solutions and propose a new one. It is necessary to prove that the proposed solution is more effective and explain why. In addition, you need to set out all this in a detailed and structured manner in a treatise of hundreds of pages. If this is done not cheeky, then this is a difficult task for several years. Its solution changes the very style of thinking and disciplines in general, and this, in my opinion, is the main benefit of graduate school. Moreover, this part is more or less invariant to the specialty and even, sometimes, to the type of science. I know several very strong specialists in machine learning who previously worked and defended themselves as physicists, and then were able to quickly reorient themselves.

The relevance of a specific dissertation directly depends on the depth of the fundamental nature of the problems discussed in it. If the thesis is devoted, for example, to some software products, then the period of relevance may be several years, and if this is a solution to the problem of packing balls in an 8-dimensional space, for which the Ukrainian mathematician Marina Vyazovskaya recently received a prestigious international prize, then this is several hundred years. True, in Ukrainian IT dissertations, it often happens that they are completely sucked out of the finger only in order to obtain a scientific degree - and then there is no point in talking about the timing of the relevance, since the relevance itself is not and was not originally intended.

Working 40 hours a week and fully studying in graduate school, in my opinion, is absolutely impossible. I had a strict principle: I worked only in IT projects with tasks close to the topic of my scientific work. Usually in startups that have used artificial intelligence technologies, pattern recognition, and so on. Since it is difficult to find specialists who know how to do this, I managed to agree on a free schedule and a part-time work week - 2-3 days a week. And still, it really slowed down the whole process. From time to time startups "died" - and then I was engaged only in science for several months. On the other hand, working in real projects allowed us to gain practical experience in using AI technologies, the benefit of which is now difficult to overestimate.

Therefore, if you decide to go to graduate school, I strongly advise you to take IELTS / TOEFL and go to a Western university, there you will have much more chances to do really science, and not it is not clear what. Of course, we also have good professors and researchers, fans of their field with foreign connections, but there are very few of them.

I hope to continue teaching at UCU. Also in the fall, with a DAAD grant, I will go to Germany to the University of Hamburg to engage in scientific work. But in general, academic science (for example, in terms of writing scientific articles) for me is more of a hobby. At the same time, of course, I will continue to actively engage in R&D activities that contain a large share of science, primarily the application of machine learning to practical problems.

Valeria Tretyak, Java Developer at Innovation Development Hub, associate professor at KPI, 10 years in IT

Candidate of Science (Engineering) with a degree in Mathematical Modeling and Computational Methods, NTUU "KPI".

Dissertation topic: "Methods and tools for mathematical modeling of heat transfer processes in a two-phase medium (by the example of laser-arc surfacing)", 2014

My admission to graduate school was conditioned by a number of events. I participated in the research work of the department while writing my bachelor's work. My master's thesis, in the opinion of the scientific adviser, was already half of the candidate's. I decided to continue my studies in graduate school, based on the principle "who, if not me." But the main thing was that it was interesting to me, and I did not need money.

Since then, my career has been divided into two parallel streams: software development and research and education.

I got used to combining work and study since the second year. It was not difficult at first. In the sixth year, it turned out that I study in the magistracy and in the academic reserve group (what people usually do in graduate school), plus I work as a developer and even at the department I take part in the economy, then it became very difficult, thank you, my husband helped me. Then a crisis struck, and the development company closed, as it released a product aimed at builders, who then immediately lost their purchasing power. I went to graduate school, and according to the rules of our department, all graduate students must work as teachers, so my career in education began. I returned to industrial programming after my defense, when I began to understand that progress was underway and that we needed to hurry up. Plus, during the summer holidays, it got incredibly boring. Now I combine development and teaching.

In the educational field, a degree is very necessary, it allows you to get higher positions. However, in my career as a developer, it has not helped me personally, at the moment. This is due to the fact that I work for a Ukrainian company, and our education and degree are not particularly appreciated. On the other hand, in more developed countries the situation is completely different. For example, to attend some seminars or conferences necessary for work, only masters or PhDs are allowed. Thus, your level of education can limit you in obtaining additional knowledge and, therefore, in moving up the career ladder. But their educational system is also very different from ours: the main emphasis there is placed on the study of fundamental sciences. By the end of their bachelor's degree, their students have time to attend only a couple of courses in programming, but they deeply studied mathematics, physics, chemistry and even biology (why?). Foreign business values ​​our graduates as good programmers, but their universities reproach us for the lack of fundamental knowledge. This has led to the extension of the postgraduate study period to four years and now there will be many compulsory subjects, with the aim of bringing our Ph.D. to the same level of fundamental knowledge.

During my time in graduate school, I could go through several disciplines at will, I chose pedagogy and rhetoric, as it is important for teaching. All the same, when working on a dissertation, you learn a lot, for example, to consistently express your thoughts, analyze, make assumptions, test them, draw conclusions. An algorithm crystallizes in my head on how to behave in conditions of complete uncertainty in order to achieve the goal. Defense is very powerful pumping dedication. Sometimes, in scientific searches, you feel like a child lost in the forest, having never even seen plants, but you pull yourself together and pave the way to the goal. Of soft skills, I single out the superpower of productive communication with people. They may have a different point of view, a system of values ​​and even a worldview, but they have to find a common language.

Of course, each applicant goes a different path, but I think that having a degree should tell the employer that a person is able to independently solve non-trivial tasks, has sufficient perseverance to achieve a goal, and, as a rule, he is a responsible person.

I would like our education to mean more when applying for a job. But the level of graduates varies greatly, and employers cannot trust the diploma. Now I play the role of a methodologist (this is the person who comes up with what subjects and in what order should be given to students) and I can assure you that we have a very powerful training program, and every year it gets better. However, it is more and more difficult to find worthy teachers, since the salary even in KPI and Shevchenko is several times less than the salary of developers. The matter is aggravated by the depreciation of the hryvnia. Few people can work for an idea, especially since universities require you to have a scientific degree, academic title and much more. Weak faculty leads to a decline in the overall quality of graduates. And one very unpleasant vicious circle in the system itself leads to an increase in the difference in the level of graduates. high school: The number of graduated students affects the amount of money allocated. It turns out that the university, expelling weak students, cuts its funding. To achieve the prestige of education, quality must be valued over quantity. This can be achieved if business enters into business, providing material support to the university only for high-quality personnel. Some work in this direction is underway, but so far, apart from EPAM, no one offers real help, as far as I know.

In general, there are many problems in science and education, they need to be addressed. Even now, if you honestly study and work seriously, you can get knowledge in addition to a diploma. You can defend a thesis and, if you have experience in IT, get a good position in a foreign company. You can move science and ensure a better future by this. As for me: while I put my scientific activity in hibernation mode, I am very tired. I put my main effort into development, it's fun. There are a lot of things now - just manage to master new technologies. I don't want to give up teaching: I consider it my duty to society.

, Senior Software Developer at Lohika, 12 years in IT

Candidate of Technical Sciences with a degree in Mechanical Processing Processes, Verstats and Tools, ONPU.

Dissertation topic: "Diagnostics of the state of the cutting tool for finishing by the method of multivariate prediction", 2015.

I decided to study in graduate school for two reasons: the logical continuation of higher education and interesting research tasks - I was engaged in image processing and pattern recognition. I think it was the right decision.

A scientific degree does not in any way affect the construction of a career in Ukrainian IT, according to my observations, it does not matter for employers (both local and foreign) the presence / absence of a scientific degree. Scientific activities and activities typical of Ukrainian IT are very distanced, although each is valuable in itself. You can just as well find out, for example, how a hobby for chess helps in building a career in IT.

Only the soft skills acquired during the work on the dissertation were useful, such as the ability to make reports, establish communications, negotiate, write articles, do research work. Combining work with studies in graduate school - yes, it was quite difficult to admit. As for the problems in Ukrainian education - here I agree with the general opinion - underfunding of research programs, isolation from business and the labor market. I plan to develop a professional career using the skills acquired during the years of my scientific activity.

Andrey Gakhov, Senior Software Engineer at ferret go GmbH (Berlin), 13 years in IT

Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences with a degree in Mathematical Modeling and Computational Methods, KhNU named after V.N. Karazin.

Dissertation topic: "Method of discrete features and computer tools for modeling the diffraction of acoustic waves on three-dimensional plane-parallel structures", 2009

While studying at the university, I did not work (not taking into account all sorts of part-time jobs), considering fundamental knowledge to be my competitive advantage in the future, so entering graduate school became a natural continuation of my studies. The main goal was to improve my professional level, to try myself in the role of a researcher. I think the decision was correct, although it was quite difficult.

A degree in life only helps me. For example, my first fulltime job as a programmer was on a university project in Portugal, which I was able to get into precisely because of my degree. If we take, for example, the most philistine understanding of an academic degree, then it at least says that its owner was able to bring some research to the final, formulate it on paper and prove to a certain number of people that it is worth it - for me it is more important in the resume common phrases such as "purposeful, responsible, etc.".

Specifically, during my postgraduate studies, I remember most of all the philosophy of science, which not only helped to understand the development of modern knowledge, but also its role in the world. I consider this subject to be very important for a future scientist and an educated person in general. By the way, this helped me more than once not to fall face down in the mud in unexpected philosophical discussions with management (moreover, in several companies where I worked). Of the practical benefits (by which, for some reason, DOU understands only code development), I can note that in those days access to parallel programming and a computing cluster was available only in large organizations and universities, and working with students improved the ability to quickly read and find problems. in the code, etc. But the main benefit of graduate school and the subsequent defense of the dissertation, I consider the ability to express your thoughts on paper, finalize research, formulate and test hypotheses, and work with deadlines. Regarding the knowledge gained during postgraduate studies, something came in handy, but something did not, it depends on the specific tasks.

Different dissertations have different relevance to practice. I believe that the practical application of the dissertation itself is very rare, but the ideas developed in it may well be useful and are often used. The relevance of the dissertation is measured by the relevance of its research subject, as well as the methods used and the results obtained. How lucky you are. But the goal of a Ph.D. thesis is to form an independent scientist, and, as a rule, he gets the most interesting results much later.

Combining work and study was not difficult for me. There is no postgraduate study as such, except for a few hours of lectures per week in the early years. The main workload comes from the research plan, article writing and teaching load. During my postgraduate studies, I worked as a freelancer from the USA, that is, mainly at night / morning, so the work did not interfere much, and my health allowed. At the same time, I had good relations with both the scientific supervisor and the leadership of the faculty, who always saw in me a colleague, and not a slave force.

In graduate school, the main problem for me was the lack of information, access to advanced publications, and the limited availability of computer technology. Now these issues are much easier to solve. Maybe I’m one of the few, or I’m just lucky, but I still think that the program of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of those years was competitive, and there were no special flaws for me as a student, except that it was bureaucratic. As a graduate student, I was faced with completely incomprehensible requirements of legislation and various kinds of instructions, but I always treated this simply, as a quest that must be passed, and as a natural part of the experience I get in graduate school. Already working as a teacher, and later as an assistant professor of the department, he often noted the inertia, lack of flexibility, formality of approaches in the leadership of many educational institutions, but these features are inherent in many universities and abroad. For myself, I always note that many applicants and students do not understand the difference between fundamental and vocational education, considering this a disadvantage of the entire education system - hence the discussion about the need or unnecessaryness of entering a university, the weakness of training programs, etc.

In fact, I taught or participated in the preparation of courses from the 5th year of the university, which eventually resulted in 10 years of teaching experience. I was lucky to take part in the formation of the Faculty of Computer Science at the university, and, already working as a programmer abroad, I sometimes prepared and came to give seminars and lecture courses, trying to modernize the existing training programs. For the future, I plan to concentrate more on educational aspects, but sometimes I want to return to active research.

Elena Verbitskaya (Tkachenko), Project Manager at DataArt, associate professor at NU OMA, 12 years in IT

Candidate of Technical Sciences, specialty "Systems and means of artificial intelligence", ONPU.

Dissertation topic: "Methods of adaptive-structural localization of symbolic information in the formation of images in artificial intelligence systems", 2009

In the postgraduate study of ONPU, I began to study at the invitation of the future supervisor, and also because it was a pity to say goodbye to my studies / native walls.

An academic degree came in handy only at NU OMA for the position of associate professor and the opportunity to read your course on artificial intelligence. In IT companies in our country, an academic degree does not play any role. I suppose few people know that I am a Ph.D. Positive knowledge in graduate school - research opportunities in science, stress resistance and nerve hardening. Nothing else :) Unfortunately, even trips to scientific conferences in most cases were for personal funds, so I had to work. I am silent about the defense itself, trips to opponents, paying for hotels, fees, banquet, etc. The university salary can hardly be called earnings in principle.

Knowledge, again, has so far been useful only for teaching. This is such a hobby of mine, plus it's a pity to part with Machine Learning altogether. Students really like the artificial intelligence course, especially if all modern developments and achievements are included in it. In IT, knowledge has not yet come in handy, but I have a hope that someday I will be lucky enough to work on a project in which machine learning will be involved.

Combining study and work - yes, it was not easy. Worked 4 jobs + dissertation. But since at that time there was no family, I could dispose of myself 24 × 7 :) I teach now. She did not quit her job or teaching. The husband considers teaching to be an eccentricity, which must be completed as soon as possible. But I am sorry for the time and health spent, and I really want at least some subjects to kindle students' interest in science and new modern knowledge. Therefore, I do not plan to leave the university yet.

The education and training system in Ukraine is at zero. Modern knowledge on IT technologies in universities are not taught. The old state is too difficult to rebuild, and you will not find young people in universities. Almost all the guys with a bright head on their shoulders were forced to leave postgraduate studies / teaching and go to earn money. Many have switched to IT. Unfortunately, almost everything depends on the material aspect.

Young people (students) have no one to look up to, as there are fewer and fewer young teachers working on enthusiasm every year. Intelligent students from 1-3 years of age are already trying to get a job, so education for them is just a crust, but not knowledge.

Andriy Malenko, Machine Learning Specialist at VideoGorillas LLC, Senior Scientist of the Institute of Cybernetics IM. V.M. Glushkova of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 11 rocks in IT

Candidate of Physics and Mathematics for the specialty "Theory of Immigration and Mathematical Statistics", KNU IM. T. Shevchenko.

The topic of the dissertation: "The evaluation of the effectiveness of assessments in the foreign non-linear models of regression with the abductions of the minions", 2009 p.

After the end of the magistratury I wanted to try my strength from science. Professor Oleksandr Kukush became my scientific curriculist, a reference teacher from the Great Literi. I won the great world because of the fact that I entered the post-graduate school and pushed all the way to the zahist. More than once, I didn’t have a chance to feel sorry for my solution, navpaki, especially for me, having a positive message. It’s obvious, the boules are local difficult, both technical, and bureaucratic, ala, looking back, I remember my knowledge of the science curriculum, an experience with Nimechchin, participation in conferences and the rest, happy with that dragon.

It is impossible to say that the scientific step is a universal tool for a car, a key to the door. Ale, tim not mensh, tse asset, like a do-it-yourself, wikliko povagu for an hour spivbe that fake robots. I didn’t stick to the negative protections to myself from the side of the Ukrainian robo-teachers at this stage, but I’m the first hour to study the science of the victories.

Since I worked at the Institute of Cybernetics, the knowledge of mathematical statistics was known during the analysis of the results of the robot of the SKIT supercomputer, the development of which we were engaged in in 2012-2013 rocks. On the way to fate, our team will be honored with the Prize of the President of Ukraine for young students. Naybіlsh korisnі tips from graduate school - the whole structure of your knowledge and victories and the results of your skill in writing. As long as people haven’t come to read the thoughts of other people, so they will be relevant.

My dissertation is a theoretical robot based on the theory of imperialities and mathematical statistics, no matter what, a set of formulas and theorems, which are not very big in the environment of specialized science. You can go through a few tests of inheriting the inheritance of these theorems, but the results of such a dissertation could seem to be a lot of people. So, in the morning, the authors of our articles from the Nimechchin and the Indies of the Sp_vpratsuyut to the liquors, which are injected into the radioactivity on the living isstot. First, there were no changes from my days to the end of the run-ups on the basis of the vibration of mathematical methods for processing statistical data from experiments.

I didn’t know the results of the dissertation directly, there are a lot of projects related to statistics, detailed data, machine learning was only too much of a number of approaches, not just the models described in the dissertation. Tim is not the man, the background knowledge of mathematical statistics and just basic mathematical training helped a lot of projects, for I have taken part.

Qi foldedly butoy to the robot for navchannya? Definitely so. On the ear of postgraduate studies, I did not work on a regular day and didn’t immediately start studying for robotics and postgraduate studies overnight. The singing world of wine is my lack of organization. If I zvіlnivya through the author of the rock for the sake of the dissertation, it became much easier to finish the chat.

I graduated from the university for more than 10 years in the same period until the end of the week in mechanics and mathematics for those who stink such a bovine like me. The main problem in both education and science is bureaucracy and lack of funding. It is even more important to recruit a healthy student before graduate school and to promote a science career with a salary / scholarship of 100-200 dollars, if IT companies will talk to people 30-50 times more. In order to rob systemic science, at one time not to finish one of the scientist's self-sacrifice, it’s early and very young to think about his life, apartment, family, either from science, or to continue working on it beyond the cordon. A large number of "reforms" in nautsi are made up to the mavpuvannya of additional vimogs that have been adopted from the other countries, and at that time we will learn the transition, at that time, if, for example, the Academy of Sciences to China, do not be embarrassed, a bunch of Ukrainian ones in bulk.

I plan to go step by step to a greater practicality, an hour in the hour of writing statistics about the results of that presentation at conferences, so as not to get out of shape.

, Development Manager at Dreamscape Networks, 13 years in IT

Candidate of Technical Sciences with a degree in Medical and Biological Informatics and Cybernetics, International Scientific and Educational Center for Information Technologies and Systems of the National Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Dissertation topic: "Information technology of research of Internet addiction among users of social networks", 2012

In graduate school, I studied with the aim of gaining new knowledge and I definitely consider this decision to be the right one for myself. The degree itself came in handy when dealing with Western companies. The West really sees value in it. You can't really say this about Ukrainian employers, since many treat an academic degree like a bow. In general, the degree did not particularly affect the career, since, first of all, any employer, business partner is interested in the quality and timing of work.

One of the main useful skills learned in graduate school is the ability to look at systems and processes from the outside in order to explore them. The second useful skill is the ability to follow through. Writing a dissertation is a third of the job. The second third is to protect her, while learning to defend your point of view. Another skill is working with documents: after graduating from graduate school, especially after defense, a journey through the circles of Dante's hell begins, when the number of papers accompanying the dissertation is commensurate with the dissertation itself, and all this running around teaches maneuvers and communication.

The practical use of dissertations, especially in the field of information technology, in Ukraine always rests on state structures, and while any decision is made on the implementation of the results, these results are not always relevant. And in many cases, the work goes simply to the archive. So, in my opinion, the practical value of dissertations in the field of information technology is minimal in Ukraine.

Combining work and study was not difficult, but subject to clear time planning. The work on the dissertation itself took me about 10-15% of my time. But the protective period took all the time, somewhere over the course of 6 months.

In the Ukrainian system of education and science in our sector there are no problems only with fundamental directions. In information technology specialties, training programs are outdated, and even with all the departments wanting to improve them, much rests on the Ministry of Education and drags on for years, and then the programs again become irrelevant. The maximum that can be obtained in our education system is fundamental engineering and mathematical knowledge. You have to get everything else yourself.

Now I do science exclusively in free time and quite a bit when friends and colleagues come up with interesting research in the areas of health scoring systems, content analysis, and highload systems. From time to time I act as the head of the computer science examination board in various universities. Honestly, I would like to continue both scientific and teaching activities, but, unfortunately, at the moment there is simply no time for this.

, CTO, co-founder at SapientPro, Senior Software Developer at Networktables.com, 6 years in IT

Candidate of Technical Sciences with specialty "Automation of Keruvannya Processes", NTU "KhPI".

Thesis topic: "Synthesis of anisotropic regulators of large-scale electromechanical systems with parametric non-value", 2015 p.

Having entered the post-graduate school with a handful of tsikavosti, I wanted to try myself in science. A little later, having stuck with realities, they were strongly demotivated, the same time, the same time, I’ll do it right up to the end of the day. Chi bulo tse vіrnym decisions? Tell me very importantly, another time, mabut, I’m not on the fast track.

In Ukrainian IT it is not enough to marvel at a diploma; Zakordonny roboticists and deputies positively marvel at the explicitness of Ph.D. in CV and LinkedIn, buvalo, through the tse itself, they turned up to me. The same is the scientific step of being overwhelmed during emigration, but for now, the price of food cannot be changed. From the corny admonition, patience has been lost, in the last hour of the robot's work, and the admonition of the bureaucrats. Directly, the knowledge in robotics is not known, the topic is to finish the university, a little bit more help to go to the methods of organizing the process at that hour.

As a practical matter of dissertations, it is important to consider, from one side, the method of breaking down the method of broadcasts from the virobniche enterprise, from the point of view of the radical abolition of existing methods, not being introduced. In this region, there is a lot of space, and it is generally possible, if the breaking method is broken, so I am summing up that the relevance will continue.

It was easy to finish the job for the robot, I started working for an hour all the time I was in graduate school. The company was loyal to the end, and the principle of payment, and the ability to work out, allowed for the smooth organization of the work process. Problems of Ukrainian education are widely seen: lack of funding, low level of payment for scholarships, high bureaucratic procedures. Postgraduate course completion in science and education. I got infected by the authorities of the company, as I fell asleep at once with friends and colleagues, and I will increase the development time. It is unlikely that I will be engaged in science, but I will turn to light, if all the processes in the company are sorted out and I can allow myself to be so good.

Maxim Pochebut, Senior Resource Development Manager at EPAM Ukraine, 10 years in IT

Candidate of Technical Sciences with a degree in System Analysis, Management and Information Processing, Belarusian State University informatics and radioelectronics.

Dissertation topic: "Discrete adaptive-robust phase control system", 2011

The majority makes the decision to continue their studies in graduate school for themselves in the senior years. But many of the future graduate students, even in their junior years, begin to engage in scientific work, participate in specialized conferences, seminars and symposia, that is, postgraduate studies are something that, as a rule, they go to continuously, and this is often a deliberate step. Future scientific supervisors have also been eyeing their potential graduate students for a long time.

My academic degree and title, because I am also an assistant professor, helped me a lot to build a career and build communication with the audience and the outside world, educational and not only. Because a certain style of thinking had already been formed by the time of graduation from graduate school.

As for the Ukrainian employer in the IT sphere, the availability of an academic degree, unfortunately, does not play a big role, because all the requirements of our projects and those technologies with which we work are mostly based on our knowledge and experience. An academic degree or title will not give additional earnings, bonuses or career advancement - it all depends solely on the person and his potential in terms of self-development and learning. I believe that the situation with foreign employers working in Ukraine is the same, and it does not matter much for them to have an academic degree, at least I have not seen such cases. Another thing is, I know many examples in our business where scientifically grounded decisions are needed, but for their implementation it is not necessary to have a scientific degree.

The most important thing that I received during my postgraduate studies was communication with people who know how to set tasks correctly and who teach you to analyze situations, draw conclusions and find the right scenarios when working not only with engineering systems, but also with people. Because a Ph.D. thesis is a research work, and postgraduate studies in the classical sense are few. It is that scientific work that you lead, and helps to structure thoughts and find specific technical solutions. Perhaps somewhere this work is purely theoretical in nature, there is little applied in it, but this experience was very useful for me personally in my work: thoughts and conclusions become more structured, you learn to separate the "wheat from the chaff" and find important things in a huge stream of analytical and technical information and, of course, in the literature.

My dissertation was connected with theoretical calculations on control systems - I do not think that I have solved any super-difficult scientific problem. But at the same time, a Ph.D. thesis is certain engineering solutions that may be applicable in a specific area. Somewhere it can remain relevant for a long time and become the basis for doctoral research, and somewhere it can, of course, lose its relevance rather quickly, because in the IT sphere everything changes quite quickly. But all the same, this is a search, and one cannot be critical of everything.

I defended my dissertation at a Belarusian university, but the problems of Belarusian and Ukrainian education are very similar, both have a tinge of post-Soviet education. I would answer only in the context of the question we are raising: the problem of the Ukrainian system, not only of education, but also of the Ukrainian business system is that we still do not have a clear understanding of how dissertations are on IT topics, or, more broadly, on topics software engineering, can be applied in the conditions of modern Ukrainian business. This means that business is not ready to provide platforms and an ecosystem for scientific research, and the education and graduate school system is built in such a way that it is not ready to take into account the tasks of modern business. Because of this abyss, there is a situation in which scientific dissertations remain conditional, theoretical or practical developments, very often without applied application. Business does not need them, because it believes that these things cannot be monetized in any way. Whether we are ready to eliminate this imbalance is still unknown.

I never gave up teaching. All 11 years after graduation and during my postgraduate studies, I taught, and at the moment I am actively involved in coaching and teaching. In addition, I manage the EPAM educational program in Ukraine, and my work is directly related to education and engineering.

Graduate studies without protection

We also asked IT specialists who studied in graduate school, but for various reasons did not receive a degree. Their experience is below.

, Senior Backend Developer at MyHeritage, 5 years in IT

4 years of postgraduate study at the Pridneprovsk State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture, specialty "Construction Mechanics".

Dissertation topic: "Development of the method of two-wave representation of vibrations in the problems of structural mechanics of elastic systems with a moving load", 2011.

I finished my dissertation, but didn’t defend it because I was not needed. I think that even a master's degree is superfluous. I would advise you to go to work immediately after receiving your bachelor's degree.

I admit that there are projects in Ukrainian IT that require a higher level of education. For example, the development and implementation of complex algorithms in different areas... In this case, you can set yourself the goal of obtaining the next degree when you have accumulated some practical experience. I consider my personal experience of obtaining all three degrees in a row to be wrong. There is a lot of knowledge, but no skills.

Initially, I entered graduate school with the aim of deviating from the army, but then it became interesting and the topic went (the topic was on structural mechanics, but most of the work was on programming a certain calculation method). From the useful experience that I have learned - to avoid any contacts with the state and the bureaucratic system and prefer to develop professionally in a practical direction, rather than a scientific one.

Denis Eremenko, COO / Product Manager at MyroTech, 14 years in IT

3 years of postgraduate study at ZGIA, specialty "Automation of management processes".

Dissertation topic: "Improving the efficiency of automated control systems for the flow of bulk materials in conditions of their instability", 2004.

I entered graduate school because I liked doing science, going to conferences with colleagues, doing research. I did not receive the degree, because the council in which the defense was supposed to pass, unfortunately, was closed for verification, and did not want to go through everything again. But he finished his postgraduate studies and passed his pre-defense at the National University of Chemistry and Technology (Kiev) at the Department of Automation and Intelligent Control Systems.

The postgraduate study gave a lot: to look for options for solving non-standard problems, to work in conditions of minimal funding, to work for the sake of a result, and not for money. We had a great team. And, of course, I had an excellent supervisor, Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences. Pazyuk Mikhail Yurievich. I learned a lot from him: to work in a tough regime, under the pressure of circumstances, to survive, so to speak, if necessary, and to look for ways to solve unsolvable problems. Plus a lot of fellow graduate students, networking - it turned out to be useful in life.

Knowledge also came in handy - it allows you to comprehensively explore the problem and apply various methods of solution. It is also important that we had full access to the computing center of the Department of Automated Control of Technological Processes of ZGIA, and this made it possible to conduct full-factor experiments and engage in mathematical modeling. Plus full internet access and the latest data from other universities abroad. Then (1999-2003) this opportunity was available to a select few - only graduate students could have such access. Now there is already a sea of ​​information on the net, universities have opened their libraries, and you can find everything. Those who decide now to engage in scientific research have every opportunity.

If you also studied in graduate school and you have something to tell, share your experience in the comments.

The highest academic degree in many countries is called Philosophy Doctor or Ph.D. First of all, this applies to the European and North American regions of the world. Moreover, this title has little in common with the title of Doctor of Science in the Russian Federation.

What is Ph.D.

Many people, choosing a university for admission after master's degree, cannot always understand why the academic title abroad has the title of Doctor of Philosophy. The logical question is how much, regardless of the specialty and the disciplines studied, in the end, all graduates are considered doctors of philosophy (well, or almost all).

The word "philosophy" came to the Russian language from the ancient Greek language. In it, it meant "love of wisdom." At the same time, it was not specified whether it should be everyday or scientific. That is why in those ancient times, philosophers were called people who could study almost any field of knowledge that was somehow connected with them.

Only over time, three independent disciplines - medicine, theology and law - separated from philosophy in the Middle Ages. All other sciences, from astronomy to literature, were still classified as philosophical. Since it was during this period of history that universities began to appear en masse, since then it has become a tradition to mark the highest academic degree in many countries as a Philosophy Doctor (or Doctor of Philosophy - Ph.D.).

Benefits of an advanced degree

The large number of candidates for the title of Ph.D. is due to the many advantages that this degree provides. They are as follows:

1. Wages. As a rule, an academician who holds the title of Doctor of Philosophy in foreign countries can receive a salary higher than his slightly less educated counterpart. The rates here differ.

2. New opportunities. PhD people are more likely to be assigned important work and research.

3. Competence. Obtaining the appropriate title allows a person to prove to those around him his significance and usefulness in society. This is often reflected in career growth, team relationships, and many other factors.

In connection with the above advantages, many graduates after graduating from the magistracy strive to acquire the next scientific level of knowledge.

Requirements for applicants

Ph.D. education abroad can be obtained only in certain cases. Educational institutions have the same requirements for all candidates. They are as follows:

1. Diploma of previous education received. First of all, this concerns the title of master. At the same time, the specialty that a person has acquired may differ from the one for which he wants to enroll. But this concerns only a few higher educational institutions. Also in certain countries there are programs in which to obtain the title of Ph.D. requires only a bachelor's degree. But only successful university graduates can qualify for this.

2. Certificate of proficiency in the language of the program. Without this skill, attain the title of Ph.D. impossible, since the curriculum cannot be learned properly. More often than not, universities require knowledge of English language, but in some cases, an additional condition may be set for proficiency in the state language of the country in which the person wants to enter. The candidate must achieve at least 7 points on the IELTS scale and 90 points on the TOEFL scale.

3. Exams GRE and GMAT. Almost all countries with the Anglo-Saxon education system, as well as many countries in Asia, require passing these tests. They are almost identical tasks that are aimed at testing some of the verbal, mathematical and analytical skills of a person. At the same time, both exams are considered quite difficult, as a result of which preparation for them must be started in advance - at least 6 months before passing.

4. Motivation letter and academic essay. These two documents are considered no less important than having a diploma and passing exams. Often it is they who allow the competition committee to decide the further fate of the candidate. This is due to the fact that only with the help of an essay and a motivation letter can a person express their individuality, uniqueness and originality. These skills in the context of Western education are valued much higher than formal knowledge of the subject. The essay should describe not only the reasons for choosing a profession, but also future plans, academic interests and goals. For the essay, each university sets its own specific conditions for writing.

5. Letters of recommendation. They allow the university to evaluate the candidate's skills, his attitude to work, interaction with other people, etc. It should be borne in mind that each educational institution there is a procedure for verification of authorship. Some institutions just need to notify the author by e-mail, while others require the appropriate stamp of the organization where he works. It should be noted that the presence in letter of recommendation negative skills can give it more objectivity.

If a person has fulfilled all the university requirements for obtaining the title of Philosophy Doctor, the chance of admission to this course of study is almost one hundred percent. Europe provides training that is as complete and correct as possible, which in the future may affect doing business and building a career ladder.

The advantages of this choice are obvious. First of all, it is a decent level of salary, new opportunities and a chance to realize oneself in society. Higher education received abroad is highly valued within the home country.

This question, the public far from Western scientific degrees, began to be frequently asked after watching the popular American TV series "The Big Bang Theory". One of the main characters, Dr. Sheldon Cooper, had two PhD degrees, and since his intellectual abilities are really outstanding (IQ (intelligence quotient) Sheldon Cooper - 187, while the maximum score for people over 18 years old is 180, and the average score of candidates of sciences is 125), then the people have the opinion that a PhD degree is for the elite and its presence is an unconditional indicator of intelligence. But is it really so?

The final qualifying work at a Russian university for obtaining bachelor's and master's degrees is a thesis. And while for some, a thesis to order is an opportunity to get the coveted crust, without unnecessary effort, for others it is an opportunity to earn money with your own head. The applicant receives the PhD (scientific degree) qualification after writing and defending his doctoral dissertation, in the USA this work is called Ph.D. Thesis. PhD Is an academic degree that is awarded in English-speaking countries: for example, the USA, Canada, England, Australia. An analogue of a PhD degree in Russia(in accordance with the International Standard Classification of Education) is a Ph.D. degree... However, in the United States, this degree is the highest, in contrast to Russia, where there is also a Doctor of Science. This, by the way, is a problem, since there is no English-language analogue of the Russian doctor of sciences. When translating and preparing documents, you often have to dodge to explain who you are. You can read more about this in the article. However, recently, a number of US universities have been conferring Doctor of Science, D.Sc degrees in certain specialties, and in general it can be considered an analogue of our Doctor of Science degree.

The most important question is, is it difficult to get a PhD? Having studied many examples of typical ones, which, by the way, are in the public domain, I can say that no, it's not so difficult. And perhaps even a little easier than in Russia.

A typical American dissertation is 100-130 pages long, taking into account figures, images, tables and diagrams; but without a list of references and applications. If in Russia it is unthinkable to present a dissertation without analyzing and collecting original material and our own developments, then in America it is often possible to find only analysis of available databases. Russian master's theses can, by and large, be presented as PhD theses. This does not mean that American higher education is worse than ours. It's just that we are a little out of touch with modern realities, and don't even try to keep up with the times. A lot of water in essays, term papers, theses - this is already a habit that teachers encourage from generation to generation. But more work, not always more knowledge.

The Association of Leading Russian Universities Demands Complete Freedom from the Higher Attestation Commission

The best Russian universities will receive the right to independently, without the participation of the Higher Attestation Commission (Higher Attestation Commission), assign both the degrees of candidates and doctors of science, as well as an exotic for us, but the world's leading PhD degree (Doctor of Philosophy, an analogue of a Russian candidate). These and other proposals, prepared at the request of the Ministry of Education and Science, on February 21 at a meeting with the head of the Higher Attestation Commission Vladimir Filippov were discussed by the members of the Association of Leading Universities.

As it is clear from the discussion, the rigid bureaucratic vertical of awarding academic degrees will become a thing of the past. Initially, the participants of the pilot project, and then other best universities in the country, will award traditional Russian degrees of candidates and doctors of science, as well as a foreign PhD degree by their own decision and on the basis of their own procedural rules: “Local acts,” emphasized the head of the proposal developers, MEPhI rector Mikhail Strikhanov, - should make up 80-90% of all documents. " The VAK will only have to control how these acts are executed. And this despite the fact that all "diplomas on the conferring of degrees issued by university rectors and directors of institutes will be ordinary state diplomas - simply issued without the participation of the Ministry of Education and Science," Vladimir Filippov, head of the Higher Attestation Commission, finally dotted the i's.

An important nuance. Conventionally, a PhD degree is today considered the equivalent of a Russian candidate of sciences. But it seems that it will no longer be so. If the “pilot” is finally adopted in the proposed form, in order to obtain the usual domestic candidate degree, the domestic “Doctor of Philosophy” (PhD) will have to defend himself again: these degrees are finally divorced.

The draft Regulation on conducting a "pilot" for the autonomy of leading scientific institutions and universities in the certification of highly qualified scientific personnel is a revolutionary movement forward, ”summed up the head of the Association, Rector of St. Petersburg State University Nikolai Kropachev. It remains only to finally decide on the selection of the pilot project participants and some aspects of their future activities.

Everything is clear with the selection procedure: this is a public competition. Its criteria have yet to be clarified, but their number will definitely include the level of international recognition of a university or research institute, reflected by its position in the most prestigious international rankings of universities - Shanghai, THE or QS. Another undoubted criterion is the presence of a certain amount of research and development work. The third is the number of publications per one scientific and pedagogical worker and the citation rate, said Strikhanov.

The "pilot" will advance gradually: some of the scientific specialties in the same university will go on a pilot basis, while others will remain the same, this is clear. It seems that everything is clear with the number of participants: Prime Minister Medvedev has already announced that it will not be large - only the best of the best. But what does not yet fit in with the general course of liberalizing the system of conferring academic degrees is that “the rector takes full responsibility for the issued diplomas, but the Ministry of Education and Science transfers only part of his powers to the university,” said the rector of St. Petersburg State University.

Indeed, “the composition of the Dissertation Council according to the current law is approved by the Higher Attestation Commission. But it is the Council that determines the composition of the commission, which will decide whether the submitted work corresponds to the proper level, - he noted. - This means that universities should have the right not only to issue their diplomas, but also to create their own councils. Even if at first only two universities - Moscow and St. Petersburg State Universities will have it ”.

The high assembly supported this proposal. And the head of the Higher Attestation Commission Filippov made it clear that the number of dissertation councils currently operating in the country will soon decrease by 30-40%: “When we looked at what was happening, it turned out that, for example, in 2012 there were 1677 councils where not a single doctoral thesis was defended, and 600 more - where during the same period there were no more than three candidate and doctoral defenses ”. The VAK, as it became known to "MK", ​​will consider this issue on February 25.

How flopnik defeated satellite

There is an opinion (even among the natives of Russia themselves) that de Western PhD is much higher than our candidate of sciences, who therefore needs to be equated only with a local master (MA, M.Sc.). This opinion is supported by the local Canadian and American administrations (of course, a person works as a "doctor," but receives a salary as a "master"), and - which is completely incomprehensible - the Russian-speaking diaspora itself.

To prove that this is not the case, consider their arguments.

1 "We study at the university for 7-8 years to obtain a PhD.(even if it's called a college or academy); during this time the student receives

• firstly, a bachelor's degree (bachelor, BA, B.Sc.), having earned 72 ÷ 90 credits ;
• secondly, a master's degree (master, MA, M.Sc.), having prepared a thesis and passed a few more exams and tests;
• thirdly, the degree of doctor (philosophy - Doctor of Philosophy, PhD, and equated to it - doctor of medicine MD, doctor of theology, etc.): the student participates in a scientific project, writes a dissertation and takes 1-2 oral exams.

[Note 1: Recently, another form of obtaining a doctoral degree has become more common: immediately after graduating from College of Arts and Sciences and receiving a bachelor's degree, a student can apply for a doctoral program: another 5 years of study, several special courses, work in projects, preparation and defense dissertation and passing 1-2 oral exams]

[Note 2: There is a lot of freedom in North America, so different universities may have different requirements, different lengths of study - and different prices ... A student himself may prefer to take semester 9 instead of 12 credits - therefore, his studies will stretch for an extra year. Therefore, the duration of the programs is given by me as approximate.]

And you Russians? You barely manage to get the first degree in 5 years (what we call "bachelor"), and to get the second (that is, master), you need another 3 years in graduate school; and you defend your doctoral degree only before retirement. "

This reasoning, as they say here "does not hold water": in practice, in universities and scientific societies, no one makes any distinction between "their" doctor and our candidate (and, of course, the Russian doctor too); Candidates of Science who came from the USSR / Russia at various universities in the USA and Canada work as professors and associate professors - that is, they occupy positions for which the local master and bachelor cannot apply at all, "by definition"; at scientific conferences and congresses, a candidate of sciences from Russia is declared in any program as a doctor (if, of course, titles are announced at all). This is also evidenced by my personal experience: the notification that the Higher Attestation Commission approved my dissertation came to me when I was in Vienna, at the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA, Laxenburg, Wien, Austria); Having learned about this, the administration of the institute itself, without any of my requests, hung a sign on my door the next day Dr. Yu. MOROZOV... And everywhere, wherever I happened to speak and visit, no one doubted that for them I was a Doctor of Science, that is, PhD.

Option 1a: "Only your Russian Doctor of Science corresponds to our PhD."

This argument is also not true; this contradicts what was happening in the USSR and the USA: it turns out that Soviet science was about 10 times more effective than American science, because it provided strategic parity (and this is not just about the same weapon as the Americans have!) Indeed,

A / for decades in the USSR, on average, only 1 out of 10 candidates of sciences defended their doctorate (this statistics has been available for the USSR from about the end of the 1930s, when scientific titles were restored); b / the absolute number of highly qualified scientists (that is, candidates plus doctors in the USSR vs. PhD in the USA) during the entire XX century. was practically equal; c / therefore, if we admit that PhDs correspond only to doctors (Doctor of Biological Sciences, etc.), the launch of the first satellite, the first rocket flight to the Moon, the first man in space, the creation of strategic parity (and these are all science-intensive industries!) were achieved in about 10 times fewer Soviet doctors than the American! Consequently, a Soviet doctor should be 10 times higher in the quality of work ?!

2 "Our students are learning more and better."

Any professional teacher (and even a student) knows that it is not the number of years of study that matters, but the quantity + quality of teaching hours.

USSR / Russia: in a "normal" university, the student studied 6 days a week for 6 hours; winter semester - 18 weeks + one month examination session; spring semester - 16 weeks + one and a half month examination session, total 34 weeks per year * 36 hours / week. = 1224 hours / year. And so for 5 years (of course, in a number of universities the 10th semester was practically the preparation of a thesis ...)

North. America: the student receives 1 credit for the successful completion of the special course, which took place once a week for 1 hour for a whole semester. Thus, to take 9-15 credits per year is equivalent to 9-15 hours of classes per week accurate enough.]

Then it turns out that our Russian student received 72 (!) Credits every year (36 compulsory hours of classes per week for the whole semester). For 9 academic semesters (and some technical universities studied and 5.5 years!) - 9 * 36 = 324 credit. Compare with the required bachelor's degrees 72-90 loans in North. America.

CONSEQUENCE: our graduate of an institute or university CANNOT IN ANY OCCURRENCE EQUAL to a bachelor who studies many times less, DOES NOT DEFEND ANY DIPLOMA and DOES NOT SEND ANY state exams; therefore, logically, our graduate of an institute or university should be equated no less than a master (M.Sc., MA).

2a "Yes, but these 36 hours included both Marxism-Leninism and sports." It is true that Marxism-Leninism averaged 4 hours a week for all years of study and plus 4 hours a week for junior sports. But, firstly, here, in the North. America, students have 3-4 hours a week of classes in ideology (just not so openly called), as well as sports; all the same, in total, a student of a local college or university never studies more than 20 hours (that is, at least a quarter or a third less than ours:

36 - 8 = 28>> 20.

3 The last, "killer" argument, especially in Russian-language newspapers: "But then they teach in North America much better !!!"

But this needs a rigorous and objective proof.

Amazed that not the USA, but the USSR launched the first satellite in 1957, the Americans tried to catch up immediately, but all launches were unsuccessful; local journalists were smart in offering their names to things that never took off; one of them - flopnik (flopnik, from "flop" - to flop, flop, as an idiom means "to get into a puddle").

Offended, in 1958 they adopted the National Defense Education Act ( NDEA), acknowledging that the United States is very far behind in teaching its schoolchildren and students in the natural sciences - mathematics, physics, chemistry. The act recommended an increase in subsidies for the study of "math & science." And the reasons for this are clear: in American society, the one who grabs first is right; a student who has dropped out at Harvard and the first semester creates a company and becomes a billionaire, selling "wooden stoves" (or rather, "vents." and the students themselves, after learning the basics, begin to look for ways to "capitalize" them (that is, simply the one who buys them). Therefore, 4-month courses are flourishing, in which the student is supposedly given something supposedly needed today. The fact that during this time it is impossible to study anything seriously, that the money wasted for these 4 months was thrown to the wind, because knowledge and skills will become outdated quickly, and the basic principles are slow - it is extremely difficult to explain to a local person. It seems to everyone all the time that he / she will not be in time for the distribution of pies. [As you know, premature 8-month-old babies often die; what to say about these semi-premature, 4-month-old students ?!]

And mathematics (like a ballerina) cannot be prepared in 4 months; there will be no elite mathematicians or physicists without additional subsidies on the bare enthusiasm. However, the NDEA suggested that the alleged reasons for the lag of American schoolchildren are not in the wrong system, but in the inattention in the school curriculum to abstract mathematics (for example, set theory).

And we in Russia "bought into" this: by 1970, a reform of the teaching of school mathematics was carried out; Instead of the traditional program (arithmetic with a full range of problem-solving skills - especially textual ones - 4 actions, fractions, proportions, etc.), the children began to be told about "sets" and "congruence." In 1971, to the questions: "Why? Why?" my father-in-law is the head. Department of Mathematics at the country's leading pedagogical institute, an "unknown" Soviet mathematician (Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Senior Scientist from the closed department of Steklov Steklov Institute of Mathematics) said: "We have given negative feedback on the new program many times, but nobody was willing to listen. "

There are 2 ways to marry the most beautiful woman in the world:

1. Ivan, naturally a fool, risking his life, gets a feather of the Firebird and gives it to Vasilisa the Beautiful.
2. John, naturally smart, shoots every woman in the world except his wife.

It seems that this is exactly what happened: not knowing how to beat us, they (the Americans) - perhaps by accident, perhaps intuitively - decided to ditch us. And the pedagogical tourists, clinging to the (American) source of wisdom, imposed a "democratic reform" on the school, for in the opinion of the Americans, the classical school was undemocratic and totalitarian.

The goals of the classical school for centuries have been:

a/ education, that is, familiarizing the student with a certain amount of knowledge needed in life;

b / learning, that is, the transfer to the student of a certain amount of skills: counting, writing, communication, handicrafts, labor skills (for example, the ability to handle electrical appliances or reagents at the household and primary professional level);

v/ socialization, that is, the acquisition and development of communication skills;

G/ indoctrination, that is, the development by students of a certain amount of ideas about the world, good and evil, past, present and future, values ​​and goals, norms and traditions, about art and literature.

And although at the age of 3-16 years a child "grabs" information literally on the fly (in movement, sound, color, touch and smell), it takes time and repetition to fix it (like a photographic film) - that is, a significant number of repetitions-exercises are needed, and this number depends on the individual characteristics of the student. The reformers stated that the old system did not allow the child's potential to be liberated (at that time, Dr. Spock had already blossomed), that the amount of exercise should be necessarily minimized, that the student had the right to have his own opinion about what is what. (Imagine an endless vote on what is 2 + 2, and you will see a new democratic school.) maple!" "Look, children, this is the multiplication table. Isn't it beautiful?"

The classic cycle "teaching - learning - socialization - indoctrination" is that the student under the guidance or with the help of a teacher

1 / assesses their knowledge and skills (in comparison with the required level - "entrance control");

2 / learns (that is, picks up the missing information, knowledge, skills);

3 / constantly compares the achieved level with the desired one (until it reaches 100%).

For this, an assessment is required - self-assessment plus an external assessment. All in. America, in order to give everyone their self-expression and liberation, the school reformers have forever replaced this cycle with improvisation and fun: everyone is given an entrance test / exercise; in order not to injure the child's tender soul, all the results are declared good (and even final. At the university and college, after any exam, if the results are announced, then only in coded form so that no one knows how a neighbor studies. From the very first day of teaching here I was warned that I have NO rights show grades to anyone, including the student's parents. student group at the university they knew exactly what each student received and who took what place in terms of academic performance. This gave at least some hope for justice (until the system began to fall apart.) When at Moscow State University, at one faculty (it was in the mid-70s) H. , the rest were triplets) - the students were shocked and at least tried to protest, because they knew exactly what he was. And here it is, in principle, impossible.

In order not to injure anyone, the role of the mark was actually canceled here. The normal exam (remember, Tom Sawyer also took the oral exam!) Was replaced by a "programmed learning" system (multiple choice); instead of normal questions, the student is asked a question and a set of answers, one of which is correct. As a result of such a test, not knowledge or understanding is assessed, but something else (I had a student who understood absolutely nothing in programming and mathematics - he could not write an elementary program; however, on the Java programming language exam - of course, in the form of multiple-choice, they don’t know others here - he got 80%! The same was with me (on the Linux / Unix exam); however, I split the exam into two parts - a set of multiple-choice questions and several programming tasks in bash-shell. correct answers 30 out of 33 multiple-choice, but failed to write ANY sensible line in any problem where it was required to write (and not guess!) real code!)

This is inevitable, because multiple-choice itself does not test anything, and with a lazy teacher it can simply give nonsense - as, for example, in the following comic test:

1. How many hands do you have?

a / Two;
b / One;
at four;
d / haven't counted yet.

Teachers and journalists here call it "multiple guess", because the student is now determined to guess which option - a /, b /, c /, d / - is the correct answer; any electronic devices with memory were used to record a sequence of correct answers such as stack-memory calculators, telephones, etc.) Cheating became a pleasure (scandalous example: so that everyone is equal, the same questions are given everywhere; Australia, "dropped" the sequence of replies to a bro in Israel who passed a few hours later ...)

To my question: "Why is it impossible to conduct at least some of the exams in the old-fashioned way, orally - after all, firstly, this will help the student precisely in acquiring the skills of persuasion, argumentation, public speaking, and secondly, it will prepare him for the future, as a rule , oral, examination during the defense of a doctoral dissertation? " - everyone answered me: "Such an exam will necessarily give a biased assessment, whom the teacher does not like, he will fail."

I repeated the same experiment with local students in different versions: "Can you draw?" (pen, pencil or computer) - "Yes!" Everyone draws with delight (as a rule, this is a half-childish daub, on which it is impossible to make out anything - this is normal, because I do not teach future artists.) "Now take a sheet of paper, fold it in half, write your name on the left half; write on each half What exactly are you going to draw now - a house, a car, a horse. Done? Now tear the sheet at the fold, give the left half to me. Ready? Now draw exactly what you wrote on the sheet, that is, if you promised a house, it should be a house, not a ball. " In each group, a riot literally began, some refused to draw at all, others, having drawn something, demanded a sheet of paper back - to forward the promise ...

[By the way, this is not just an experiment, it is a reflection of new pedagogical trends that later determine industry and science: entire corporations are stuffed with "specialists" who - due to the fact that they were not taught to "draw a house" in their field in time - are forced us to use their "curve" products. You don't have to go far for examples: MS Internet Explorer still, even version 7-beta, cannot work correctly with styles (css): this is how a web page looks like in Firefox 2.0 or Opera 9.10, and so in Internet Explorer 6 : Note the ROUNDED edges of the tab dividers. Note for the incredulous: of course, you can create a similar page so that it looks decent in Internet Explorer 6 - there are many of them, for example, at http://www.apple.com. The price of this alone is great: a fixed size of letters, so that they do not crawl out of that beautiful substrate, which has the necessary frame, when the user does not want to spoil his eyes and tries to enlarge them.]

The American education system is based on teaching the future specialist not WHAT IS NECESSARY, but AS POSSIBLE, that is, teaching not standards, laws, the multiplication table or Mendeleev's table, norms or theorems, but to do at least something as quickly and cheaply as possible. something ("roll out the gate") and impose on others as a new standard, banning all others. You can say: "What's wrong with that ?!" It would seem nothing, but then millions of users every time after the release of a new, improved, model (read: in which they simply removed those bloopers that had to be removed 2-3 years ago) are forced to relearn or even completely lose their jobs.

There are many examples: for example, no one calculated the damage from
a / computer viruses: buying software, cleaning computers, losses for consumers.

b / incompatibility of document formats prepared in the same package (MS Word is far from the only culprit).

c / changes to a system error in computers based on DOS - the famous Y2K, when everyone was waiting for almost the end of the world (the North American press claims that about 60 billion were spent on this in the USA alone!) In March 2007, a new attack , already today, in the spring of 2007, which cost the US economy US $ 300 million. In 2005, the US Congress decided - apparently so that we would not get bored - to change the rules for switching to daylight saving time (as well as winter time): now it will not be introduced on the first Sunday April, and on the second Sunday in March. Technically, this meant that in 2007 it would be March 11th.

But: in those computers in which the Windows operating system of various modifications is installed, there is a program that CAMA translates the time (respectively, to summer and winter) - and this program will continue to translate in the old way (that is, at the beginning of April, etc.) If you use some kind of software / computer calendars (like M $ Outlook Express), then you will have to cancel it manually. And the same has been done on the computers that millions of people depend on (machines that keep airplane schedules, dispensing drugs in hospitals, ATMs, servers configured to back up our bank accounts at 12 a.m., etc.) ...

As a result, there are even "theorists" who assert that since, for example, Microsoft Internet Explorer is the standard of the whole world, then it is necessary to teach students not the standard http://www.w3.org, not the unprofitable periodic table, but bringing a quick buck " new "ideas. This means that in a year or two, retrain again, rewrite codes, rewrite voltage, rewire wires ...

On this, the motivation of both the student and the employee sharply deteriorates: many years ago, in a series of experiments with children, psychologists offered children a certain task; the winner was promised a reward - a candy; children completed the task, the winner received a candy, solemnly and proudly ate it. And then the experimenter said: "As a consolation, so as not to offend anyone, we will now give exactly the same candy to everyone else."

The purpose of the experiment was emotional response assessment all students.

Result:

a / the winners felt cheated (respectively, aggression or depression and resentment);

b / the defeated were disappointed (was it worth the effort if candy is given anyway?)

Already by 1970, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NSUM, he commands in Canada too) found out that over 12 years of implementation, problem-solving skills sharply deteriorated (problem-solving - in our opinion, the application of theory to solving specific problems, not necessarily practical ). However, instead of returning to a normal pedagogical system, they began to improve the abstract-logical approach.

An example of such a "New Revelation" is a proposal to increase the number of exercises of the following type on the development of problem solving skills: "A person has 9 coins, 1 cent each and 5 each, with 5 cents more by 1. How much money does a person have?"

Was it worth destroying the system and reinventing the wheel, if exactly that task (up to currency) was already in Arithmetic Magnitsky (1703)? In a "backward" Russian school, such a task was quite accessible to the average pupil of the 4th grade.

Towards the end of the 1980s, the same NSUM advice began to argue that exercise and drilling were not necessary at all, because now everyone has a calculator and a computer. What gives out a complete misunderstanding of the essence of learning: adding two numbers "in a column" is the development of abstract-logical skills, pressing a sequence of keys is the development of visual-effective skills; the mathematical essence of what is happening is supplanted by motor skills plus the fear of confusing the calculator keys and starting all over again. In addition, in the "free" world, any company is free to change the device of its computer / calculator as far as it wants from the original one; therefore, in the absence of manual problem solving skills, the student will not even have a chance to suspect that his answer (due to a different set of keys and functions - especially brackets! - or oxidized contacts) is incorrect.

The apotheosis of the system: in September 2006, the School of the Future was opened in Philadelphia (USA): it has no textbooks, no library, no notebooks - every student from the first day of classes gets a free laptop and connects to the Internet, no teachers, no lessons (see. Fast Times at Microsoft High, "Maclean" s, "Dec., 11, 2006, pp. 51-54). But in such a school, it is possible to obtain brief information about something, but it is impossible to gain knowledge, skills, there is no socialization, for there is no communication, collective and teachers - but there is a strange indoctrination ...

For the same reason, the NSUM proposed to increase the share of excursions, offering students the following - supposedly practical - tasks: "How is a television antenna for satellite television connected with our school curriculum in math? "The student is supposed to rummage through encyclopedias and the Internet and find that the TV antenna is in the shape of a parabola. So what? None of these students get the skills to solve the simplest problem like:" You have a graph of a function y = x2; show how the graph of the function y = (x + 1) 2 will be located in relation to it? Is it any wonder that such a student looks at the TV screen and does not see that the US flag IS DEVELOPED on the moon, where there is no air and therefore there can be no wind to wave the flag!

On excursions, it is impossible to acquire the necessary skills, is it not why they are bad with literature and language: they do not teach self-expression, it was replaced by “their own opinion”: whatever the student writes, everything will be fine. Apparently, this is why essays on the topic “What I talked about with the postman today” flourish; here, in fact, there is nothing to punish and nothing to evaluate: and indeed the student could talk to the postman ... Students do not know how to retell and critically present someone else's thought or talk about what they themselves did in the form of a presentation or essay. [Because of this, I somehow had to give them an essays writing course.]