=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1991/paper-02
|storemode=property
|title=Training of PhDs in Software Engineering in Russia: A Proposal for New Specialty
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1991/paper-02.pdf
|volume=Vol-1991
|authors=Vladimir Khalin,Voitenko Sergei,Alexander Yurkov,Yury Kosov
}}
==Training of PhDs in Software Engineering in Russia: A Proposal for New Specialty==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1991/paper-02.pdf
Training of PhDs in Software Engineering in
Russia: A Proposal for New Specialty?
Vladimir G. Khalin1 , Sergei S. Voitenko1 ,
Alexander V. Yurkov1 , and Yury V. Kosov2
1
Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
{v.halin,s.voitenko,a.v.yurkov}@spbu.ru
2
North-West Institute of Management, branch of the Russian Presidential
Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Saint Petersburg, Russia
kosov-yuv@sziu.ranepa.ru
Abstract. The article provides an analysis of the status of Russian
higher education in Software Engineering and related specialties. Many
universities in Russia are training bachelors and masters in Software En-
gineering. Nevertheless, there is no scientific specialty in Russia exactly
called Software Engineering, which should be used to train postgraduate
and doctoral students. Consequently, there is no opportunity to defend
candidate and doctoral theses in Software Engineering in Russia. A pro-
posal is formulated to include Software Engineering in the Nomenclature
of Specialties of Scientists of the Russian Federation.
Keywords: software engineering · PhD training · higher education ·
scientific specialties
1 Software Engineering Education in Russia
Software Engineering (SWE) is a specific kind of intellectual activity, training
in which requires considerable resources of time, human, intellectual and others.
A number of specific features is inherent for training of specialists in the field
of SWE, especially for educating of highly qualified scientific personnel for the
digital economy of the future. This specificity is determined by the requirement
for expensive hardware, software and information resources, the need of cooper-
ation with development teams, contacts with leading IT-companies etc. System
of training specialists in this area varies in different universities and countries.
This has a significant impact on the level of training and, as follows, demand for
graduates in the market.
Analyzing what has been done in Software Engineering education in the
Russian higher school in recent years, it should be noted that the Federal state
educational standards for the training of bachelors and masters in SWE were
developed and approved in 2011 by the Ministry of Education and Science. This
?
The research is partially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research
(RFBR), grant 16-06-00221.
Software Engineering in Russia: A Proposal for New Specialty 21
allowed starting the training of bachelors and masters in the direction of Soft-
ware Engineering in our country. At the moment, 91 universities of Russia are
training bachelors and masters in Software Engineering, among them four Rus-
sian universities-partners in the Joint Programs and Framework for Doctoral
Education in Software Engineering (PWs@PhD) project [12] conducted within
the EU Erasmus+ Program Capacity Building in Higher Education: Saint Pe-
tersburg State University3 , Saint Petersburg State Polytechnic University4 , Ural
Federal University5 and South Ural State University (National Research Univer-
sity)6 .
By the Order of the Government of Russia from 06.01.2015 No 7-p “On the
approval of the list of specialties and areas of higher education corresponding
to the priority areas of modernization and technological development of the
Russian economy”[7], training of specialists in the field of Software Engineering
was named the priority area of modernization and technological development of
the Russian economy.
2 Software Engineering Education in Saint Petersburg
State University
Saint Petersburg State University (SPbSU) by the Federal Law “On Education
in the Russian Federation” has right to develop their own sets of educational
standards, determine the structure and content of educational programs at their
own direction at all levels of higher education. Saint Petersburg State Univer-
sity’s own educational standard approved in 2014 [10], is set up for each direction
of training – bachelor, specialist, and master. Master includes several models:
academic, academically-oriented and practice-oriented.
Saint Petersburg State University has a license for training of bachelors and
masters in Software Engineering, starting from 2011. Training of bachelors and
masters in this direction in SPbSU is conducted at the Department of Soft-
ware Engineering (Andrey N. Terekhov7 the Head) of the Mathematics and
Mechanics Faculty [4] under the programs 09.03.04 – Software Engineering (for
bachelors) and 09.04.04 – Software Engineering (for masters). The following key
departments of the Faculty take part in the implementation of these educational
programs: Software Engineering; Analytical Information Systems; Computer Sci-
ence; Parallel Algorithms; Operations Research. Profile disciplines are listed in
the Competent oriented curriculum of the basic educational program of higher
education of the baccalaureate in the direction 09.03.04 – Software Engineering
[8]. In addition to training in the area of Software Engineering for bachelors
and masters, SPbSU provides postgraduate, masters and bachelor’s training in
a number of specialties close to the professional field of SWE [1], for example,
3
www.spbu.ru
4
www.spbstu.ru
5
www.urfu.ru
6
www.susu.ru
7
http://www.math.spbu.ru/user/ant/
22 Vladimir G. Khalin et al.
38.04.05 – Business Informatics. Educational programs for the training of mas-
ters and bachelors in the direction of Business Informatics are implemented at
the Faculty of Economics of SPbSU by the Department of Information Systems
in Economics [3]. Basic courses of this educational program, correlating with
those listed in the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge SWEBOK [2].
It should be noted nevertheless that the educational standard at the level of
training of highly qualified personnel in SWE – PhD-doctorate – in the Saint
Petersburg State University is currently missing. Therefore, SPbSU uses various
forms of international cooperation for the preparation of highly qualified special-
ists, such as the Agreement for Double Doctoral Degree between Lappeenranta
University of Technology8 and Saint Petersburg State University signed in 2016.
This agreement makes it possible to PhD-students and applicants from both the
universities to defend their scientific degrees at the dissertation councils of the
SPbSU and get the PhD diplomas of the two universities-partners, in all licensed
specialties, including SWE. Moreover, international cooperation in the field of
higher qualification scientific personnel training is supported by the PWs@PhD
project [11], [12].
3 Problem and Contradiction
No matter how reassuring the above-mentioned background seems, it is necessary
to state that at the moment there is no scientific specialty in Russia exactly called
Software Engineering, which should be used to train postgraduate and doctoral
students – see Nomenclature of Specialties of Scientists of the Russian Federation
[5] approved by the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia
on 10.01.2012, No 5, in which the defense of candidate and doctoral theses takes
place in Russia, as well as the awarding of scientific degrees of candidate and
doctor of science.
At the same time, in Russian education system there is a considerable expe-
rience in the training of highly qualified personnel (postgraduate and doctoral
students) with the award of scientific degrees of a candidate and a doctor of
science in scientific specialties close to the professional field of Software Engi-
neering. It is possible, for example, to name the following scientific specialties,
for which postgraduate students, candidates and doctoral students are trained in
Saint Petersburg State University, as well as dissertational councils for awarding
scientific degrees of candidate and doctor of sciences work:
– Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Management
• 05.13.01–Systems Analysis, Control and Information Processing
• 05.13.11–Mathematical Support and Software of Computers, Complexes
and Computer Networks
• 05.13.17–Theoretical Bases of Computer Science
• 05.13.18–Mathematical Modeling, Numerical Methods and Program
Complexes
8
http://www.lut.fi
Software Engineering in Russia: A Proposal for New Specialty 23
– Physics and Mathematics
• 01.01.07–Computational Mathematics
• 01.01.09–Discrete Mathematics and Mathematical Cybernetics
– Economics
• 08.00.13–Mathematical and Instrumental Methods of Economics.
Professor Andrey N. Terekhov9 believes that in Russia the actual training
of highly qualified specialists (candidates and doctors of sciences) in the field
of SWE is carried out exactly in the scientific specialty 05.13.11–Mathematical
Support and Software of Computers, Complexes and Computer Networks [9]. At
the same time, the passport of such scientific specialty states that:
1. scientific, theoretical and economic importance of solving the problems re-
lated to this specialty is the improvement of efficiency of data and knowledge
processing using computers, complexes and computer networks and in short-
ening of the time of their creation;
2. scientific degrees of candidate and doctor of sciences are awarded: in technical
sciences for studies containing results the use and implementation whereof
provide significant technical effect; and in physics and mathematics for
achievement of results in the form of new mathematical methods and proven
properties of algorithmic languages or programming systems qualified as a
contribution to the development of mathematical programming theory and
data or knowledge processing systems.
Analysis of foreign and domestic practices of training of scientific personnel
of the highest level in SWE shows that the closest scientific specialty in Russia,
corresponding to the European specialty PhD SWE is the specialty 05.13.11–
Mathematical Support and Software of Computers, Complexes and Computer
Networks (Technical sciences). But, we repeat it, the problem is that in Russian
Federation there is still no scientific specialty exactly named Software Engineer-
ing for the training of post-graduate students and doctoral candidates. Moreover,
such a specialty is missing in the list of scientific specialties on which the degrees
of the candidate and the doctor of sciences are defended.
4 Proposal and Prospects
It seems advisable to prepare a reasonable petition to the Ministry of Education
and Science of Russia Federation on the engagement of a new specialty Software
Engineering in the Nomenclature of Specialties of Scientists on behalf of Saint
Petersburg State University and other leading Russian universities. The addition
of the two existing levels of higher professional education (bachelor and master’s)
to the currently absent third level – postgraduate course in Software Engineering
9
also a Board Member of the Nationwide Association of the most technically com-
petent Russian software developing companies RUSSOFT http://russoft.org/, and
ACM and IEEE CS member
24 Vladimir G. Khalin et al.
will comply with the logic of the Bologna process, in which the Russian education
is gradually blending in. This will be an important system-building solution
would create the conditions for the training of personnel, designed to implement
a variety of ICT-projects for the digital future.
To realize the formulated proposal, the following specific studies should be
performed:
1. Detailed substantiation of the petition to the Ministry of Education and
Science of Russia for the inclusion of the new specialty Software Engineering
in the Nomenclature of the specialties of scientific workers of the Russian
Federation in the sections: relevance, draft passport of the new specialty, its
uniqueness and difference compared with the already existing ones.
2. Economic estimates of the costs of training of specialists in Software Engi-
neering in Russia and foreign universities.
3. Identification and recognition of management risks in the Russian higher
school in the context of opening of a new scientific specialty Software Engi-
neering in order to answer the question: how to create a favorable manage-
ment system [6] in the leading Russian universities for effective training of
specialists of higher scientific qualification – PhD and doctors of sciences –
in the field of Software Engineering.
References
1. Appendix No. 1.1 to the License of Saint Petersburg State University for
the right to provide educational services for the implementation of educa-
tional programs, http://spbu.ru/files/upload/Structure/documents/licenzia/pril-
1-1-2016.pdf (in Russian)
2. Bourque, P., Fairley, R.E. (eds.): Guide to the Software Engineering Body of
Knowledge, Version 3.0, IEEE Computer Society (2014), www.swebok.org
3. Department of Information Systems in Economics of the Saint Petersburg State
University, http://www.spbu-bi.ru
4. Department of Software Engineering of the Saint Petersburg State University,
http://se.math.spbu.ru/SE
5. Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science
(VAK) /Reference, http://vak.ed.gov.ru/help desk (in Russian)
6. Khalin V. G.: Modernization of National System of Higher Education in the Con-
text of Making Administrative Decisions. St. Petersburg University Press (2008).
7. Order of the Government of the Russian Federation of January 6, 2015,
No 7-p “O Perechne spetsial’nostei i napravlenii podgotovki vysshego obrazovaniya,
sootvetstvuyushchikh prioritetnym napravleniyam modernizatsii i tekhnologich-
eskogo razvitiya rossiiskoi ekonomiki”[About the List of specialties and directions
of training of the higher education corresponding to priority directions of modern-
ization and technological development of the Russian economy] (2015). Available
at http://www.garant.ru/products/ipo/prime/doc/70742752/ (in Russian)
8. Software Engineering: Competentoriented curriculum of the ba-
sic educational program of higher education of the bac-
calaureate in the direction 09.03.04 Software Engineering,
http://math.spbu.ru/ru/mmeh/PLANS/1/15 5080 090304bPrIng 16 12 15.pdf
(in Russian)
Software Engineering in Russia: A Proposal for New Specialty 25
9. Terekhov A.N.: What is the program engineering? [Programmnaya Ingeneria] J.
Software Engineering, No 1, PP.40-45 (2010) (in Russian)
10. SPbGU. Obrazovatel’nye standarty [SPbSU. Educational stan-
dards]. Saint Petersburg State University, 2014. Available at
http://spbu.ru/structure/documents/mm19xm7g.html (in Russian)
11. Voitenko S., Vyunenko L., Yurkov A. Trends and Opportunities of Training Highly
Qualified IT Specialists in Accordance with International Standards. Proceedings
of the 2nd International Conference on Applications in Information Technology
(ICAIT-2016).
12. The Project Joint Programs and Framework for Doctoral Education in Software
Engineering (PWs@PhD), http://fase.it.lut.fi