Attracting talented youth to study in Post-Graduate Programme at a classical university

The decline in the effectiveness of post-graduate programs is one of the problematic issues of Post-Graduate Programme in any university. In many respects, the enrollments that are weak in terms of the quality of students are due to the poor awareness of graduates of the Specialist’s Degree and Master’s Degree Programmes about what learning at the third level of higher professional education is, what advantages and to whom does obtaining an academic degree of candidate of sciences give. In this regard, career guidance work in Post-Graduate Programme is one of the important factors of its effectiveness. At the same time, an analysis of researches on the organization of career guidance work with students indicates that in most universities, the main goal of career guidance work is to attract high school graduates to enroll in a university and the choice of a specific direction of training and a profile of education. The absence of a multi-level career guidance system “school student–student–graduate” does not allow Bachelor’s Degree and Specialist’s Degree students to comprehensively develop an individual trajectory of development in the research field and methodically prepare students to continue their learning in Post-Graduate Programme. In this research a) the relevance and the necessity of organizing career guidance work among Bachelor’s/Specialist’s Degree and Master’s Degree students for admission to Post-Graduate Programme is indicated; b) the pedagogical potential of the institute of mentoring in organizing career guidance events to attract talented youth to Post-Graduate Programme is considered; c) a description of the experience of the Derzhavin Tambov State University on the implementation of the scientific and educational project “I want to be a Post-Graduate Student” within the framework of the mentoring institute is given. Subject and thematic content of the project includes three blocks: 1) Post-Graduate Programme: what it is; 2) admission and learning in Post-Graduate Programme; 3) scientific journals and publication ethics. The work describes in detail the content of the project.