Legal Regulation of Qualification Requirements for the Teaching Staff of Higher Educational Institutions

Smirnova Mariya Sergeevna ORCID: 0009-0005-2866-126X PhD in Philology Associate Professor of the Department of Social and Humanitarian Disciplines, Vladimir branch of RANEPA 59a Gorky str., Vladimir, Vladimir region, 600017, Russia ms01052014@yandex.ru Other publications by this author     Listratov Ivan Vadimovich ORCID: 0000-0002-0791-7271 Student of Law Faculty, Vladimir branch of RANEPA 600017, Russia, Vladimir region, Vladimirskaya, Gorky str., 59a listratoff25@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Yun Diana Andreevna ORCID: 0009-0007-2742-8110 Student of Law Faculty, Vladimir branch of RANEPA 600017, Russia, Vladimir region, Vladimirskaya, Gorky str., 59a Di7887a@yandex.ru

         The teaching staff of higher educational institutions belongs to the category of scientific and pedagogical workers. Therefore, on the one hand, they are subject to all the same requirements that are typical for any teaching staff. And these requirements are determined by the Labor Code ^[1] and the Federal Law "On Education in the Russian Federation" ^[2]. On the other hand, there are a number of specific requirements that are legally necessary to occupy a certain position in the hierarchy of the teaching staff. Various aspects of this issue are presented in the works of many Russian researchers. The bulk of the qualification requirements are imposed on employees when they are elected by competition, the specifics of the organization of this procedure are presented in the articles of M.S. Vlasenko [7. – p. 99 - 102], T.R. Gritskevich [8. – p. 187 - 194], T.R. Meshcheryakova [11. – p. 77 - 81], O.A. Paryagina [13. – p. 139 - 143], E.V. Stepanycheva [14. – p. 382 - 387], A.E. Fedorova, E.B. Vlasova [15. – p. 166 - 178] and in the monograph N.V. Chernykh [17. – p. 1 - 88]. A comparative analysis of the requirements that are imposed on scientific and pedagogical workers when elected by competition in various universities of the Russian Federation is presented in the study by A.N. Bakulina, A.V. Ostryanskaya, E.S. Shakhova [6. - pp. 209-217]. Additional requirements for scientific and pedagogical workers are usually imposed on them as part of the conclusion of an effective contract, which has not yet found application in all educational institutions, but is already a fairly common practice. The peculiarity of the qualification requirements for scientific and pedagogical workers within the framework of concluding an effective contract is presented in the works of S.S. Chernova [16. - pp. 115-121], N.V. Chernykh [18. – pp. 50-58], S.V. Yankevich [19. - pp. 112 – 122]. The specifics of the social and labor relations of higher school teachers is the need for constant confirmation of their level of qualification and certain instability as a result of periodic election by competition. From the point of view of understanding these features of the work of scientific and pedagogical workers, the article by N.N. Orlova is of great interest [12. - p. 250 – 261].

The specifics of pedagogical work are legally fixed. The specifics of the work of a pedagogical worker and the requirements imposed on him are reflected in Chapter 52 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation ^[1] and in Article 47 N 273-FZ "On Education in the Russian Federation" ^[2]. These normative legal acts define the general requirements for scientific and pedagogical workers. They come down to the presence of a certain level of education and the need to be elected to a position by competition. After being elected by competition, an urgent (for up to five years) contract is concluded with representatives of the teaching staff or an indefinite employment contract. Current practice shows that almost all teaching staff in higher education are currently on fixed-term employment contracts. The term of such contracts for positions from assistant to professor varies from one year to five years. Election to these positions is carried out through the competition procedure. Competitive selection does not apply to the positions of the head of the department and dean, the election to which is carried out through the election system. The procedure for holding elections is determined by the charters of educational organizations. The current nomenclature of positions of the teaching staff is determined by Government Decree No. 225 of February 21, 2022, before that a similar Decree of 2013 was in effect ^[4].

Within the organization, the availability of these positions is determined by the staffing table. If the structure of an educational institution assumes faculties as structural units, then according to the staffing table, the positions of dean or head of the faculty will be present, and the position of head or director of the institute will be absent. For civilian universities, it is more common to have such positions as: dean of the faculty, director of the institute, head of the department. In paramilitary educational institutions, the positions of the head of the department and the head of the faculty are more common. If the positions of middle managers in higher educational institutions may vary from organization to organization, then almost all educational institutions have all the positions of ordinary employees of the teaching staff fixed by law: assistant, teacher, senior lecturer, associate professor, professor.

         In more detail, the qualification requirements for the positions of scientific and pedagogical workers are prescribed when announcing a competition for these positions. If a higher educational institution does not establish its specific requirements, then the general requirements are determined according to the Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation No. 1N dated January 11, 2011 ^[3]. These qualification requirements for the teaching staff vary significantly from position to position. Despite the fact that scientific and pedagogical activity has a fairly pronounced creative component, there is a clearly defined hierarchy within the positions of scientific and pedagogical workers. These qualification requirements are confirmed by the following documents: a work record, a document on education, documents on the award of an academic degree and an academic title [17. – p. 44]. As additional requirements for applicants, as a rule, indicators for publication activity are set. The comparative analysis conducted by A.N. Bakulina, A.V. Ostrovskaya, E.S. Shakhova [6. – pp. 210-213] shows that the most essential requirements for publications are imposed on the position of professor. Which seems quite logical, but the run-up of these requirements is quite significant: from the availability of publications over the past five years without specifying their level to a clear definition of the number of articles in leading domestic and foreign publications, monographs, textbooks and textbooks on the profile of the department's activities.

         The starting position within the teaching staff in higher educational institutions is the position of an assistant. The assistant carries out the educational process with students, but he has a number of restrictions on the performance of professional functions. By order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development ^[3], these restrictions are reduced to the impossibility for the assistant to lecture. Usually in a higher educational institution they conduct practical, laboratory and seminar classes, sometimes they direct the practice of students. In addition to lecturing from the types of teaching load, assistants do not have guidance for final qualifying works and master's theses, and it is quite rare to find guidance for coursework. The qualification requirements that apply to the position of assistant presuppose the presence of higher education and work experience in an educational institution for at least one year. The absence of the necessary work experience can be compensated by the presence of postgraduate education or an academic degree. It is this limitation on the availability of work experience that is essential for the start of pedagogical activity by graduates of higher educational institutions. When enrolling in graduate school, young people do not now have the opportunity to immediately start teaching at a university. Admission to the positions of the teaching staff appears either after graduation, or after the defense of the thesis (if the defense occurred before the deadline for graduation), or after they have worked for a year in other positions at a higher educational institution. The main positions for which a graduate of a university can be employed for a year belong to the teaching and support staff, the desire to work for which does not arise for all graduates. Thus, a certain time gap is formed between the graduation of the university and the start of scientific and pedagogical activity. This fact significantly complicates the situation with the reproduction of human resources in the higher education system. G.Z. Efimova [9. – p. 55-74; 10. – p. 56-69] draws attention to the fact that the bulk of young people capable of research activity refuses to work at a university or immediately after graduation from a higher educational institution, or by the end of the postgraduate course. This is due to the presence of institutional and organizational barriers.

         Similar functions in the higher education system are performed by employees who are in teaching positions, respectively, similar qualification requirements are imposed on them. The employee receives broader functional capabilities as a senior teacher. The senior teacher already has the right to give lectures and can even monitor the conduct of classes by assistants and teachers. As a result, more stringent qualification requirements are imposed on the senior teacher. In addition to higher education, he must have at least three years of experience in scientific and pedagogical activity. If the applicant for the position of senior lecturer has an academic degree, then the mandatory length of service is reduced to one year.

         The most common position in higher education institutions is the position of associate professor. The job responsibilities of an associate professor are quite broad: conducting all types of classes, planning, organizing and controlling work in supervised disciplines, developing and implementing training programs, training scientific and pedagogical personnel (graduate students). Despite the fact that there is a tradition in higher education, according to which the scientific supervisors of graduate students in most cases are doctors of sciences, associate professors also have the right to perform this work. A fairly wide range of job responsibilities leads to high qualification requirements. At the moment, in addition to higher education, there must necessarily be an academic degree of a candidate or doctor of sciences and at least three years of experience in scientific and pedagogical work. Having the title of associate professor allows you to hold the position of associate professor without scientific and pedagogical experience. The current system of obtaining titles makes these things interconnected. It is also not possible to get a title without scientific and pedagogical experience. In most cases, if a person has the title of associate professor, then he has both the necessary scientific and pedagogical experience and an academic degree.

         An even wider range of responsibilities is possible as a professor, who, in addition to all the listed types of work, organizes the research activities of the department in one of the profile areas. There are quite high qualification requirements for applicants for the position of professor. In addition to higher professional education, a professor must have a doctorate degree and at least five years of experience in scientific and pedagogical activity. The lack of experience can be compensated by the presence of the title of professor. Obtaining the title of professor at the moment is such a complicated procedure that those who receive this title always have the necessary work experience in a higher educational institution.

         Senior positions of the teaching staff are represented by the positions of heads of departments and deans (directors of institutes). Election to these positions is carried out through the election system. In addition to the job responsibilities characteristic of an associate professor and a professor, the duties of the head of the department include determining strategic directions for the development of the department, establishing external contacts with educational organizations and employers, if the department is a graduate. A fairly wide list of job responsibilities implies that the head of the department coordinates the educational, methodological and scientific activities of the structural unit, controls the quality of these types of work and distributes the educational load. This wide list of job responsibilities leads to fairly high qualification requirements. Only the position of the head of the department is currently subject to the simultaneous requirement of an academic degree and an academic title. This requirement was introduced in 2011 ^[3]. After its introduction, the selection of candidates for the appointment of heads of departments has become much more complicated for universities. In addition, the applicant for the position of head of the department must have at least five years of experience in scientific and pedagogical activity in the profile of the department, this is also determined by law. This requirement for practitioners can be replaced by the presence of five years of experience in organizations corresponding to the profile of the department. Thus, according to the qualification requirements, an employee of the same department who is currently in a position not lower than an associate professor can be elected to the position of head of the department. In addition, this applicant must have an academic title, an academic degree and work experience at the department for at least five years. Another option may be the election of a teacher with similar professional characteristics from an adjacent department, or an employee of another university working in a similar structural unit. The third option may be the election of an employee from an organization that corresponds to the profile of the department's activities, if the candidate has the necessary qualification requirements.

         Since the presence of a title is a mandatory component for the head of the department, the qualification requirements are regulated by an additional regulatory legal act. Academic titles are awarded to applicants by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation based on the analysis of the received attestation cases. Legally, the qualification requirements for applicants and the content of attestation cases are determined by the relevant Government Decree ^[5]. At the moment, the Regulation adopted in 2013 is in effect, it has significantly changed the procedure for obtaining titles.

According to the new rules, the title is assigned not by department, but by scientific specialties. This has significantly complicated the obtaining of titles for certain categories of teaching staff working in non-graduating departments, creative and sports areas of training. For a number of employees, it is even impossible to determine to which passport of a scientific specialty their activities can be attributed. The title of a scientific specialty at the moment can be assigned to an applicant who carries out pedagogical and scientific activities in the organization. This legal restriction makes it impossible for employees of research institutes to obtain a title, since they do not carry out pedagogical activities. At the legislative level, the process of obtaining the title of professor has become significantly more complicated. At the moment, in addition to all existing requirements, it is mandatory to have three defended candidates of sciences, for whom the applicant for the title of professor was a supervisor or consultant. Among the general requirements that apply to both the title of associate professor and the title of professor are the necessary criteria for experience, scientific and educational publications corresponding to the scientific specialty of the attestation business.

         The highest position among the positions of the teaching staff is the position of dean or director of the institute. Depending on the staffing table in a higher educational institution, there may be either the position of dean or director of the institute. This position, in addition to all the traditional professional tasks for an associate professor and professor, involves the development of a strategy for the development of the faculty, coordination of the activities of heads of departments, management of educational, educational and scientific activities at the faculty. The qualification requirements for deans and directors of institutes are less stringent than for heads of departments. Among the mandatory requirements are the presence of higher education, the experience of scientific or scientific-pedagogical work for at least five years, the presence of an academic degree or academic title. An academic title is not mandatory for holding this position, but its presence may allow you to take this position without an academic degree. This is, of course, a rare situation in practice, especially if we take into account that the current legislation allows only a representative of the teaching staff with an academic degree of candidate or doctor of sciences to be presented to the academic title.

         Since the teaching staff is entrusted with the function of implementing state educational standards, the requirements that are contained to the personnel in these documents automatically apply to scientific and pedagogical staff of universities. Federal state educational standards are approved by the order of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation for each area of training separately. Staffing requirements may vary depending on the level of education and the direction of training. After a certain period of time, all these standards are re-approved, and the requirements for personnel change in them. In the previous version of the educational standards, the main requirement was related to the compliance of the discipline taught with the basic education of the teacher. In the current educational standards, the emphasis is shifted to the need to conduct scientific, educational, methodological or practical work on the profile of the discipline being taught. These requirements, on the one hand, are not personalized, on the other hand, in order to fulfill the federal educational standard, it is necessary that the personnel meet these requirements. For all other parameters, the current standards make reference to compliance with the basic requirements for positions defined by the relevant regulatory legal act ^[3].

         Legally, all educational institutions have the right to prescribe these requirements in a fixed-term employment contract, which is signed with all representatives of the teaching staff. The legal regulation of labor contracts with scientific and pedagogical workers is carried out in accordance with Articles 59 and 332 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation ^[1]. In this case, these job responsibilities will not be formulated in the form of general provisions of the Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development ^[3], but specified with an indication of the scope and deadline. Thus, the legislation allows you to prescribe, for example, the annual number of scientific articles that a teacher must prepare and publish, indicating the status of publications. This option is not yet practiced in all higher educational institutions, but it has already become widespread. Usually, such detail is associated with the implementation of an effective contract, which involves the definition of performance criteria. As a rule, the fulfillment of these criteria leads to the payment of the incentive part of the salary and differentiation of remuneration within the teaching staff.

         Thus. qualification requirements for the teaching staff are determined by a number of regulatory legal acts. The complexity of the professional functions performed and its specifics largely determine such an extensive legal framework that a higher school teacher must meet the qualification requirements. The analysis of this legal framework shows not only its vastness, multi-step nature, but also a certain instability. Periodically, certain qualification requirements are canceled, but they are replaced by others, which often become even more difficult to meet.

         Significant difficulties currently exist in terms of qualification requirements for the start of professional activity in higher education, a significant obstacle is the mandatory work experience in an educational organization for at least one year to occupy the position of assistant. This makes it impossible for a graduate of a higher educational institution to find employment as a teaching staff immediately after graduation. All this negatively affects the reproduction of human resources in higher education.

         A number of positions of scientific and pedagogical workers presuppose not only the presence of an academic degree, but also an academic title (first of all, this applies to heads of departments). Accordingly, the teaching staff is forced to meet the requirements for applicants for the title of associate professor or professor, which are currently awarded not by department, but by scientific specialty.  The legislatively fixed transition to awarding scientific specialties not by departments, but by scientific specialties had an ambiguous consequence for different professional groups of teachers.

         The main qualification requirements for the positions of the teaching staff are set out in the relevant regulatory legal act, but they are formulated there in fairly general terms. In a fixed-term employment contract with teachers, universities often specify these requirements.

         The qualification requirements for the teaching staff may vary not only depending on the position, but also on the higher educational institution. The implementation of many scientific indicators can be carried out by the university through the distribution of this work among teachers, these necessary indicators in most cases are reflected in employment contracts. Therefore, in one university as an associate professor, there may be a general requirement for the need to carry out scientific and educational-methodical activities in the profile of professional activity. In another university, these requirements for a similar position will be specified and the name of the works, their number and deadlines will be specified in the employment contract.