Despite joining the unified European system for academic degrees in 2005, the Education Ministry still does not officially recognize any Ph.D. degrees in Ukraine.
Anastasia Grynko is the one of four lucky students who made it to Ukraine’s first-ever Doctor of Philosophy program, often referred to in the world by its abbreviation, Ph.D.
The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy student will study mass communications and hopes the new program and her new knowledge will help bring the country’s media closer to Western European standards.
She remains bothered by the fact that the groundbreaking program launched this month is still not recognized by Ukraine’s educational establishment and in most of the world.
But she has hopes that the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy program will develop such a good reputation that it is eventually recognized everywhere.
And if not, students will just have to agree that knowledge gained is never wasted.
“First I wanted to get a Ph.D. degree in the United States. But since there is a chance for the first time to get it in Ukraine – why not do it?” Grynko asked. “Even if the state does not recognize it, the main thing for me is the knowledge I will get and recognition as a professional on the European level.”
Ukraine still uses the old Soviet system of academic degrees, slightly upgraded. After four years of studying the student gains a bachelor’s degree. Another year at the university will typically make them a “specialist.” And after the next year they become “masters.” They can start post-graduate studies to become a “doctoral candidate,” which takes three years to do. There is a higher “doctoral degree” that takes another five years to complete, bringing the total number of student years to 15.
In Europe, it takes up to four years to get a Ph.D. But the main difference is not the time spent in gaining an academic degree, but the quality of the program and achievements in academia, educators said.
Yevhen Fedchenko, head of Kyiv-Mohyla’s school of journalism and creator of the new Ph.D. program, said a typical Ukrainian graduate student meets their tutors only once or twice a month. Their final thesis looks like a bunch of clever thoughts from different sources strung together, with little scientific value.
“Because of such an educational system, the Ukrainian scientific heritage is not seen and our academics are almost never quoted in any mass media literature, they themselves have no academic research done,” Fedchenko said.
Despite joining the unified European system for academic degrees in 2005, spelled out in the Bologna agreement, the Ministry of Education still does not officially recognize any Ph.D. degrees in Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine’s non-standard degree system causes confusion abroad.
To gain international and domestic recognition, Grynko decided to cover her bets. She entered both the new Ph.D. program and a traditional Ukrainian graduate school.
“I understand it will be hard to do both degrees, but it looks ridiculous if I get international recognition without getting a Ukrainian degree. I still hope that European demands to my thesis will be comparable to the Ukrainian demands, so I will combine the topics of both theses,” Grynko said.
Kyiv-Mohyla Academy educators hope the new Ph.D. program will help start a trend. They say changes – and honesty — in Ukraine’s post-graduate education programs are much needed.
Many post-graduate students simply buy their diplomas for cash rather than do the work. They pay for the required number of published works rather than produce worthy articles, professors complain.
“The cost of a graduate school final paper costs some $5,000 and, of course, some more money is needed to buy publications in Ukrainian magazines,” said a professor at a Kyiv institute, who did not want his name published.
Because post-graduate studies are so boring, corrupt and long, many talented students prefer to emigrate and start an academic career abroad.
There were 300,000 academics in Ukraine in 1991, but the number has dropped to just 140,000 now, according to Maksym Striha, deputy minister of education and science.
“Today, an average Ukrainian post-graduate is 52, a doctor is 60 and academic is over 70 years old. Many high-qualified scientists, mainly doctors, emigrated abroad,” Striha said.
Ukraine’s first modern Ph.D. program is free of charge for the four pioneering students. It even pays a monthly stipend of Hr 1,500.
The program is subsidized by Ukraine’s richest oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, worth some $31 billion by some estimates.
His Foundation for the Development of Ukraine gave a grant of Hr 560,000 to finance the first academic year of the new Ph.D. program. Svetlana Panushkina, a foundation supervisor, said Ukraine can expect more donations to be forthcoming.
“Investing in education is the most valuable thing that can help Ukraine develop,” she said.
The students are expected to work hard to get a degree. “It is a full-time job for scholars,” Fedchenko said. “This means that journalists who used to work and earn money have to leave their job and start studying again, spending all their time at the university, not at work.”
To avoid “fake diplomas,” Fedchenko said, “students’ research papers need to be published not in Ukrainian, but in famous foreign scientific magazines in English. And, most importantly, they will have two tutors during their work on a final thesis: a Ukrainian and a foreign one – either from Ohio University or from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Spain,” Fedchenko said.
Despite the European partners and high international standards the Ph.D. program is using, the Education Ministry does not know what status its students are going to have in Ukraine, and what sort of graduation paper they will receive.
“The Ministry decided at least not to intrude in this process today. Perhaps, it is the best thing we can expect for now,” said Striha.
