Candidate Minimum Examinations

examinations taken by graduate students and applicants for the candidate of sciences degree in the USSR for the purpose of receiving the right to defend a candidate’s dissertation.

Candidate minimum examinations (the number and scope of which are established by the Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education of the USSR) are given in dialectical and historical materialism, a foreign language, and a specialized discipline, the scope of the requirements in the latter being determined in accordance with the dissertation topic by the subdepartment (section, laboratory) of the higher educational or scientific research institution. When defending a dissertation on a topic that does not correspond to his principal specialization, the student or applicant takes supplementary candidate minimum examinations in the general scientific discipline to which the topic of his dissertation belongs. Preparation for the candidate minimum examinations presupposes independent study by the graduate student or applicant of scientific literature and the carrying out of scientific research. In order to take the candidate minimum examinations and fulfill the work for the dissertation, graduate students who are taking correspondence courses are given extra leave with full pay. Individuals who pass the candidate minimum examinations receive a certificate that gives them the right to defend a dissertation and the right to enter graduate study without entrance examinations, but it cannot serve as a legal document about education. There is no time limit for taking the candidate minimum examinations and no time limit on the period of validity of the certification.

The list of higher educational and scientific research institutions that are entitled to give candidate minimum examinations is approved by the Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education of the USSR. Individuals confirmed in the academic rank of docent are exempted from taking the candidate minimum examinations. In exceptional cases the Supreme Certifying Commission partially or completely exempts some individuals from taking the candidate minimum examinations. These individuals (mainly workers in production) have prepared a dissertation or, in place of a dissertation, have permission to defend published works or inventions and discoveries that have been registered with the Committee for Inventions and Discoveries of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Persons who have completed work on the creation of new machines, control systems, instruments, structures, and technological processes are also exempt or partially exempt. Any of these published works, inventions, discoveries, or various completed work may have been accomplished or developed either by an individual or by a group.