Tame a Scientist: why postgraduate studies are becoming productive
The Ministry of Education and Science stated that industrial postgraduate studies may become a mandatory track in the new model of higher education. The point is that specific enterprises will participate in the training of graduate students. The experiment on industrial postgraduate studies with Rostec State Corporation began in 2025, and the new model was recognized as in demand. Currently, 74 enterprises are ready to join the pilot project. Izvestia investigated the current state of the graduate school, how it will change, and whether the new rules should be extended to all graduate students.
How the Ministry of Education and Science is reforming postgraduate studies
Dmitry Afanasyev, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Education and Science, said at the V Congress of Young Scientists in Sirius that industrial postgraduate studies could become an obligatory element of the new education system. He noted that the ministry is thus returning to the Soviet format of personnel training — at the request of manufacturing companies. 74 enterprises are already offering to train graduate students, and representatives of universities have also approved this idea.
In 2025, 28 organizations of the Rostec State Corporation and 21 universities began to jointly train graduate students in an experimental mode. There are 81 students in such programs. After they have defended their PhD, the most effective funding format for their studies will be determined. 54 graduate students are currently studying at regular budget places, 23 have targeted contracts, and four more are paid for by production facilities where they already work.
In industrial postgraduate studies, the relationship between a scientific organization and an enterprise becomes closer: the research topic is based on applied problems, the training program is prepared together with the enterprise, it also provides production facilities for research. The selection of candidates and the admission of exams are also carried out with the participation of company employees, and a consultant from the company becomes another supervisor.
The press service of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation explained to Izvestia that industrial postgraduate studies are one of the elements of the new model of higher education and next year it is planned to expand the current pilot project at the expense of new educational organizations and enterprises.
"The main goal is to establish cooperation between universities and large industrial enterprises to solve specific production tasks and train scientific personnel in demand in priority sectors," the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science explained.
What are the problems of postgraduate studies?
Irina Abankina, a professor at the HSE Institute of Education, notes that postgraduate studies need systemic changes, which have been discussed for at least the last 15 years. It was even proposed to exclude it from the law "On Education", completely subordinating it to the law "On Science". However, they did not undertake such a large-scale reform of financing this industry.
At the same time, there are still applicants, and in Soviet times there were applicants who were not enrolled in budget places and did not receive postgraduate scholarships, the expert adds. They often worked either as researchers or in enterprises, but in the process they also engaged in scientific work.
— It was a powerful real track, but deprived of the opportunity to finance postgraduate studies. At the same time, postgraduate and university studies themselves were criticized. Many experts emphasized that the work in scientific organizations is better than in universities, and their results have greater scientific and practical significance," the Izvestia interlocutor explained.
As a result, at some point, postgraduate studies became the third level of education: they were awarded a diploma even without defending a dissertation. Now this practice has been abolished, but the percentage of those who reach the defense of scientific work is still very low.
However, even in Soviet times, the proportion of defenders was only 22.5%.
— But the main thing is the isolation of university graduate students from the development of real science, — says Irina Abankina. — Industrial postgraduate studies are closely related to the tasks of business and production development. Chemistry is not done in a laboratory at a university, it is done experimentally in production. Just like biology.
Lilia Abdullina, Dean of the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology at the Sterlitamak branch of the Ufa University of Science and Technology, also notes that Russian postgraduate studies in its mass segment is "an institution with three systemic crises": an identity crisis, a performance crisis and a demand crisis. Firstly, it is unclear who a graduate student is: either a student or a scientist; secondly, the percentage of defenses is extremely small, and graduate school becomes for many a formal track to get a deferral from the army, get a scholarship, or just an "intermediate" station. Finally, the results of dissertations are simply not needed by anyone and they have no connection with the labor market.
Irina Abankina emphasizes that many countries, including China and Korea, have already transferred their master's degree programs to real production. The training itself does not take place in classrooms, but in the actual solution of production tasks.
— All these problems had to be brought to some new forms and solutions in order to overcome this impasse, - says Irina Abankina. — I very much welcome the turn to industrial postgraduate studies: in a sense, this is a good organizational formalization of the application, when people working in science in production are engaged in really important advanced scientific research, development and solving specific customer tasks.
What problems will the new system face?
Another thing is that it is difficult for businesses to devote their resources to conducting serious fundamental research, says Irina Abankina. In this sense, many are hoping for government funding support. The zone of introducing fundamental research into real production solutions has always been dead in a sense — it is unclear who can pay for it, she says.
— I am sure that there will be an opportunity for new financial mechanisms of partnership between the state and business in this area. I hope that the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, scientific organizations, and the Academy of Sciences will be involved in the development. And this will provide new horizons and strategic prospects for personnel training and the development of science, engineering and high technologies," Irina Abankina noted.
Director of Gazpromneft-Polytech Research Center (Scientific department of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University) Dmitry Bogdanov emphasizes that a significant part of graduate students now, on the contrary, are focused primarily on fundamental research and are less prepared to solve applied industrial problems.
— This is not even a disadvantage, but a feature: the system must maintain balance. Applied science ensures technological development in the short term, fundamental science ensures breakthroughs in the long term. Both areas are needed, and the new form of postgraduate study helps strengthen the applied component without destroying the fundamental one," he told Izvestia.
According to him, the introduction of industrial postgraduate studies will significantly change the requirements for learning outcomes at this stage of education: if they are now determined by the academic community, then in the future the customer's commission, which thinks in business terms and requires clear, measurable and practically applicable results, will begin to play an additional important role in this process.
Dmitry Bogdanov adds that the financing of scientific organizations is decreasing, while the financing of industry is growing, and companies have funds for R&D. At the same time, our own qualified staff is still insufficient to implement such projects. Industrial postgraduate studies will help enterprises in this sense.
Irina Abankina notes that a qualified customer also needs to be educated. For such cooperation, companies need informed needs, strategic development plans, clear prospects and developments on the agenda, and the possibility of institutionalizing research orders.
Director of the NTI Center "Digital Materials Science: New Materials and Substances", Moscow State Technical University. Evgeny Alexandrov points out that industrial postgraduate studies are more suitable for engineering specialties, in which it is important to solve a practically significant task — not necessarily a new one, but in an original way. However, there may be problems here: for protection, a graduate student is required to publish his results, but this cannot always be done at the enterprise due to trade secrets.
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences Lilia Abdullina believes that industrial postgraduate studies should not be mandatory for everyone. In her opinion, this will "destroy the diversity of the scientific landscape."
"Industrial postgraduate studies are needed to stitch the torn fabric between universities and the real sector," she told Izvestia. — This is an attempt to create a "triple spiral" cord: university (knowledge) + enterprise (task) + graduate student (solution). The graduate student here solves a specific problem of the enterprise, and the enterprise gives him data, materials, resources and, critically, a request for a result. But it cannot be made mandatory: it is absurd to force a philologist studying ancient Russian chronicles to join an enterprise.
She suggests creating two parallel and equal tracks: academic for future scientists and teachers; production (applied) for future leaders in industry, technology and innovation managers.
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