=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1729/paper-08
|storemode=property
|title=Research of Student Prospects on Developing International PhD Programs in Software
Engineering
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1729/paper-08.pdf
|volume=Vol-1729
|authors=Lyudmila Gadasina,Sergey Voitenko,Alexandr Yurkov
}}
==Research of Student Prospects on Developing International PhD Programs in Software
Engineering==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1729/paper-08.pdf
Research of Student Prospects on Developing
International PhD Programs in Software
Engineering
Lyudmila Gadasina, Sergey Voitenko, and Alexandr Yurkov
Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
{l.gadasina,s.voitenko,a.v.yurkov}@spbu.ru
Abstract. The main intent of the research is to learn more about the
ways in which PhD doctorants in the Software Engineering field can pre-
pare themselves for careers in modern exacting and fast changing job
market. Results of first diagnostic stage of the study are presented based
on materials of a simple quantitative survey of a group of PhD-students, a
significant part of which is developing in the field of parallel, distributed
and cloud computing. This group is currently enrolled in the interna-
tional program at the Erasmus+ project of eleven universities from five
European countries, Russia and Jordan. Processing and statistical analy-
sis results of the survey allowed to identify groups of the most significant
professional skills for future work, to find out the PhD-students level of
knowledge and mastering these skills and to evaluate the students in-
tention to obtain them. Conclusions and recommendations presented on
the base of comparison the list of skills ranked by PhD students with
a list of skills required by employers in the areas close to the Software
Engineering.
Keywords: professional skills · PhD students · international PWs@PhD
project
1 Introduction
The aim of this research is to explore the degree to which students realize that
international doctoral programs are providing them skills that will be on demand
on the current job market. At the first stage of this study a written survey was
conducted of a group of PhD students of eleven universities currently involved
in the doctoral programs in Software Engineering (SWE) at the international
project “Joint Programs and Framework for Doctoral Education in Software
Engineering” (PWs@PhD project). The overall aim of this project in the Euro-
pean Union Erasmus+ Program “Capacity Building in Higher Education” is to
support the development, modernization, and internalization of Software Engi-
neering higher education according to the SWEBOK [1] international standard.
The global aim of capacity building would be to change the composition of staff
at Higher Education Institutions to make this more representative [2].
Student Prospects on Developing International PhD Programs in SWE 57
1.1 Western Problems
The current postgraduate education system in many countries is still based on
an XIX century discipleship model, where elder researchers train younger ones in
the craft of research. Although the scientific corporation has changed cardinally
since then, the PhD education system mostly has not [3]. Over the past few
decades occurred rapid and transformative changes occurred of society and in the
institutions created to respond to these needs. As economy changes from based
on the production of goods to economy based on the production of knowledge
and information, it creates a demand for new types of learners and innovators
in every level of education. Employers and administrators in every sector now
expect doctoral programs to create well-rounded disciplinary experts who have
the ability to be leaders in their fields and are capable of creating real-world
value from knowledge and discovery [4].
In spite of these economic realities, university doctoral programs largely con-
tinue to view PhD training as a means of reproducing the status quo. Postgradu-
ate study, in an attempt to produce experts, has traditionally recommended doc-
toral students to dive deeply into a narrow area of specialization over the course
of their research [5]. On this way, some may be left with autonomous and narrow
areas of expertise at a time when the changing market is demanding specialists
who have well-rounded education and integrative skills that have experience with
interdisciplinary researches, leadership, and communication skills [6].
1.2 Russian Problems
The situation in Russia is quite different from overproduction of PhD’s in West-
ern countries. The reform of higher education in Russia implemented in accor-
dance with the Bologna system had almost no impact on the third level of the
Bachelor-Master-Doctorate system. Domestic post-graduate school – especially
speaking about the applied disciplines – is considerably less effective than the
doctoral training institution of PhD [9]. In accordance with the Federal Law “On
Education in the Russian Federation” today only a few of the leading Russian
universities (incl. Moscow and St. Petersburg State Universities, Ural Federal
University etc) have the right to develop their own educational standards estab-
lishing the structure and content of educational programs of their specialization
at all levels of higher education. However, the training standard at the level of
post-graduate students and PhD students in St. Petersburg State University is
currently missing and the University therefore makes efforts to train Russian
post-graduate students based on the international standards, especially in the
IT-field. In particular, international cooperation is carried out within the frame-
work of the PWs@PhD project aimed at the capacity building in the field of
doctoral programs of software development. One of the SWEBOK international
standard’s areas of study is SWE from the economic and business point of view,
which is widely represented in the Faculty of Economics of St. Petersburg State
University [7].
58 Lyudmila Gadasina, Sergey Voitenko, and Alexandr Yurkov
1.3 Actuality
The mismatch between the professional skills which contemporary employers ex-
pect, and the actual skills with which many doctoral-level programs are equip-
ping PhD students, need to be better investigated and understood. Quantitative
data collected by many investigators in previous studies document the existing
inconsistencies between the disciplinary skills acquired during doctoral educa-
tion and the professional skills of demand by the contemporary employers; see
for example [6–8], [10]. Researchers studying the roles of postgraduate education
in career preparation have commonly relied on questionnaires and surveys as the
predominant means of determining PhD graduates’ assessments about how well
their former doctoral programs prepared them for their current careers. What
is almost absent in the literature until this moment (see, however [4]), there
are the voices of the PhD doctorants who are currently engaged in the higher
level preparation process. The answers following questions of contemporary SWE
doctoral students can help to fill this gap and better understand their expecta-
tions and representations: which professional skills are PhD students interested
in acquiring and how do they feel their programs could be improved.
2 Research Methods
In this first diagnostic stage of the study, we use approach involving a simple
quantitative survey of a group of PhD students, a significant part of which is
developing in the field of parallel, distributed and cloud computing, who are cur-
rently enrolled in SWE-related international programs at the PWs@PhD project
of eleven universities from five European countries, Russia and Jordan. The pur-
pose of the quantitative survey is to gather data from participants as well as
evaluate their interest to various aspects of professional development.
As the initial stage of the search PhD students themselves under supervision
of researches created and presented the list of professional skills outside of their
major area of study which will be necessary for them after their complete PhD
(Appendix A). The 27-questions survey was drawn up based on the obtained
skills list and PhD Focus Group Participant Information Survey for American
doctorants from the paper [4]. The survey questions were combined and designed
to gather numerical rating scales intended to draw out more specific information
about the student’s career goals, expectations about being prepared for the job
market during postgraduate school, perceived proficiency in various professional
skills and interest in gaining additional supplemental skills training. Each of the
participants was asked to fill out the survey individually.
Survey items ask participants to rank the types of jobs they will seek after
completing their degrees and how prepared they feel for their respective careers.
The survey also asks doctorants to describe their proficiency in professional skills
and the likelihood they would participate in additional training in those same
skills if it were provided.
Analysis of the quantitative survey results consist of comparing the mean
scores, standard deviations and correlation of the responses, also the cluster
Student Prospects on Developing International PhD Programs in SWE 59
analysis of the responses using the classic method of Ward. Statistical significance
of differences when comparing the responses of various groups of respondents
performed using the standard Mann-Whitney U-test [11].
3 Results
The main themes that discovered during the analysis of the received data are
presented here in an effort to address the research questions posed by this study.
3.1 Skills Possess vs Skills to Obtain
On the basis of an independent group work 22 PhD students of 11 European
universities in the framework of participation in the PWs@PhD project compiled
a list of the skills they need for further work, but are not directly related to their
course of study and research on SWE specialties (Appendix A). As a result
of association without repetitions this list with the similar list for 44 students
enrolled in STEM-related PhD programs at a large American university [4], a
questionnaire was compiled intended to elicit perceived proficiency in mentioned
professional skills and interest in gaining additional skills training.
On the basis of the survey of participants PWs@PhD project, conducted with
the help of the developed questionnaire, the skills collected were ranked on the
importance in future and on the degree of the present mastering.
Processing and statistical analysis of the results of a survey of PhD-students
opinions allowed to identify groups of the most significant skills, to find out
the students level of knowledge and mastering these skills and to evaluate the
students intention to obtain them.
Fig. 1 shows a diagram that allows to compare the mean values of points for
skills that PhD-students possess, and skills they want to acquire in the course
of training in the framework of the international PWs@PhD project.
3.2 Skills Desired vs Skills in Demand
It is a common interest to compare the list of skills ranked by students with
a list of skills required by employers in the areas close to the SWE. The table
“The Most in Demand Skills in 15 Business functions” from [12] shows a ranked
list of top baseline skills by career area, highlighting those skills which are more
commonly requested, and thus more valued, for each particular group of jobs.
The most suitable for our purposes skills group is highlighted by the au-
thors of the report [12] “Project Management, Research and Strategy Cluster”.
According to the report, strategy and project management skills such as Re-
search, Project management, Negotiation and Analytic skills are in particular
demand among high-skill, highpaying jobs in such fields like management and
research. These jobs have experienced wage growth and expanded employment
opportunities in recent years. Developing the skills in this Cluster can be par-
ticularly advantageous to job seekers looking to advance their careers and take
60 Lyudmila Gadasina, Sergey Voitenko, and Alexandr Yurkov
Fig. 1. Mean values of points for every kind of wishing and proficiency skills
on additional responsibilities. Surprising findings for the authors turned that
Negotiation skills and Analytical skills, which are not particularly similar skills,
cluster closely together in the job market.
Surprising findings for the current study are that skills of this Cluster have
the highest scores in students evaluation of desired skills, as one can directly
see from the Fig. 1: Research Methods – 7.5 points, Managing Project – 8.2
points, Negotiation – 7.4 points, and Data Analysis – 8.0 points. In general,
the correlation between the ranked sets of skills required by employers [12] and
Student Prospects on Developing International PhD Programs in SWE 61
compiled by students (Fig. 1) is: for occupations in the career area of Engineering
– 0.37, in the area of Information Technology – 0.34, in the area of Research,
Planning and Analysis – 0.41. These results show that, despite the fact that
the complete lists of skills required by employers and desired by students differ
considerably, students can see quite well the basic skills necessary to engage in
higher positions corresponding to their level of qualification.
3.3 Advanced Students vs Ordinary Students
Further, cluster analysis of the responses to the survey question number 16 (see
Appendix B) allowed to distinguish two groups, which can be called “advanced”
and “ordinary” students. The group of “ordinary” students appreciated their
existing skills by an average of 3.65 points, a group of “advanced” – by 6.29
points, i.e. almost twice as much. Fig. 2 is a diagram shows the mean values of
marks on several skills from the students list for the two groups described above.
Fig. 2. Difference of two clusters
62 Lyudmila Gadasina, Sergey Voitenko, and Alexandr Yurkov
3.4 Self-Motivated Students vs. Students in Good and Bad
Standing
The same cluster analysis of the responses to question 17 of the skills that the
PhD-students would like to receive during the international training program
(see Appendix B) has revealed three clusters:
1. students in good standing, who interested in all skills,
2. self-motivated students, who interested only in several types of skills,
3. students in bad standing, who do not interested in the most skills.
Averages of mean values of marks for all skills are equal to for the first group –
8.37, for the second – 5.66, for the third – 2.46. Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the
average student marks affixed on several skills from the list for three clusters
described. This result on the one hand reflects the differential structure of any
learning group, on the other hand shows the difference between the perfectionists
who want to have excellent grades in all subjects, and experts, which are clearly
much focus in the direction of their work and the problem area of their research.
Fig. 3. Difference of three clusters successful, self-motivated and poor students
Student Prospects on Developing International PhD Programs in SWE 63
3.5 All Are Equal
In addition, we compared the marks exhibited by doctorants from Russia and
from other countries. The result is that for each skill difference the responses
between Russian and foreign students are statistically not significant either as
a result of the responses to question 16, nor on the results of the responses to
question 17. Moreover, a set of skills that students possess, and a set of skills
that they would like to acquire, is the same for all countries.
4 Conclusions
According to the results of the study, we formulate the following conclusions.
1. The Lists of professional skills outside of the major STEM area of PhD
studies which will be necessary for further work are significantly different for
European doctorants (Appendix A), American doctorants [4] and American
employers [12].
2. Students have practical sense to pay attention to the knowledge and skills
not directly related to the special disciplines taught. It could be recom-
mended to teachers to include in the process of preparation PhD students
additional forms of work and activities which are not directly related to tra-
ditional academic learning process but allow to develop the necessary skills
for postgraduate work.
3. Skills such as Supervision, Negotiation, Analysis, Research, and Project man-
agement become increasingly critical for graduates who want to advance into
management. Developing experience in these areas will help PhD students
prove to employers that they have the required skills.
4. International training programs for PhD students similar to PWs@PhD
project increase the development of practically useful skills outside the scope
of academic activities.
Further examination of these themes seeks to develop a better understanding
of student perceptions about which skills will be most useful in their future
careers, and which factors affect their learning and career preparation behaviors
and influence the kinds of knowledge and skills they actively seek to acquire
during international schools of the PWs@PhD project.
Acknowledgements
The research is partially supported by the European Union Erasmus+ Program
Capacity Building in Higher Education; Problem-based Case Studies and Learn-
ing in Software Engineering Program of the Aalborg University; the Russian
Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), grant No. 16-06-00221.
64 Lyudmila Gadasina, Sergey Voitenko, and Alexandr Yurkov
The authors thank Professor Alain Abran of University du Quebec for the
idea of the study; professor Lene Tolstrup Sorensen of Aalborg University for
the opportunity to conduct group work and student survey at the time of her
lectures in the framework of PWs@PhD project; Dr. Antti Knutas of Lappeen-
ranta University of Technology for the professional collection and presentation
skills list; PhD-students Daria Belykh and Andrey Saltan of St. Petersburg State
University for the study presentation at PWs@PhD project; Professor Andrey
Sozykin of Ural Federal University for useful discussions and interest in the
work; Professor Vladimir Halin of St. Petersburg State University for continued
support and understanding.
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Student Prospects on Developing International PhD Programs in SWE 65
A The Skills
List of professional skills outside of the major Software Engineering area of PhD
studies which will be necessary for further work.
1. Leadership
2. Managing people
3. Managing business
4. Managing projects
5. Time management
6. Software development
7. Program administrating
8. Interdisciplinary collaboration
9. Grant writing
10. Public speaking
11. Communication
12. Foreign language communication
13. Intercultural communication
14. Quality evaluation
15. Negotiation
16. Academic writing
17. International publishing
18. Interpersonal skills
19. Persistence
20. Critical thinking
21. Ability to formulate ideas clearly
22. Ability to convince
23. Ability to find relevant information
24. Adaptation to fast situation changing
25. Ability to work collaboratively
26. Career preparation and planning
27. Intellectual Property Managing
28. Entrepreneurship
29. Social responsibility
30. Teaching abilities
31. Educational assessment
B The Survey
16. Please rate your proficiency in the following professional skills outside of
your major area of study which you are acquiring in your university during
PhD program, on a scale of 1-10:
(1) – Not proficient at all, (10) – Extremely proficient.
17. Please rate how likely you would be to participate in training related to the
following professional skills, if it were made available to you as part of your
doctoral program, on a scale of 1-10:
(1) – Unlikely, (10) – Extremely likely.