In November 2013 the European Commission selected for funding the project TEMPUS - NETCENG "The new model is the third level of education according to the Bologna process in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine," in which our university is the main coordinator from Ukraine. The project is designed for three years.
At the end of November 2014 the project participants from 22 universities of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Great Britain, Germany and Lithuania held a seminar at the Belarusian State University (Minsk). Project coordinators of each university reported on the work in the current year, shared their experience and vision of the implementation of the project objectives, based on the characteristics of higher education and training of highly qualified personnel in their respective countries.
Since 2014 the new law on education in Ukraine the scientific level candidate of sciences is transformed into a scientific and educational level of a PhD, which will contribute to the harmonization of educational and scientific level of the European countries of the East and the West.
To representatives of universities in Eastern Europe it was interesting to learn about the structure and content of the training component of the PhD training in the EU in engineering fields. They were acknowledged with the requirements for a doctoral dissertation and features of the organizational security procedures and the awarding of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the examples of Vilnius Technical University Gediminas (Lithuania), Brunel University of London (UK) and the Technical University of Berlin (Germany).
The PhD in these universities include the following basic elements: the exams with a certain block of training subjects (educational component), the approval of the dissertation topic and the advisor, the publication of a certain number of scientific articles on the topic of the thesis in professional journals. And the final stage – defense of the dissertation on specialized department, appointed by the Academic Council (Commission) for the final evaluation of the thesis and the award of the degree. It should be noted that the scientific component of the preparation as a candidate of science and doctor of philosophy in its content and structure are very similar, although the formal aspects of their implementation have many differences and peculiarities. Therefore, the implementation of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine on education will certainly contribute to the convergence and alignment systems training highly qualified specialists in Europe.
The report of our University, including its part about the Faculty of aviation and space systems, to develop and implement programs of double degree of Candidate of Sciences - Ph.D. from the University of Western Europe, using the mechanisms of the programs TEMPUS and ERASMUS MUNDUS was interesting for the participants.
The first year of the project concludes by examining the characteristics and training programs for doctors of philosophy at the universities of Western Europe. The plans of the second year are as follows: a practical introduction to the methods of teaching educational modules at universities in Germany, Lithuania and the United Kingdom; master classes and workshops in these universities for research managers, administrative staff and graduates; seminars of the certification scientific leaders; the development of pilot training programs and units of academic disciplines; preparation and publication of textbooks; the opening of new laboratories and computer classes for research, office management and organization of communication with the labor market; the formation of the requirements of modern industry specialists qualification level of "Doctor of Philosophy".
Therefore, the project TEMPUS – NETCENG is filled with interesting practical results and has every opportunity to make the first steps to implement the new model of the third level of education, harmonized for universities in Eastern and Western Europe, the ability to increase the competitiveness of university graduates in the labor market.
Site of the project: www.netceng.eu.