Screw it in to the maximum: how to reformat theses in Russian universities
The discussion about how final qualifying papers (WRCs) will change with the development of artificial intelligence has been going on for a long time. The statement by Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, who rejected written theses in favor of oral exams, only fueled the discussion. In fact, everything is moving towards the fact that research papers will become more practice-oriented — even now, students often defend not a text study, but a startup or technology project. Read about how graduation papers are reformatted in Russia in the Izvestia article.
What alternatives do theses have?
Valery Falkov made a statement at a round table in late May that the development of artificial intelligence could lead to the transformation of thesis defense in favor of an oral answer rather than checking the text itself.
"Strangely enough, with the help of artificial intelligence, we will return to the basics of higher education. What do I mean by that? Oral assessment and communication, when everyone's abilities, as well as everything that distinguishes abilities with a minus sign, as they say, everyone's stupidity will be visible in full. Therefore, the face—to-face defense and the state examination board ask questions not on paper, but on the substance of the student's work, no system will simply prepare a student for the teacher's question, it is felt anyway," he said.
However, it is worth noting that even now the thesis is not the only form of research available in Russia. In addition to standard written work with face-to-face defense, project activities or defense of a real or upcoming startup are possible. And some universities accept portfolios of completed projects.
The Ministry of Education and Science explained to Izvestia that universities independently establish specific forms of state final certification in accordance with the requirements of educational standards, including the type of research work and its requirements.
— In order to develop a practice-oriented approach, the Ministry of Education and Science developed a new WRC format in 2022, implemented within the framework of the Startup as a Diploma program. The purpose of the program is to create conditions for the development of student startups and to present their results as evidence of the competencies they have developed within the framework of the GIA, the ministry noted.
On the basis of methodological recommendations developed by the Ministry of Education and Science, ecosystems are being formed in Russian universities to develop student support practices in the preparation and defense of research papers in the startup format.
"By the end of 2025, the program was implemented at 204 universities in 73 regions, 5,180 students defended 3,260 research papers in the Startup—as—a-Diploma format," the department said.
Since 2024, the annual All-Russian competition for final qualifying papers has been held in the "Startup as a Diploma" format. In 2026, 1,222 applications were submitted by students from 189 universities from 65 regions of Russia.
Students' graduation papers are interesting for business
Both students and entrepreneurs benefit from the Startup as a Diploma project. For example, in May of this year, the Equium business community (created by Igor Rybakov, co-founder of Technonicol Corporation) signed a cooperation agreement with the Phystech 2050 Initiative Development Fund, under which students at MIPT receive resources, mentors and infrastructure to turn their graduation achievements into real companies.
— Entrepreneurs gain access to technology and teams from the academic environment. Scientists and students are ready for the resources and expertise of the business necessary to bring developments to the market," the community said.
Anton Kozhemyachenko, Head of the Department of Future Technologies at Igor Rybakov Phystech School, stressed that students have to meet two important criteria simultaneously in such a graduation thesis: research and entrepreneurial activities should be at a high level.
— And here the student inevitably has to go beyond the interaction with only one supervisor, — explained the interlocutor of the editorial board. — He becomes part of the project team, interacts not only on the basis of a separate organization or within MIPT, but also with potential customers, clients, technical specialists — with anyone who can give real feedback on the proposed solution.
At this stage, the mechanism of returning to the usual model of research in the form of a thesis also works — if it becomes clear that you will not be able to defend yourself in the form of a startup. However, the success of the project promises employment in a large company or the independent development of a startup followed by a possible takeover.
The development of AI technologies only encourages the most demanding scientific supervisors and talented students to pursue non-standard and original solutions, since otherwise their results, and hence their qualifications, will be unclaimed by either the academic community, the industrial community, or the labor market as a whole, emphasized Anton Kozhemyachenko.
Businesses are interested in research projects when they produce practical results, whether it's finding staff, testing ideas, obtaining R&D or solving applied problems, Nail Shakhvaliev, an expert on financial market and investments at the Council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation (CCI), added. As an example, he cited the Business Thesis program, which has been operating at ITMO since 2019.
— Students can prepare their own innovative business project as a thesis and go through the defense procedure at the state final certification. Over the six years of the program's implementation, ITMO students have created 354 startups with a total amount of attracted investments of 303 million rubles," the source told Izvestia.
In turn, Alexander Putilov, Dean of the Faculty of Business Informatics and Integrated Systems Management at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, calls a startup as a research project "a rare and not at all typical case."
— After all, the essence of the WRC is the control of acquired knowledge, skills and competencies during the training. A startup, on the other hand, is the future production of goods or services that some future market needs, and not at all the control of the material passed," he explained.
The business community as a whole notes the increased interest of companies in students' graduation papers. For example, the lead developer of MWS AI (part of MTS Web Services) Ivan Kopylov points out that during graduation he regularly sees students who work with the tasks of product or project teams of large technology companies and actively invest in what later becomes part of the product.
— If you look at the leading universities, then more than half of the students do their degrees based on business tasks. In my experience, more than 50% of diplomas in applied mathematics and computer science at the Higher School of Economics and MIPT are business solutions," the expert said.
The most viable case, according to Kirill Semion, CEO of ANO NCK ISU, is when graduation projects are initially initiated by the business as a supervisor. Then students get practical experience, and companies get a high—readiness solution.
At the same time, practice-oriented research formats were in demand before — in the early 90s they completely dominated research, Boris Ilyukhin, senior researcher at the Center for Economics of Continuing Education at the Presidential Academy, recalled. Only later did the balance shift towards theoretical research. At the same time, the expert reacted cautiously to the idea of startups as a mandatory format for graduation work.
— The main task of the graduate is to demonstrate professional competencies in his specialty. Startup logic is closer to entrepreneurship and management than to most engineering fields. At the same time, I consider interdisciplinary projects to be very promising, when students of different specialties work on the same task and create a finished product as a result. There is a place for engineers, programmers, economists, and managers in such projects. Successful startups often grow out of such team developments," he added.
For engineering, economics and management, practice-oriented approach is the main condition of the WRC, which is almost always implemented and will only increase, emphasized Alexander Putilov.
At the same time, it is not the format of the work that is more important, but its key task, said Maria Bocharova, head of extracurricular student services at Central University.
— The experience of the Central University shows that interest in academic and practice-oriented formats of graduation papers is evenly distributed. The choice of direction depends not so much on the faculty as on the student's future career plans. For example, graduates who aim to work in the industry often choose the scientific track anyway, since many modern applied tasks require serious research skills," she said.
In turn, Anton Kazun, director of the Faculty of Economics at the Institute for Enterprise and Market Analysis at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, believes that practice-oriented research may be a good option for some disciplines, but it will not solve the problems of using AI.
— The approach to practice-oriented research should be the same as for research papers — higher requirements, higher transparency, stronger emphasis on practical results. If a student can make a useful prototype of an invention or prepare a valuable market analysis for an employer, then it doesn't matter at all whether he uses AI in this process. It is only important to apply new technologies consciously and professionally, as well as to be responsible for the result independently," the expert is convinced.
Will there be a rejection of theses
Irina Abankina, a professor at the HSE Institute of Education, stressed that the thesis has already undergone a lot of major changes: the classical text is really becoming a thing of the past.
"Since 2020, a fairly significant transition has begun to new formats of final qualifying work, where you really need not only to present your knowledge, but also to demonstrate your qualifications: whether it's a research format with the results obtained or a startup," she told Izvestia. — Many employers have opened their own basic departments, and students, collectively, participate in the implementation of their projects. Practice-oriented research is very popular among students.
However, experts are sure that there will be no complete rejection of theses. Anton Kazun believes that the influence of AI will lead to the reformatting of such research projects, but not to the abandonment of them.
— It's just that the use of AI for many disciplines (for example, economics) will become the basic standard. It will be necessary to carefully and in detail declare its use at different stages, and the requirements for the quality of work and results will increase quite a lot," he said. — The parts of the work related to the review of sources will be less important, and analysis will be much more important, and the analytical part of the work should assume full transparency of procedures, methods and the possibility of verification.
Maria Bocharova also believes that AI does not destroy theses, but changes their essence, shifting the emphasis from writing the text to the research process itself, the author's logic, his train of thought and the ability to apply the tools acquired during training in practice.
"AI forces the education system to re—search for the answer to the question: why exactly is a graduate thesis needed and how does it help to assess a student's real skills," the editorial interlocutor emphasized.
At the same time, Boris Ilyukhin is confident that graduation projects, on the contrary, will become even more important. But this will happen precisely due to the development of their practice orientation.
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