The quality of admission to Russian doctoral programs during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on higher education systems and student learning globally. However, despite this, many countries experienced an increase in doctoral enrolment in 2020, which has raised concerns about the quality of admission and the motivation of doctoral candidates during the pandemic. This article aims to explore this context by delving into statistics about Russian doctoral programmes, which saw a decline in enrolment from 2010 to 2019. We use data from a web survey of 1,895 students enrolled in doctoral programmes at Russian universities in 2020. The results suggest that the increase in enrolment came in tandem with a decrease in the quality of doctoral admission. More students with non-academic motivation and a lack of academic skills and attainment were admitted. This situation is likely to prompt completion rates to lower over the course of the next three to five years.

KEYWORDS:

• Doctoral education
• doctoral aspirations
• admission for doctoral programs
• first-year PhD students
• COVID-19

Acknowledgments

This article is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Programme at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2023.2237961

Notes

1. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/25-01-2022/sb262-higher-education-student-statistics.

2. According to statistical data at en.moe.gov.cn, doctoral enrolment was 424,182 in 2019 and 466,549 in 2020.

3. https://aishe.gov.in/aishe/BlankDCF/AISHE%20Final%20Report%202020–21.pdf.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Natalia Maloshonok

Natalia Maloshonok is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Sociology of Higher Education, HSE University in Moscow. She earned the PhD in Sociology in 2014. Her focus lies on student experience at a university, undergraduate and doctoral studies, gender stereotypes in education and Web survey methodology.

Svetlana Zhuchkova

Svetlana Zhuchkova is a junior research fellow and a PhD student at the Centre for Sociology of Higher Education, HSE University in Moscow. Her research interests include doctoral education, gender and socio-legal studies, as well as methodology of data analysis and collection.

Saule Bekova

Saule Bekova, associate Fellow of the Centre for Institutional Analysis of Science & Education, European University at St. Petersburg, Russia. Her main research interest is doctoral education including attrition factors, postgraduate students’ well-being, supervisor-supervisee interaction, and comparative studies of doctoral programmes.

Evgeniy Terentev

Evgeniy Terentev is a director of Institute of Education, HSE University in Moscow. He graduated from National Research University Higher School of Economics, Department of Sociology. Received a PhD in Sociology in 2016. His main research interests include student experience at higher education institutions, reforms of doctoral education in Russia and worldwide, transformation of academic profession.