Academic degrees and titles

In the scientific sphere and higher educational institutionsthere is a qualification system that allows to establish the scientific hierarchy of scientific and pedagogical personnel - academic degrees and titles. In our country, the award of academic degrees and titles of associate professor and professor is somewhat different from other countries. As a rule, the academic title "assistant professor" is awarded to candidates of sciences, and "professor" to doctors of science, although there are exceptions. In other countries, degrees differ significantly in terms of qualification, title, award and approval procedures.

In England, the United States of America and parts of Europe there are uniform requirements, and in each scientific branch there are three degrees: Bachelor, Master, Ph.D.

Currently in the Russian Federationthere is a mixed system - in a number of educational institutions a new system is already in place, with a bachelor's degree (four years of study), a master's degree (6 years of study), and some universities retaining the old system that produces graduates with five-, five-and-a-half or six-year courses. And instead of a single highest degree of Doctor of Science (Philosophy and others), the system, inherited from the Soviet Union, is applied where there are two academic degrees - Candidate and Doctor of Science, which are awarded by the corresponding dissertational councils and are submitted for approval to the Higher Attestation Commission.

Dissertational councils are created at universities, research institutesor any other scientific organizations. Defense of the prepared candidate or doctoral thesis is, as a rule, open at the meeting of the dissertational council. Now, in order to defend the thesis for a Ph.D., you must necessarily have a Ph.D. Otherwise, persons who do not have this degree, under the new legislation, do not have the right to defend a thesis for a higher degree.

In this case, the proximity of the branches of science and / orspecialties received consistently before - higher education, and scientific degrees are practically not regulated, except for individual cases stipulated in the legislation. For example, in practice, it is quite acceptable to obtain a higher degree in the specialty and / or branch that is not close to the available: for example, the candidate of sociological sciences, psychologists, mathematicians, economists, doctors of psychological sciences candidates, for example, philosophical, physico-mathematical or sociological sciences and so on.

Scientific degrees were introduced in the Soviet Union in1934, which was in fact the restoration of earlier scientific degrees in Russia. The largest number of candidates and doctors of science is in the medical, physical and mathematical and technical sciences.

In order to obtain degrees,first write and defend a dissertation, and this is a fairly voluminous scientific work, which can contain from 150 to 500 pages of scientific text. Is it possible to not write a thesis on many sheets, but on quite legitimate grounds successfully defended? It is possible, although it will not be quite easy. Thesis for a doctorate can be carried out in the form of a scientific report, in which a summary of the research results should be presented. Such a report should be supported by a large number of previously published scientific papers, which are of great importance for science. In addition, the applicant must be well known to the scientific community for his research and discoveries in his field of activity.

Thus, we examined what constitutes a scientific degree, academic title.