CERTIFICATION OF SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL AS ONE OF THE METHODS FOR DETERMINING THE SCIENTIFIC POTENTIAL OF A UNIVERSITY

N. Ya. Makarov, B. S. Matlis, L. I. Safonova

The economy of our country has entered a period in which the development of science is becoming, to an ever greater degree, the leading link of technical progress, of increasing the efficiency of social production, and an important factor in the competition between the two world systems.

It must be said that the Soviet Union possesses a powerful scientific potential. By this is usually understood the capacity of one or another scientific system to solve practical problems of scientific and technical development. This capacity is determined by the totality of personnel, informational, material-technical, and organizational parameters. Without exaggeration, it may be said that the principal one is personnel. The efficiency and productivity of labor in the scientific sphere depend to a great extent on the provision of scientific institutions with highly qualified people, on their proper selection and placement, and also on the training of young scientific workers. Therefore one cannot but agree with those who believe that the strength of science lies in its personnel.

It is known that the number of people working in the sphere of scientific activity is growing at least two to three times faster than in the other branches of social production.

Such growth in the number of people of science cannot continue for a prolonged period. Therefore the question is now being posed especially sharply: how to ensure a high level of development of science without a substantial increase in the number of scientific workers.

Two groups of factors that strengthen the personnel base of science may be distinguished: extensive and intensive. Speaking of extensive development, we have in mind above all the quantitative growth of people of science, while the intensive factor includes the improvement of the qualifications of scientists and the corresponding increase in the proportion of candidates and especially doctors of sciences, the improvement of the age structure, rational distribution by branches, within branches, between higher educational institutions and scientific research institutes, between creative and applied research, and so on.

It is important to determine the relationship between these two groups of factors. At present one may note a clear turn toward the qualitative, i.e., intensive, factor. Obviously, in the future as well, preference will be given to it.

In our country, over the 50 years of Soviet power, a numerous army of scientific workers has grown up, capable of solving the complex tasks advanced by the practice of communist construction. In recent

over the years much has been done to improve the training of scientific personnel. The number of scientific workers holding the academic degrees of Doctor and Candidate of Sciences reached 169 thousand in 1967.

But, as was noted in the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On Improving the Training of Scientific Personnel and Scientific-Pedagogical Personnel,” adopted in the autumn of 1967, there are substantial shortcomings in this matter. Above all, it was pointed out that higher educational institutions and research institutions do a poor job of selecting young specialists for postgraduate study; the majority of postgraduate students do not complete their dissertation work within the established time limits. Their works often have a low scientific level and contain no useful conclusions either for science or for production. A significant shortcoming noted in the resolution is the systematic failure to meet plans for training postgraduate students in a number of the most important branches of science.

In connection with the adopted resolution, the country’s higher educational institutions must strengthen control over the work of training scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel, improve the work of councils for their certification, and thereby ensure the necessary growth of highly qualified personnel, a further rise in the level of scientific work, and an improvement in the quality of training young specialists.

Much work in this regard also remains to be done by the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, which possesses high scientific potential. More than 20 Doctors and about 300 Candidates of Sciences work there. At TPI, as at other higher educational institutions of the country, the questions of improving the quality of training and accelerating the rate of growth of scientific personnel are also acute and require the closest attention.

In this connection, the institute is constantly searching for various material and moral incentives that mobilize the scientific worker for scientific creativity; a system of purposeful, consistent selection, placement, and education of scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel is constantly being developed and improved. Moreover, this system, with its unified scientific positions and requirements, can be traced from students selected for scientific work to workers of the highest qualification.

At the end of 1967, the institute conducted a certification of Candidates of Sciences with the aim of analyzing and forecasting their scientific growth. Such attention to Candidates of Sciences is not accidental.

Despite the significant acceleration in the rate of growth in the number of Doctors of Sciences (in 1967 alone, 10 dissertations were defended), the need for scholars of the highest qualification is far from fully satisfied. This substantially limits the possibilities for solving the most important twofold task of developing fundamental research and training young scientific workers.

For a more objective assessment of the prospects for carrying out major scientific works and defending doctoral dissertations, the certification used the “questionnaire–commission” method. It consists of the following: those being certified were given questionnaires with questions about age, completed scientific work (number of articles, monographs, authors’ certificates, applications for inventions), fulfillment of contract-based research work, methodological work, training of scientific personnel, and the expected date of defense of a doctoral dissertation. A question was also posed about the necessary conditions for completing doctoral dissertations. Then authoritative commissions, selected by definite branches from among the institute’s leading specialists, gave their conclusion on the relevance of the given scientific direction and on the possibility of transferring the respondents to senior research positions within the next five years.

At the present time, in a period of rapid development of science and technology, one of the decisive factors in the effective activity of research collectives and individual researchers is the choice of current directions of scientific and technical creativity. Under these conditions, every researcher, and equally an entire research collective, must have not only short-term but also long-term plans for their activity for many years ahead. However, drawing up such forecasts of work is a rather complex task. In the present case, the most successful method, apparently, may be a methodology for forecasting the development of a given scientific field and the training of personnel, when, directly through a questionnaire and an interview, both the opinion of the researcher and the opinion of a qualified scientific commission are taken into account. This will make it possible to avoid subjective assessments and serious errors in planning and forecasting the training of scientific personnel and in choosing scientific directions.

In the course of certification, 82.2% of the total number of candidates of science working at the institute were surveyed. Of the total number certified, only 8.8% will not submit doctoral dissertations for defense.

As a result of carrying out certification according to the methodology described, a number of interesting data were obtained. Thus, it was established that the average age of a candidate of science at the institute is 37.1 years, while the average age of those defending candidate dissertations is 32.5 years.

In the course of certification, for each of those surveyed the anticipated year of defense of a doctoral dissertation was established; as a result, it is possible to determine the average interval of time between the defended candidate dissertation and the anticipated defense of the doctoral dissertation. For the institute, this indicator amounted to 10.7 years.

It is interesting to note that in the old, established schools of the institute, the average age of those defending dissertations is much higher than in new scientific fields.

Thus, at the thermal-power and mechanical faculties it was 35 years; at the Research Institute of Electronic Introscopy, the physicotechnical faculty, and the faculty of automation and computer engineering, 28–30 years.

The smallest time gap between the defense of the candidate dissertation and the projected doctoral dissertation also occurs in young collectives (at the Research Institute of Electronic Introscopy, 8.8 years; at the physicotechnical faculty, 9 years; whereas at the thermal-power faculty it is 13 years, and at the mechanical faculty, 12.5 years). In conducting certification, as already indicated, the task was set of determining the degree of activity in scientific work. It was classified as follows: very active, active, and little active. On average for the institute the ratio is as follows: very active, 21%; active, 53.1%; little active, 25.9%.

It should be noted that this indicator does not yet deserve special confidence, since the criterion for this classification was not clearly established. The degree of activity was determined differently by each commission, taking into account the specific features of one field or another. However, as a general orientation this indicator is quite acceptable.

The indicator “personnel training” deserves attention. On average for the institute, 33% of the total number of those surveyed carry out personnel training (postgraduate students, applicants for the degree of candidate of science). This indicator is much higher than the average at the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics (63.6%) and at the chemical-technological faculty (46.3%); it is lowest at the thermal-power faculty (10%).

Overall for the institute, this indicator is quite satisfactory, since the training of postgraduate students is carried out mainly by highly qualified scholars—doctors of science.

Of great interest to the higher educational institution is an indicator characterizing methodological work. In determining it, account was taken of the publication of monographs, textbooks, teaching aids, descriptions of instruments, methodological developments, etc. It turned out that, on average for the institute, only 45.1% of those surveyed are engaged in methodological work.

During the certification, considerable attention was paid to uncovering the reasons hindering successful creative work. Among the reasons impeding work on doctoral dissertations, the first to be mentioned was the low productivity of some staff members, the insufficient number of postgraduate students, poor provision with the necessary instruments and laboratory equipment, etc.

Analysis of all these reasons will make it possible to plan a more effective system for training scientific personnel.

Certification also made it possible to determine the dates for transferring successfully working Candidates of Sciences to the positions of senior research associates for completion of work on a doctoral dissertation, to draw up more effective and realistic forecasts for the development of the scientific fields being pursued at the institute, and to carry out more effective coordination of the scientific work being performed both in departments, laboratories, faculties, and research institutes and across the institute as a whole.

The certification carried out for Candidates of Sciences according to the method described enabled the institute to present a more realistic picture of the development of research work and to concentrate attention on the most effective areas.

Such a concentration of efforts on the most topical themes and the development of an effective system for organizing research work is of particular importance for the institute, since it has become one of the 25 leading higher educational institutions of the country.

Analysis of the certification materials showed that a significant number of those surveyed are not sufficiently able to plan the development of their work. It should therefore be recommended that, through the efforts of research institutes and faculties, with discussion and approval by faculty councils, periodic certification be conducted approximately once every two or three years for each Candidate of Sciences and teacher, for the purpose of monitoring work, determining activity, and drawing up long-term plans for the training of scientific personnel.

At Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, according to the method described—that is, with the active participation of the scientific worker and with the involvement of the broad scientific community—certification is already being carried out for the remaining scientific workers (assistants, teachers, engineers, and junior research associates), whose total number exceeds 1,500 people. These measures make it possible to introduce at the higher educational institution a system of clearer planning and forecasting of personnel training, and to make more objective decisions on the further strengthening and development of the institute’s material base. Considerable attention in this system of training scientific personnel is paid to postgraduate study—one of the main sources of replenishment of higher educational institutions with scientific and pedagogical personnel. Postgraduate study at TPI has existed for more than 30 years. The institute is a major center for the training of scientific personnel for Siberia, the Far East, and Central Asia. A large part of the scientific workers and faculty of TPI itself are former postgraduate students.

Over the last three or four years, the number of postgraduate students at the institute has increased 2.5 times. The total number of those engaged in the preparation of Candidate dissertations by the beginning of 1968 was 500 people, of whom 410 were postgraduate students.

Within the system of measures for improving the training of the institute’s scientific personnel, it is necessary especially to emphasize the persistent, consistent work of the rector’s office and the scientific community to improve the quality of the cohort of postgraduate students by selecting the best-prepared candidates for postgraduate study, increasing the effectiveness of periodic attestations, etc. Apparently, postgraduate study should be entered by people who have some groundwork in research (published articles, author’s certificates, passed candidate examinations, scientific reports, etc.).

Constant attention to postgraduate students and the implementation of a purposeful system for their training made it possible to ensure a steady increase at the institute in the percentage of those successfully completing postgraduate study: 1962 — 12.5%; 1963 — 25%; 1964 — 37.7%; 1965 — 42.2%; 1966 — 71.2%; 1967 — 82.5%.

For the effective organization of postgraduate students’ work, the existing postgraduate bonus fund is widely used, as are the system of scientific trips, participation in scientific conferences and seminars, work by postgraduate students under economic-contract projects, etc. The beginning of this consistent system of personnel training at TPI is the thoroughly developed system for selecting and educating future scientific and scientific-pedagogical workers from among the students. This system was examined in detail at the First Interuniversity Scientific-Methodological Conference on the Organization of Students’ Scientific Work. It may only be added that, in developing this system, the institute considerably expands the selection of students specifically for scientific and scientific-pedagogical activity, training them according to individual curricula on the basis of the Regulations developed at the institute.

The system of training scientific personnel at TPI that has been examined can be successfully applied in other higher educational institutions of the country.