TOMSK, Jan 26 – RIA Tomsk. Sixteen people in
November-December 2020 defended their dissertations online in the TSU
dissertation councils, the university's press service said. As the head of the
department for training and scientific certification of highly qualified
personnel of TSU Tatyana Kasatkina told, online defenses of dissertations were held
at TSU for the first time.
Earlier it was reported that in 2018 Tomsk State
University (TSU) received the right to independently award academic degrees.
The university had to form the composition of the dissertation councils for the
award of the academic degrees of doctor and candidate of sciences. TSU was
supposed to start working according to the new system of awarding degrees on
September 1, 2020.
"In November-December 2020, the dissertation
councils of TSU held 28 dissertation defenses... There are now three formats
for the work of dissertation councils for defenses - online, offline and
mixed... 16 defenses were carried out completely remotely, 11 – in a mixed
form", – says the message and clarifies that the format of the defense
procedure is chosen by the dissertation council itself, taking into account all
objective nuances.
As the head of the department for training and
scientific certification of highly qualified personnel of TSU Tatyana Kasatkina
explained to RIA Tomsk, dissertation councils of the university began work on
September 1, 2020. Accordingly, it was the first time at TSU that online and mixed-format
defenses were held.
© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский
According to the press service, the defenses carried
out remotely using video conferencing systems required thorough preliminary
organizational and technical preparation. Only a few members of the
dissertation council were in the audience. The mixed format, as well as the
completely remote one, made it possible to protect both professors aged 65+ who
are at risk for COVID-19 and scientists from a possible illness.
"For me, there were no difficulties – I have been
conducting classes remotely from the very beginning of the pandemic. It was
even easier to defend at home in a comfortable environment. As for possible
technical failures, I insured myself – I had an alarming protocol in this
regard. But, fortunately, everything went smoothly", – a senior laboratory
assistant of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology of the TSU
Faculty of Philology Elena Masyaykina who defended online is quoted.
Earlier it was reported that TSU plans to train not
only Russian, but also foreign candidates and doctors of sciences, if their
research is carried out on the territory of the Russian Federation. According
to the university, today, a total of 24 dissertation councils in 51 scientific
specialties operate on the basis of TSU.