Thoughts on Highly Qualified Personnel Training: What We Have Today (A Response to E. I. Kononenko’s Article “Defense Announcements: An Attempt of Analysis of the HAC Website”)

The author discusses the issues of highly qualified personnel training. Attention is focused on the current state of postgraduate education, its specific features as the third level of the higher education system, as well as on the condition of the framework of dissertation councils. The article notes the decrease in the number of candidate and doctoral dissertations defended and highlights possible reasons for this phenomenon.