Modern student and science: a look at the problem

Abrosimova Evgeniya Evgen'evna ORCID: 0000-0002-2332-7204 PhD in Sociology Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Legal Psychology, Vladivostok State University 690014, Russia, Primorsky Krai, Vladivostok, Gogol str., 41, office 1633 Evgeniya.Abrosimova5@vvsu.ru

Sergutin Sergei Sergeevich ORCID: 0009-0000-2676-2052 Student, Department of Philosophy and Legal Psychology, Vladivostok State University 690014, Russia, Primorsky Krai, Vladivostok, Gogol str., 41, room 1633 sergutins.s@mail.ru

Introduction

Modern Russian society is in a difficult stage of forming a new scientific research space. The specifics of this process are due to the newly formed socio-political realities, which on the one hand dictate the urgent need for the development of domestic science, and on the other hand create certain limitations and difficulties. One of the main processes determining the modern development of the scientific potential of our country is the Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which 2021-2031 in the Russian Federation were declared the Decade of Science and Technology ^[20]. This decision was made after the year 2021, as the year of science and technology, because it became obvious that such a period was not enough for the development of the scientific industry, which is a very complex and important mechanism for the country's strategic potential formation. The main objectives of this decade are to attract talented young people to the field of research and development, to promote the involvement of researchers and developers in solving the most important tasks of the development of society and the country and to increase the availability of information about the achievements and prospects of Russian science for citizens of the Russian Federation. Despite the various tasks that are planned to be implemented in the designated decade, the most significant is precisely the issue of attracting and training scientific personnel.

It is this aspect of the development of modern Russian science that has been relevant for quite a long time. Firstly, according to statistics from Rosstat (Fig.1), the number of researchers with an academic degree has been continuously decreasing since 2015 to 2022 ^[13]. This trend can be explained by the fact that the change of government, at the junction of the 20th and 21st centuries, led to impoverishment and loss of prestige in the scientific field. In the 1990s, science became not the most important object for support and financing in the context of the economic and social crisis that caused the impoverishment of the country and the population of Russia. The return to the list of leading world powers after the 2000s puts our country in a situation in which science has become a haven for a few fans of their business who are ready to work in the most unfavorable conditions for the benefit of Russian science. Since the mid-noughties, the restoration of scientific personnel in Russia has become one of the priority state tasks. Despite the fact that the number of scientists is decreasing, the average age of Russian scientists is growing: doctors of sciences – 64 years, candidates of sciences – 51, scientists without a degree – 43 ^[15].

Fig.1 – The number of researchers with an academic degree in the Russian Federation

This personnel and demographic situation in the research field makes the issue of reproduction of scientific personnel one of the most priority issues of the Decade of Science and Technology. After all, it is the human resources potential that makes it possible to implement all planned activities and initiatives.

The development of human resources is not possible if there is a shortage of financing for the industry. In part, this aspect has shaped the current situation of the absence of young people in the research sector. However, it should be noted that the financing of the research industry has been steadily increasing since 2017 (Fig. 2) ^[14].

Fig.2 – Expenditures on civil science from the federal budget

The importance of including young scientists in the work is reflected in various grant and competitive events that stimulate research interest in the implementation of projects with a certain amount of funding. Thus, the Russian Science Foundation provides financial and organizational support for fundamental scientific research and exploratory scientific research through financing of competitively selected scientific, scientific and technical programs and projects, including by allocating projects of young scientists ^[10]. At the end of 2023, the competitions "Conducting research by scientific groups under the leadership of young scientists" of the Presidential Research Projects Program and "Conducting initiative research by young scientists" of the Presidential Research Projects Program ^[17] were announced.

The RNF also acts as the operator of the award of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of science and innovation for young scientists, young scientists and teams of young scientists (up to 35 years old) are awarded annually for his outstanding achievements in the field of science and technology. The winners of the competitive selection are paid a one-time payment.

An incentive for one academic year in the form of a scholarship is provided by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation for students and postgraduates of universities for persons involved in research activities and separately for students in training areas corresponding to priority areas of modernization and technological development of the Russian economy ^[16].

It is obvious that the implementation of the plan for the reproduction of scientific personnel imposes special requirements on the activities of higher educational institutions, which are key participants in this process. It is the stage of higher education that implies further research activities at a professional level. But here modern universities face several obstacles even at the stage of attracting applicants. First Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation Alexander Bugaev reported that now 60% of 9th grade graduates choose vocational education institutions, and in 2023, 1 million 200 thousand people enrolled in colleges in the country ^[1]. The strategy for the development of secondary vocational education also implies a further increase in the number of applicants, which is due to the tasks of economic development of our country. It is also an obstacle that the proportion of young people of working age is decreasing, therefore, the process of attracting young scientists may become more complicated due to demographic trends. In a study published in February 2020, A. S. Voronov concludes that about 32% of schoolchildren become students, and about 3.5% of former students of higher educational institutions or about 1.1% of former schoolchildren become young scientists ^[5].

The above facts have actualized the increased attention to the development of youth science in universities.

Review of scientific literature

Of course, the research activity of students is not a new phenomenon and can even be said to be integral in the process of obtaining professional education at a university. Many Russian authors have considered this issue in their works for a long time before the adoption of legislative acts aimed at the development of youth science. The historical aspect of the development of students' research activities in universities is considered by Vorobyova M. N. from the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 21st century ^[4]. One of the vectors of studying students' research work is the study of research and development as one of the components of the educational process at the university. N.P. Narbut, I.A. Aleshkovskikh, A. T. Gasparishvili, O. V. Krukhmaleva, N. E.Savina consider ways to involve students in research activities and find out students' satisfaction with the learning process, quality education and its opportunities ^[2]. In the work of Yu. Yu. Kryuchkov, A. Y. Karpova, D. A. Karpov and A. A. Abromovskikh, it is said that student youth, as the most important resource of Russia's competitiveness in the foreign policy arena, should be given special importance, because it will join the ranks of the scientific intelligentsia, on which the development of culture, economics, politics and other social spheres depends in the future and thanks to which an attractive image of the country is created in the international arena ^[12]. Vakulenko O. V. and Kutliyarov D. N., Kutliyarov A. N. write about the importance of research and development, in particular, for preparing students so that when they graduate from universities they are qualified, professional and able to compete in the labor market for the best offer by specialists, and in general for the basis of the development of Russian science ^{[3] [11]}.

The next area that Russian scientists pay attention to is such a format for the development of youth and student science as the activities of various scientific associations and circles.

In the work "On the history of student scientific societies in the field of public health: scientific circles at the Department of Social Hygiene", the authors describe the history of the formation and main tasks of student scientific circles established at the departments of social hygiene and public health and public health of the I.M. Sechenov Moscow State Medical University ^[8]. This paper analyzes the positive impact of the activities of scientific circles on the formation of various competencies and skills that are necessary for a student both in research and educational activities.

Such authors as A. A. Baranov, V. N. Malashenko, O. V. Klimacheva, O. I. Khmeltsov, E. Yu., Tyumentseva and V. L. Shtabnova in their works describe such a format of research work of students as the student scientific society (SSS) ^{[18, 19]}. This is a fairly effective group tool for activating students' research activities, allowing them to introduce a scientific component into the educational process. In the work of E. V. Makhonin, it is said that it is student scientific societies that should indicate the way to science to young and promising personnel ^[13]. The experience of the Chuvash State University named after I.N. Ulyanov, presented in the work of Zakharov A. N. and Semenov N. V., shows that the activities of the SSS are extremely important both for the involvement of university students in research activities and the development of the human scientific potential of Russia ^[6].

The study of group and circle scientific activities of students seems to be the most relevant in recent times. In addition to the above-mentioned legislative initiatives that have determined the importance of the development of student science, it should also be noted the implementation of grants for the development of student scientific societies, under which the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia distributes 100 million rubles among universities where a student scientific society has been formed. The best student associations will be able to spend this grant on organizing and holding events of the student scientific society, academic mobility, professional development and much more. The competition is designed to support teams involved in involving students in science and increase their prestige ^[9]. The essence of student scientific societies is to unite the most interested students in science, who are not only ready to engage in research activities, but also to popularize scientific knowledge among all students of the university, through the creation of events and social networks. Thus, the NSO directly solves the tasks set by the President of Russia within the framework of the Decade of Science and Technology.

A VTSIOM study dated July 13, 2023 among Russians aged 18 to 55 showed that the situation with the popularization of science requires more attention ^[7]. The vast majority of respondents could not name the names of modern Russian scientists — 92%. It is important to note that respondents often recalled people from past eras, not contemporaries. This indicates both a low level of knowledge about modern scientists and engineers, and a weak personification of science and engineering, as well as the lack of an example, a guideline for future generations.

The involvement of young people in science has become not only a prospect for the development of domestic science, but also a vital condition for the maintenance and development of our state on the world stage. And this is exactly what actualized the research interest in this process. Analyzing the experience of the past and the modern realities of our state, it is most advisable to begin the research process by understanding how students perceive science as part of modern Russian society

Within the framework of the designated goal, the following tasks were formulated: to study the attitude of students to the profession of "scientist", to determine how students evaluate the achievements of Russian science and whether they are ready to link their professional activities with this field.

Research methodology

We used the questionnaire method as a method of collecting empirical data. The survey was conducted using Internet services, which made it possible to cover a fairly extensive geography of respondents. The questionnaire contained 10 questions, the answers to which made it possible to achieve the set goal.

The geography of the respondents was distributed as follows: Komsomolsk-on-Amur (22.3%), Vladivostok (20.8%), St. Petersburg (13.2%), Dubna (10.2%), Sarov (7%), Blagoveshchensk (5.3%), Yakutsk (4.5%), Yekaterinburg (4.2%), Ulan-Ude (4.2%), Moscow (1.7%), Novosibirsk (1.7%), Barnaul (1.5) and cities: Artyom, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, Voronezh, Chita, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Svobodny, Achinsk, Teykovo, Nelidovo, Sochi, Maikop, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Petrozavodsk (3.4%).

The gender and age characteristics of the respondents are distributed as follows: 46.1% of men and 53.9% of women; 84.3% of them are undergraduate students, 9.1% are graduate students, 4.9% are specialists and 1.7% are graduate students.

The results of the study and their discussion

The respondents were asked if they were interested in new achievements in science and technology. The majority (83%) of students are usually interested in achievements in science and technology, while only 17% are not interested. This result can be interpreted as an indication of interest in this industry.

Students were asked to assess what state (growth, stagnation or decline) modern Russian science is in. 47.3% believe that modern Russian science is in a state of stagnation: some discoveries are being made, but they do not affect the development of society. 31.9% are confident in development: serious discoveries are being made that have an impact on the development of society. Only 9.3% think that Russian science is in a state of decline: no serious discoveries are being made that can affect the development of society. And 11.5% of students find it difficult to answer this question. Half of the respondents surveyed are rather restrained in their assessment of the state of the scientific industry of our state, which indicates, first of all, the lack of mass publicity of ongoing discoveries and achievements.

The next question was about how, in the opinion of students in Russia, the situation in the field of science has changed over the past year. 42% believe that it has improved, 26.7% think that it has not changed. Only 12.5% noticed a deterioration in the state of Russian science, while 18.9% of respondents found it difficult to answer

The answers to the question about the potential choice of the research field as a future profession were distributed quite interestingly: 47% of the surveyed students. 42.8% do not want to associate their career with science. It was difficult to answer – 10.2%. The responses were distributed in almost equal proportions. Half of the respondents still plan to link their activities with science. It should be noted that this fact does not indicate that students will leave the profession in which they study at the university, but rather qualitatively improve the skills of graduates.

Further, respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statements presented in Table 1. 67.1% of students consider Russian scientists to be among the best in the world. And 82.8% of respondents disagree with the statement that Russia will never catch up with the developed countries of the world in the field of science and technology. This opinion of the students shows that among them there is a high level of confidence in the future of our state and in the people who will create this future (Table 1).

Table 1 – Students' agreement and disagreement with the proposed statements

Technological leadership, as a condition for the independence of the state, is important for the majority of students (89.8%). Only 3.8% of respondents consider this condition of the country's independence unimportant, while 6.4% found it difficult to answer. These results confirm that communicating higher education institutions have a clear understanding of the importance of developing Russia's scientific and technical potential to maintain state sovereignty.

The realities of the information society have formed a new kind of idols of youth on the one hand. The development of a market economy has translated the financial importance of a potential profession. In these transformations, the profession of a scientist has lost its importance and attractiveness for young people. It is very important to understand how young people assess the prestige of the academic profession at the present time. The majority (55.8%) of respondents consider the prestigious profession of a scientist. 33.5% do not think that the profession of a scientist is prestigious in Russia. 10.8% of respondents found it difficult to answer (Fig. 3). The data, saying that it is necessary for the state to continue to increase the prestige of the profession of a scientist so that young people choose this profession.

Fig.3 – Prestige of the scientist's profession in Russia

According to the respondents, the following were identified as the main reasons for the prestige of the scientist's profession: scientists benefit the state and society with their work (75.3%), an important and significant profession (59%), an equal number of answers (45.4%) scored options – a scientist means an intelligent person and an interesting field of activity.

Also, students who do not consider the profession of a scientist prestigious in our country, clarified the reasons why they think so. The three main reasons for this response for respondents were low wages (77.4%), lack of funding for science in the country (60.5%) and the fact that the work of a scientist is not appreciated in society (53.1%).

The authors have already mentioned how important the activities of educational institutions are in the issue of reproduction of scientific personnel in the country. It is the student's bench that is the very guide to the world of the scientific profession. Scientific research and popular science events are aimed at generating interest and involvement in scientific activities. It is important to understand how actively students participate in such activities during their studies. The majority of the respondents participated in scientific events (62.9%), while 37.1% did not participate.

Conclusions

Thus, it is possible to draw certain conclusions about how popular science is among the younger generation in modern Russia. It is obvious that the state is actively implementing various support measures for young researchers, intensifying scientific and educational activities at universities, and in the country as a whole. However, the period of lack of demand for the scientific sphere as a professional one, changes in values among young people have left a significant imprint on the perception of the scientist's profession as promising. Despite the measures taken, there is still a lot of work in this area.

In the current situation, it is important to strengthen new stereotypes in society about the importance and prestige of the profession of a scientist, whose work expresses admiration and pride. Discoveries in science should be personalized so that the layman correlates scientific discoveries with the personality of a particular scientist

As one of the most significant vectors of development, it is necessary to consider the support and development of student science. This creates professional interest and will allow you to identify the most talented and enthusiastic students. The development of popular science events and the active involvement of students in them will strengthen the participation of students in the NID.

In general, the results of the study demonstrate that the student youth has a favorable attitude towards modern Russian science. Therefore, it can be assumed that the ongoing support measures and initiatives of the Decade of Science and Technology in Russia have a positive effect and in the future their implementation will lead to a qualitative modernization of the country's research space and a positive view of science and scientists by the majority of the population.