Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
© Higher School of Economics
A round table was held on the topic of “Academic Development at the University Today and Tomorrow”. Its participants discussed the tools of academic development used in various subject areas and ways of involving young people in science, one of which is holding regular scientific seminars. The best practices of HSE departments were presented.
Vice-Rector Alexander Balyshev noted in his opening remarks that the relevance of the roundtable topic is due to the current shortage of personnel both in the academy and in the economy as a whole, and one of its tasks is to rethink the relevance of the academic development tools that exist at HSE.
The moderator of the round table, Deputy Vice-Rector, Head of the HSE, spoke about the challenges of academic development and the HSE’s responses to these challenges. Office of Academic Development Anastasia Stepanova. She emphasized that the concept of academic development has been relevant for the last 30-40 years and is associated with the changing role of the university in society. The main task of academic development is considered to be providing support to scientists to improve their competence and ensure confidence in their identity.
According to Anastasia Stepanova, academic development at HSE supports the implementation of the university’s strategy, creates conditions for the growth of scientific schools and helps to respond to external challenges. In addition to its strategic importance, it has a positive effect on organizational efficiency, promotes personnel development and gives the university institutional advantages, enhancing its competitiveness.
Among the most popular tools for academic development, the Deputy Vice-Rector noted seminars and consultations on academic writing, an academic development program for new teachers and researchers (Academic personnel reserve), mentoring, postdoc programs, as well as various adaptation and integration events for scientists. Based on regular internal monitoring data, it showed clearly expressed needs of scientists: about 40% of respondents are interested in new opportunities to exchange experience with colleagues from other universities, 34% – in expanding access to databases, 25% – in improving scientific communication. The youngest researchers naturally demonstrate a demand for data analysis and academic writing skills.
Zoomers and Science
The main topic of discussion in the first part of the round table was the challenges arising in connection with the arrival of the zoomer generation in science.
The head of the department noted a significant gap between the classical approach to scientific work and the new habits of the younger generation of researchers. Scientific Laboratory of Spatial-Econometric Modeling of Socio-Economic Processes in Russia Olga Demidova. While building a scientific reputation traditionally requires deep immersion in the material and long, painstaking work, today’s young scientists are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence tools to speed up the research process. This poses an important challenge for the scientific community: how to combine modern ways of working with information with the depth of scientific research.
Deputy Dean for Science Faculty of World Economy and World Politics Alexandra Morozkina suggested specific ways to do this, such as organizing discussions of articles at scientific seminars (and then students will have to read them from beginning to end), holding seminars without gadgets. She also spoke about a program for attracting scientific assistants to the faculty, within the framework of which a student helps a teacher in his scientific work for a small fee and sees the benefits of such work. All students who have gone through this program go on to teach and participate in various projects of the faculty.
Supervisor Schools of Philological Sciences Evgeny Kazartsev recalled two large projects dedicated to speech practices and the sociology of literature, which were successfully implemented by the school. They included a significant digital component, and, in his opinion, without the participation of zoomers who know how to use digital tools, the projects would not have taken place.
Dean Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technologies Nikolay Kurichev believes that earlier, when choosing scientific activity, young people clearly understood its differences from work in business or in the civil service, where the rules are stricter, but now, as science is becoming “managerialized,” the difference is becoming less obvious. But it should be there, and this is, first of all, interaction with a mentor, a scientific supervisor, as well as an environment – “seminars where crazy people who are burning with scientific ideas should gather.”
Continuing the theme of differences between academia and business, Vice Dean for Research Faculty of Computer Science Alexey Mitsyuk reported that the IT industry today differs very little from the scientific environment. Large companies are increasingly engaged in computer science, and the conditions created in these companies today are no worse than in universities. There is freedom to choose tasks, opportunities for development, there is no need to work with students and engage in organizational activities. For universities, this is a problem, since competition with business research arises.
Deputy Director Department of Data Analysis and Artificial Intelligence Vasily Gromov outlined the trends in the transformation of science and scientific activity. He noted that in the near future a scientific market will be formed in which the university will lose its monopoly status. At the same time, society will change its understanding of what a scientist does, and perhaps the concept of disciplinarity will disappear.
First Vice-Rector Vadim Radaev emphasized that young people, starting with millennials, are increasingly abandoning a linear professional trajectory — they change professions and consider it indecent to sit in one place for more than three or four years. “Academic activity, as we are accustomed to seeing and building it, involves long-term investments and full immersion with a long-term building of a scientific reputation and unclear prospects. And young colleagues burn out before they have time to shed light on anything,” he explained.
Vice-Rector Sergey Roshchin focused on the topic of goal-setting in academic development: “As a rule, we do not raise this issue, but only support it with some data, such as statistics on published articles. However, the goals of academic development are contextual in nature from the point of view of the society around us and should not be limited to publication activity alone.”
As for the claims about the peculiarities of zoomers, both a hundred and two hundred years ago, representatives of the older generation claimed that the next generation was not like them. According to the vice-rector, the key question is what is the value of science so that the younger generation continues to study it within the walls of the university. “Science studies are not studies that interest you now, but studies based on the current agenda in society, in combination with what interests you,” he concluded.
Scientific seminars: constancy, obligation, regularity
The second part of the round table was devoted to involving young people in scientific discussion. Vadim Radaev, who made the key report on this topic, noted: “First of all, we need to have this discussion, especially since real discussions are extremely rare on the pages of journals.” A regular scientific seminar becomes a platform for it.
In his report, the First Vice-Rector of the HSE emphasized that seminar activities are not an addition or an appendix, but part of the foundation, one of the main forms of work. “I believe that a scientific department without a regular seminar is an institutional fiction: individual scientists conduct research and publish results, but the integrity of the organization, the environment that should form scientists, remains more on paper,” he said.
The speaker shared his experience in organizing scientific seminars Department of Economic Sociology And Laboratory of Economic and Sociological Research (LESI), which he heads. His departments have held scientific seminars weekly since 2002, and he does not consider this to be anything extraordinary. Even if not weekly, then a monthly seminar should be the norm for any scientific community. Anyone can organize a seminar, but it is difficult to do so on a regular basis. “Many great projects started and then, unfortunately, died out,” Vadim Radaev noted. In his opinion, a seminar should have a permanent core, be mandatory, be held regularly (at least once a month) and in person (a hybrid format is possible), have a fixed day, time and plan for at least two to three months, be announced in advance and not be postponed.
Vadim Radaev believes that the topic of the seminar is not the main thing: the speakers are more important. He emphasized that only full texts of research should be discussed, and materials should be sent to participants at least a week in advance. It is advisable to invite discussants to the seminar, make uniform demands on all colleagues from students to professors, and gently and persistently observe the rules so that the seminar does not turn into, for example, a benefit performance for the speaker.
According to Vadim Radaev, the value of a scientific seminar lies primarily in communication. This is a good way to create and maintain an environment, an opportunity to interest and retain young colleagues who, as noted in the first part of the round table, are today prone to a rapid loss of interest in science.
Other HSE employees also spoke about their successful experience of participating in scientific seminars and organizing them.
Dean Faculty of Computer Science Ivan Arzhantsev recalled that mathematics in the USSR, which flourished in the 1960s and 1970s, lived by scientific seminars. At the same time, work was organized differently in foreign universities. “Colleagues envied us that we had such a wonderful culture of scientific seminars,” said the dean of the Faculty of Computer Science. He himself participated in one of these seminars, and now the faculty holds a mathematical seminar every two weeks.
Head of the Department of Mathematics Faculty of Economic Sciences Fuad Aleskerov spoke about two scientific seminars that he leads, one of which has been held for 60 years, including more than 20 years at the HSE. In his opinion, seminars should not be limited in time; it is quite acceptable if they last for four hours.
Referring to his experience working in foreign universities, the dean Faculty of Social Sciences Denis Stukal reported that scientific seminars there can take place both in the form of formal discussions – traditional regular meetings of scientists, and in the form of informal discussions – for example, meetings and discussions of scientific ideas over lunch. In his opinion, organizing a seminar should be a common matter for all employees of the department, who are responsible for this periodically.
Professor Elena Dragalina-Chernaya shared her experience of holding regular seminars in International Laboratory of Logic, Linguistics and Formal Philosophy. There are five of them in the laboratory: theoretical, analytical, reading seminar and two scientific and educational seminars. She believes it is important to support the initiatives of young researchers and give them their own space for discussions. The professor emphasized that long-term internships for young scientists are important for the development of international and interdisciplinary projects.
Summing up the round table, Alexander Balyshev said that its participants demonstrated a demand for updating the goal-setting of academic development at the university. He also noted the need to communicate to target groups, especially young researchers, information about the opportunities opening up to them and stated that scientific seminars are still a relevant and mandatory component of the work of all scientific departments of the HSE.
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