The Debate about Postgraduate Study Abroad: Key Issues and Trends

This article discusses key issues and trends of foreign scientific debate on improving postgraduate study. It gives a retrospective review of the formation and development of the main trends discussed in this area. It shows that in Western countries the reasons for the reform of postgraduate study have markedly different origins in comparison with the initiation of reforms in higher education systems. Financial support for the postgraduate study has not become a generator of its reform, because of its specificity – relatively small volume and widespread use of a student’s own funds, so it was not an acute problem and a matter of debate in the allocation of budget funds. Besides, many challenges of postgraduate study such as relevance of educational curricula to the requirements of employers, the diversification of academic degrees and others, which later became classic questions, were developed in the course of further research. It demonstrates basic approaches to the search and selection of managerial decisions in the organization of postgraduate study following the example of the UK and the USA. The article gives provides a logical model of postgraduate study divided into stages and separate elements that represent defined objects of study by foreign researchers. The article reviews advanced practices and organizational techniques used by foreign universities to improve the performance of postgraduate study such as selection of candidates for admission, the form and amount of candidates financial support, supervisor’s support of candidate research, support in writing a thesis, tracking further career of the degree holders. The article also poses conclusions on the development of the Russian scientific debate about postgraduate study in the context of foreign experience.