Natalia Maloshonok

Doctoral programs across the globe face a myriad of challenges, and one particularly intricate puzzle involves the diverse landscape of their student body. This diversity spans across dimensions like age, socioeconomic background, motivation, and career aspirations, injecting a rich tapestry of perspectives into the academic realm. Despite these shifts, doctoral programs often find themselves grappling with the task of adapting swiftly to this evolving environment. In their study, Natalia Maloshonok and Saule Bekova delve into the fascinating concept of 'departmental climate' to unravel how Russian university doctoral students perceive their academic surroundings.

While the global tide swayed toward an expansion in doctoral education, Russia found itself swimming against the current, experiencing a dip in enrollments from 2010 to 2019. However, the year 2020 witnessed an unexpected change of fortunes, with an 11% uptick in admissions year-on-year. This curious scenario unfolded in the throes of a global pandemic that had wrought havoc on higher education systems.

IOE’s Natalia Maloshonok, Svetlana Zhuchkova, Saule Bekova, and Evgeniy Terentev have set off on a quest to unveil the forces that have led to the surge in doctoral enrollments in Russia amid the pandemic, and the potential consequences looming on the horizon.

Why Russian undergraduates cheat and how they rationalise it for themselves and others

How gender stereotypes stop women from becoming programmers and engineers

The difference between online and in-person learning for technology students

Instructors hold differing opinions about doctoral school

One common problem across educational systems worldwide is persistently high rates of cheating, plagiarism and other manifestations of dishonest behavior in the academic realm. A recent study by IOE researchers Natalia Maloshonok and Evgeniia Shmeleva seeks to gain new and more conclusive insights into what essentially propels Russian students to engage in unethical academic practices during their university track.

The research article 'National barriers to the completion of doctoral programs at Russian universities' by Natalia Maloshonok and Evgeniy Terentev has been published in the International Journal of Higher Education Research. Congratulations to our colleagues.

CSHE Team took part in two leading conferences in the field of education and research methodology: CHER and ESA.

Computers in Human Behavior journal (quartile 1 in Psychology category, Scopus), owned by world-leading publishing company Elsevier, features a new article by researchers at the IoE Centre of Sociology of Higher Education.