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Russia
In Soviet times, higher education in Russia was institutionally separated from research (Smolentseva et al. 2018). Universities were responsible mainly for educational activities while research institutes focused on research and scientific training (Maloshonok & Terentev, 2019). Today, that policy has been reversed and the majority of all doctoral candidates (86%) study in universities, with 13% in research institutes of the Russian Academy of Science, and 1% in other organizations (Federal state statistics service 2021). In all, over 1,220 institutions offer doctoral programmes (Bekova, Maloshonok & Terentev, 2021), but in recent years there have been steep declines in both doctoral enrolments and doctoral graduations; in 2010 there were 157,437 doctoral candidates but only 87,751 in 2020 while over the same period the number of candidates who successfully defended their theses fell from 9,611 (28.5% of all candidates who had completed their course of study) to 1,245 (8.9%).
The present chapter focuses upon the system of doctoral examination in Russia. In particular, it looks at 1) the national framework 2) assessment of the educational coursework 3) the pre-examination of the doctoral thesis 4) the appointment of a Dissertation Council 5) the final examination, and 6) ongoing challenges and current trends.