Professional and public accreditation for professional educational programs in the ﬁeld of rocket engineering and space activities in Omsk State Technical University

. The article is devoted to the professional and public accreditation in Omsk State Technical University for bachelor’s and master’s degree programs “Rocket Systems and Astronautics”. A brief description of the university is given. The objectives of accreditation are stated. The procedure for its implementation is described. The evaluation criteria and the results of the accreditation are given. The main comments identiﬁed by experts and the strengths of educational programs are presented.


Introduction
Professional and public accreditation (PPA) of the main professional educational programs, basic and (or) additional professional training programs is a recognition of the training quality and level of graduates who have completed such educational programs in a specific organization engaged in educational activity meeting the requirements of professional standards, labor market requirements for specialists, workers and employees of the relevant profile [1].
Professional and public accreditation is an effective tool for regulating and improving the quality of education, recognition of the high level of specialists training by the professional community. Passing an independent accreditation allows an educational organization to declare the quality of training specialists, thereby increasing its competitiveness in the market of educational services, as well as to ensure the employment of its graduates [2].
At the beginning of 2019, Omsk State Technical University made a decision on the need for independent accreditation for the bachelor's and master's degree programs of an integrated group of specialties and fields 24.00.00 "Aviation and Rocket and Space Technology". The objectives of the PPA were: • to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the implemented educational programs, personal recommendations on updating educational programs from the State Corporation "ROSCOSMOS", one of the largest employers' associations; • to ensure and improve the employment of graduates. At that time, OmSTU had only two educational programs accredited by the Association for Engineering Education of Russia and the European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE). It was the master's program 28.04.02 "Nanoengineering" and the bachelor's program 18.03.01 "Chemical Technology". There was no experience of public accreditation for bachelor's and master's degree programs of related specializations at the university at that time.
OmSTU application for professional and public accreditation of educational programs in the areas of training in rocket technology and space activity 24.03.01 "Rocket Systems and Astronautics" (profile "Rocket Engineering") and 24.04.01 "Rocket Systems and Astronautics" (profile "Rocket Design and Construction") was submitted to the expert organization-Agency for Professional and Public Accreditation and independent assessment of qualifications (LLC "Profaccredagentstvo", Moscow).
At the stage of considering the application by LLC "Profaccredagency", a positive decision was made to conduct PPA based on the fulfillment of the following conditions: • the declared educational programs correspond to the type (types) of professional activity for conducting PPA in the Council for Professional Qualifications in the field of rocket technology and space activity; • the availability of the stated educational programs in the license for the implementation of OmSTU educational activity; • the preparation for the declared educational programs is carried out by the applicant for a period not less than the one established for the development of the educational program (there is at least one issue).
After the decision was made to conduct the PPA, the expert organization formed a schedule for an accreditation examination and gave recommendations for self-examination and preparing a package of materials for educational programs. The preparation of a report on programs and materials self-examination for accreditation examination [3] was carried out for two months by the OmSTU department "Aircraft and Rocket Building", which provides training in the areas declared for accreditation.
A group of independent experts was formed to conduct the accreditation examination by LLC ''Profaccredagency'', the composition of which was approved by the Accreditation Council: During the period of the accreditation examination (March-April 2019), the group of independent experts studied the materials submitted by OmSTU, formed a list of comments and clarifications. On April 16-17, 2019, an in-person visit of experts (on-site accreditation examination) took place, during which the expert group conducted interviews with the heads of the university, heads of educational programs, teachers of the Department of Aviation and Rocket Engineering, employees of the quality management system support group and the Regional Center for Graduate Employment Assistance, students, key partner employers, graduates, got acquainted with the university material and technical base and documents.
The educational programs presented for the PPA were developed in accordance with the Federal State Educational Standard: The heads of the main educational programs are: • 24.03.01-Yakovlev Alexey Borisovich, Head of the OmSTU department "Aircraft and Rocket Building", Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor, Academician of the International Academy of Refrigeration; • 24.04.01-Trushlyakov Valery Ivanovich, Professor at the OmSTU department "Aircraft and Rocket Building'', Doctor of Technical Sciences, Adviser to the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences, Director of the scientific and educational center ''Space Ecology''.
The number of students enrolled in the program 24.03.01 is 77 students, all at the expense of state budget, including students studying under employer-sponsored financing agreements (38 students).
The number of students enrolled in the program 24.04.01 is 25 undergraduates, all at the expense of state budget, including those studying under employer-sponsored financing agreements (6 students). In 1965, the first recruitment for the specialty "Mechanical Equipment for Automated Installations" was carried out. In 1967 the department "Automated Installations" was established to train engineers for rocket launching and system performance. In 1985, the range of rocket and space specialties was expanded by the ones "Rocket engines" and "Rocket Building". In 1988, in order to train personnel for Omsk enterprises in the rocket and space industry, the departments "Flight Engines" and "Flight Building" were organized.

General characteristics of the educational organization
On July 5, 1993, by Order of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Higher Education, Omsk Polytechnic Institute was renamed Omsk State Technical University.
In 1996, two dissertation councils were opened at the university for the defense of candidate dissertations in scientific specialties related to aviation and rocket and space technology. Since 2004, OmSTU has been training bachelors, and since 2008 masters in the areas of aviation and rocket building. In 2004, the departments of the rocket and space field were combined into a single department "Aviation and Rocket Building", which currently trains about 400 engineers, bachelors and masters for the needs of the aviation and space industry of Russia.
Since 2008, OmSTU has adopted a comprehensive development program by creating resource centers. OmSTU has set a course for an innovative-research type university with a developed scientific potential that trains in-demand and competitive specialists. At the period, the university implements 33 integrated groups of training areas. There are 183 main professional educational programs of higher education, of which: 73 are bachelor's degree programs, 46 are master's degree programs, 12 programs for specialists and 52 educational programs for graduate students.
The main competitors of OmSTU in the Omsk region are: The Siberian State Automobile and Highway University; Dostoevsky Omsk State University; Omsk State Transport University; Omsk State Agrarian University named after P.A. Stolypin.
In the Siberian and Ural regions, according to the IGSA educational programs 24.00.00 "Aviation and Rocket and Space Technology", the main competitors are Novosibirsk State Technical University; Biysk Technological Institute; Reshetnev Siberian State University of Science and Technology (Krasnoyarsk); Perm National Research Polytechnic University; South Ural State University (Chelyabinsk).
The main influx of students to OmSTU is from the city of Omsk and Omsk region, the Republic of Kazakhstan, Novosibirsk Region, Tyumen Region and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tomsk and Kurgan regions.
Today Omsk State Technical University is a modern technical university with a developed educational, scientific and industrial infrastructure, the largest university in the Omsk region. OmSTU is the driver of implementing the cluster model for industrial development of the Omsk region, the flagship regional university, distinguished by [4]: • the use of modern domestic and foreign scientific achievements in the educational process; • the orientation to close scientific and educational contacts with engineering companies and manufacturers of modern technology; • the innovative infrastructure: research and educational resource centers, research laboratories, student design bureaus; • a powerful human capital: highly qualified teaching staff and experienced researchers; support program for young teaching staff; • the request from the enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Russia and industrial enterprises of the Omsk region for targeted training of students; • the possibility of obtaining a labour profession; • the opportunity to participate in international educational and cultural exchange programs; • OmSTU is the main executor of the Strategy for socio-economic development of the Omsk region up to 2025 in terms of priority economic clusters staffing. The university has stable develop ties with the leading enterprises of the region: the work of 15 basic departments carrying out targeted training of specialists has been organized. It is a leader among the region universities in the volume of research work, including the interests of industrial partners. The university accumulates work in the field of youth policy, culture and tourism development of the Omsk region, participates in ensuring intercultural and interethnic dialogue. OmSTU has more than 16 thousand students, including about 3 thousand foreign students,being the leader by this indicator in the region. The teaching staff consists of more than 840 employees, including scientists, doctors and candidates of sciences.
The University is allied with educational, industrial, research organizations and institutions in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Republic of Korea, etc.
OmSTU has been developing dynamically in recent years: new specialties and specializations, new computer classrooms, the number of students is twice the average number of state-run university students in Russia. The library at OmSTU is the largest of the Omsk university libraries, the library fund together with its branches amounts to 1 million 327 thousand publications. Internet technologies and other modern forms of working with readers are used actively in OmSTU.

Results of the analysis of educational programs
The evaluation criteria by which the indicators are checked, the maximum score for each criterion, the evaluation results [5] and the notes of the expert commission on the bachelor's educational program 24.03.01 "Rocket Systems and Astronautics" are shown in table 1. It is necessary to reconsider the approaches of involving employers in the development of evaluation tools used in the educational program The degree of criterion 1 fulfillment was reduced by 30% because the independent assessment of graduates' qualifications for compliance with the professional standard "Structural Engineer in Rocket Science" is not carried out Monitoring the retention of graduates occurs through non-formalized sources. The educational organization needs to strengthen control over graduates at enterprises