Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 7 July (BelTA) – The Researcher Training Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus will become the nucleus of the academic university, which is supposed to be created in the near future. The opinion was voiced by Zhores Alferov, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Rector of the Saint Petersburg Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences, before the ceremony to present diplomas to graduates of the 2014 master’s degree program of the Researcher Training Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus began on 7 July, BelTA has learned.

According to Zhores Alferov, a good school to train young scientists has been created in Belarus. “The training of master’s degree personnel is very important and I hope that the Researcher Training Institute will become the nucleus of the future academic university in Belarus,” said the scientist.

The Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences noted that many oppose the idea of master’s degree and bachelor’s degree programs. “I agree with the opponents but I think that master’s degree plays a certain positive role for scientific personnel. First of all, after a bachelor’s degree program a young person may change the concrete direction within the framework of natural sciences. Second, a master’s degree program represents preparation for scientific research and scientific work,” stressed Zhores Alferov.

In turn, Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vladimir Gusakov remarked that the Academy of Sciences focuses on substitution with regard to personnel training. “We need to train as many students as to replace the scientists that retire due to age or other reasons,” he said.

Vladimir Gusakov stressed that Belarus should train outstanding scientists. “Master’s degree programs, post-graduate degree programs, and doctorate degree programs are designed to seek and train most talented scientists who can later on lead one of the priority branches of scientific research. We have already started creating national laboratories, scientific clusters, and these structures should be led by outstanding scientists,” stated the Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

In his words, the Researcher Training Institute will be improved and an academic university will be created on its basis. “It will train specialists for all the priority branches of science that the Academy of Sciences takes care of. Admission will be increased thanks to talented youth,” said Vladimir Gusakov. He is convinced that the most talented kids should be shortlisted as early as the secondary school. Later on they should be invited to universities where they will be able to work in scientific labs and institutes of the Academy of Sciences. After that they will move on to master’s degree programs and postgraduate studentship.

Speaking about this year’s graduates of the Researcher Training Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Vladimir Gusakov noted that 82% of them were straight-A students. “They already work under the supervision of major scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. We hope that they will come to our institutes,” said the scientist. The Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus stressed that it is very prestigious to be trained and work under the supervision of internationally recognized scientists and young scientists are quite willing to work in the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

As many as 62 graduates of master’s degree programs received their diplomas. The Researcher Training Institute has been training scientific personnel since 2007. Since then 468 master’s degree students have graduated