Russian Federation

Nuclear industry, research and academic programmes have been developing in the Russian Federation since the 1950s with the former USSR being the cradle of all nuclear programmes, which was later inherited by the Russian Federation. Moreover, the issue of nuclear personnel development has always been recognized as one of the imperatives for supporting research, engineering and production activities in the nuclear field. Thus, almost simultaneously with creating Soviet NFC sites, a number of University programmes aimed at preparing highly qualified and competent staff to meet the requirements of the field were established. The education and training system created then has been successfully operating in the country, having become mature and versatile. Hundreds of competent nuclear professionals are produced each year by leading national schools. It should be noted that the Russian traditional education scheme has always been a continuous process starting with secondary school (which includes high school, i.e. 8-11 forms). High school could be substituted by professional schools (technicums). After high school or a professional school, a student could go on to further education in a university. University graduates acquire diplomas ranking as high as Western MSc diplomas. Having defended diploma projects in technical specialties, the graduates are granted a qualification of engineer-physicist, engineer-designer, engineer-mathematician, etc., and can choose between two options: either continuing with their education to the PhD level, or getting a job at one of the nuclear industrial sites, research institutions, or other nuclear associated organizations. Once employed, they regularly go through updating and upgrading courses (according to the requirement of national regulatory bodies) and/or if necessary through retraining programmes. Recently, a two-step university education (4-year Bachelor of Science Degree Programme - step 1, and a 2-year Master of Science Degree Programme - step 2, has been introduced in RF. A characteristic feature of the new system is that currently it includes the elements of the traditional and the new one, e.g. a specialist having either BSc or engineer's diploma is eligible for being enrolled into MSc programme. But BSc graduates cannot be enrolled to the post graduate courses while engineers and MSc graduates can; with an MSc graduate having some privileges in competing when entering full-time post-graduate courses. Hence, the two educational schemes simultaneously existing are a unique experience whose lessons are to be learnt