Doctoral Education in Post-Soviet Countries: From a Unified Model to Variety of Approaches

Abstract

The article analyses the institutional landscape of doctoral education in the Soviet Union in the last years of its existence as well as in the countries of the post-Soviet space. We describe the practice of academic personnel training in the post-Soviet countries, highlighting the general characteristics determined by the Soviet legacy, along with the unique patterns of the countries. The empirical base of the study is formed by the Soviet Union archival statistical data, legal acts, and data of the statistical services, ministries, and departments of the post-Soviet countries. Statistical analysis is used to assess the institutional structure and scale of the postgraduate schools in the considered countries. The research reveals that most of the post-Soviet countries have preserved the features of the Soviet postgraduate school, while very few countries have created models of institutional structure with a fundamentally different configuration of doctoral education in comparison with the Soviet Union.