In the scientific sphere and higher educational institutions, there is a qualification system that allows you to establish the scientific hierarchy of scientific and pedagogical personnel - academic degrees and titles. In our country, the awarding of academic degrees and titles of associate professor and professor is somewhat different from other countries. As a rule, the academic title “Associate Professor” is assigned to candidates of science, and “professor” to doctors of sciences, although there are exceptions. In other countries, degrees differ quite significantly in terms of qualification requirements, title, award and approval procedures.
In England, the United States of America and parts of Europe, there are uniform requirements, and in each scientific field there are three degrees: bachelor, master, doctor of philosophy.
At present, there is a mixed system in the Russian Federation - in a number of educational institutions, a new system is already applied, where there is a bachelor's degree (four years of study), a master's program (6 years of study), and some universities have retained the old system, which graduates from five-, five with half or six year training. And instead of a single higher degree of a doctor of science (philosophy and others), the system inherited from the Soviet Union is used, where there are two academic degrees - Candidate and Doctor of Science, which are awarded by the respective dissertation councils and submitted for approval by the Higher Attestation Commission.
Thesis councils are created at universities, research institutes or any other scientific organizations. The defense of a prepared candidate or doctoral dissertation is usually open at a meeting of the dissertation council. Now, in order to defend a dissertation for the doctoral degree, one must have a PhD degree. Otherwise, persons who do not have this degree, under the new legislation, do not have the right to defend a dissertation for a higher degree.
At the same time, the proximity of the branches of science and / or specialties obtained successively earlier - higher education, and scientific degrees is practically not regulated in any way, except for certain cases stipulated by law. So, for example, in practice it is considered quite acceptable to obtain a higher degree in a specialty and / or industry that is not close to the existing one: for example, a candidate of sociological sciences by psychologists, mathematicians, economists, doctors of psychological sciences as candidates, for example, philosophical, physico-mathematical or sociological sciences and so on.
Degrees were introduced in the Soviet Union in 1934, which was in fact a restoration of previously existing degrees in Russia. The largest number of candidates and doctors of sciences is in the medical, physical, mathematical and technical sciences.
In order to obtain degrees, you must first write and defend a dissertation, and this is a rather voluminous scientific work, which can contain from 150 to 500 pages of scientific text. Is it possible not to write a dissertation on many sheets, but on completely legitimate grounds successfully defend oneself? It is possible, although it will not be quite simple. A dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Sciences can be made in the form of a scientific report, in which a summary of the research results should be presented. Such a report should be supported by a large number of previously published scientific papers that are of serious importance to science. In addition, the applicant should be well known to the scientific community for his research and discoveries in his field of activity.
Thus, we examined what constitutes a scientific degree, academic rank.