Following an official order by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Samara University has established a new Dissertation Council dedicated to the defense of Candidate and Doctoral dissertations in Philological Sciences, specifically under the specialty "Languages of Foreign Countries (Germanic Languages)."
The council is led by a distinguished team of scholars: Vyacheslav Shevchenko, Head of the Department of English Philology and Doctor of Philological Sciences, serves as Chair. He is joined by Marina Cherkunova, Doctor of Philological Sciences, as Deputy Chair, and Natalia Panina, Candidate of Philological Sciences, as Academic Secretary.
"The Dissertation Council for Germanic Languages has officially commenced its operations, and we are already planning to review three Candidate of Philological Sciences dissertations in the near future under specialty 5.9.6," noted Vyacheslav Shevchenko.
"I am confident that this council will be highly sought after not only by candidates from Samara Oblast but also from other regions across the Volga Federal District. Previously, researchers had to travel to Moscow, Kazan, Volgograd, and other cities to defend their work. Now, they can achieve this milestone right here at our university. We also warmly welcome scholars from all regions of Russia."
Highlighting the strategic importance of this development, Anna Rozenzweig, First Vice-Rector for Research, emphasized the broader impact on regional education:
"This is a landmark event for us: a council in this specific specialty has been opened at our university for the very first time. Its creation is the result of systematic, dedicated work by the departments of English and German Philology within the Faculty of Philology and Journalism at the Social and Humanities Institute.
English and other Germanic languages are mandatory components of the curricula across all academic majors—ranging from technical and natural sciences to humanities and medicine. This creates a massive, structural demand for highly qualified instructors, methodologists, and researchers holding advanced degrees in philology. The opening of this council allows us to close the full 'education–science–certification' loop within the region, ensures the continuous renewal of our teaching staff, and strengthens our scientific schools, ultimately making Samara Oblast a self-sufficient hub for training Germanic philologists."
With this addition, the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities now hosts two active dissertation councils. The newly formed council for Germanic Languages (Code: 24.2.379.12) joins the established council for Historical Sciences (Code: 99.2.030.02), which is chaired by Pyotr Kabytov, Professor and Head of the Department of Russian History.
