Higher Attestation Commission (Russia)

The Higher Attestation Commission of Russia (Russian: Высшая аттестационная комиссия) is the central authority for conferring academic degrees and titles in the Russian Federation and ensuring a unified state policy for the state certification of scientific and teaching personnel. A similar higher attestation body existed in the Soviet Union (the Higher Attestation Commission of the USSR) and currently exists in a number of post-Soviet countries. Within its purview, it oversees the work of dissertation defense councils, develops the regulatory framework for conferring academic degrees and titles, issues candidate and doctoral diplomas, associate professor and professor certificates, and performs a number of other functions, such as determining the list of scientific journals and publications for publishing the main research results of candidate and doctoral dissertations. In addition to fulfilling these functions in scientific and educational matters in Russia, it also forms dissertation councils for Tajikistan.