Features of Managing the Preparation of the Bachelor's Final Qualification Work in the Form of a Startup

Kruglova Marina Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0002-8469-565X PhD in Economics Kruglova Marina Sergeevna - Senior Lecturer, Department of General Psychology and Social Communications, Sochi State University 354000, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Sochi, ul. Plastunskaya, 94 marin.kruglova@gmail.com Other publications by this author     Shuvanov Igor' Borisovich PhD in Psychology Associate Professor, Department of General Psychology and Social Communications, Sochi State University 354000, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Sochi, ul. Plastunskaya, 94 schuvanov@rambler.ru Other publications by this author     Shuvanova Viktoriya Petrovna Senior Lecturer, Department of General Psychology and Social Communications, Sochi State University 354000, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Sochi, ul. Plastunskaya, 94 v.shuvanova@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Kruglova Lorina Ermondovna PhD in Technical Science Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Design and Ecology, Sochi State University 354000, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Sochi, ul. Plastunskaya, 94 lorinakruglova@gmail.com Other publications by this author

One of the forms of organizing student participation in design and innovation activities is the acceleration program "Startup as a diploma" ^{[1; 2]}. For two years, the experience of developing and defending student startups as final qualifying works has been replicated in the regions of Russia. The Startup as a Diploma program provides senior students with the opportunity to prepare for the defense procedure not for a standard final qualifying work, but for their own startup created by one student or an entire team at the university.

Currently, as Russian practice shows, higher education institutions, along with the traditional functions of an educational institution, are actively implementing the function of a platform for youth entrepreneurship and youth design and innovation activities. The implementation of personnel training in educational programs of higher education in modern conditions receives a new vector of development with the use of the intellectual potential of the younger generation ^[3].

The introduction of start-up design into the educational process corresponds to the trends in higher education: universities are implementing measures to support commercially oriented scientific and technical projects of young scientists, strive to involve talented students in the innovative process of creating high-tech products for its subsequent introduction into the real sector of the economy ^{[4; 5]}.

The bachelor's thesis, being an integral part of the state final certification, completes the process of theoretical, methodological and practical training of students. In the light of the competence approach, the WRC demonstrates how the knowledge, skills and abilities of persons completing the development of educational programs of higher education are systematized, how their readiness to independently solve specific tasks in professional activity is formed. Abandoning the usual form of writing WRC in favor of a startup does not change the conditions for fulfilling the above requirements: the preparation of "WRC-Startup" is focused on consolidating the same competencies defined by the curriculum ^[6].

Each higher education institution brings its own unique practices and cases to the university ecosystem of innovation. In 2021, declared the "Year of Science and Technology" in the Russian Federation, the WRC was presented at the Sochi State University in the form of a startup on the topic "Creating an e-commerce marketing strategy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic". In this paper, the founder of the startup – now a graduate of SSU in the direction of "Advertising and public Relations", I. A. Vitaliev – proposed a project of an e-commerce platform.

This startup project was developed under the scientific supervision of PhD, Associate Professor Igor Borisovich Shuvanov with the consulting participation of the "Business Incubator" of SSU. WRC was protected as an information technology startup within the framework of the "Funnel of Innovative Startups" program of the Krasnodar Territory Innovation Development Fund and the Aquarium Innovation Center. The startup was commercialized: monetization amounted to 50 thousand rubles. The results of the final work are at the stage of implementation in the activities of the investor enterprise.

Based on the experience of developing and implementing a startup project, we will take a step-by-step look at the management of the preparation of a start-up WRC.

A student can declare his desire to defend the WRC in the form of a startup during the initial selection of project topics. A student who is interested in the possibility of defending a Start-up WRC can offer his idea and discuss it with the assigned head of the WRC. This may be a new idea or a continuation of a project activity that was carried out by a student earlier. Then there is a reception of documents from students, applications (applications). After completing the selection of projects and agreeing on topics with the expert commission, the participant becomes a resident of the university's student business incubator in order to develop his idea in the form of a startup. The project can be carried out by either one or several students ^[7].

If the stage of registration of applications is overcome, and the topic is determined, then a mentor consultant is appointed, who forms feedback on the student's work during the preparation of the Start-up WRC. Together with the head of the WRC, a project implementation schedule is drawn up, according to which the startup is being developed. The supervisor directs the student's actions from the point of view of writing the WRC, and the business consultant supervises the startup design.

Let's get acquainted with the life cycle of the startup component (Fig. 1). The stages of the StartUp project development traditionally include five main stages that the project founder and his team must overcome ^[8]:

1. The birth of a startup (pre-seed, or pre-seed);

2. The formation of a startup (seed, or seed);

3. Early development of the project (Alpha version);

4. Startup Expansion (closed Beta version);

5. Maturity of the project (open Beta version).

Figure 1. Startup project lifecycle

At the initial stage, planning of the future startup project is carried out. The analytical stage is called "PREPARE" (translated from the English "preparation") and is designed to select a topic, work out a startup idea and work with hypotheses. In accordance with the local regulatory act, the Regulations on the final qualifying work in the form of a "startup", a project can be one of four main types: a business project (sales of products or services), a technology startup (innovative technologies), a startup in the field of social entrepreneurship or a startup in the field of creative industries. Having determined the possible type of startup, you should decide on the specific topic of the project. At the same time, the wording of the topic "WRC-Startup" should be justified and modified in accordance with the professional field in the specialty or field of training.

It should be taken into account that if the bachelor's thesis can be carried out according to the type of both development and improvement or research, then a startup involves the development – creation "from scratch" of an integral project, completed in form and content, consisting of a number of mandatory components, including a value proposition, a business plan, prototype, presentations for investors, pitch letters.

At the next stage, "WORK" (translated from the English "work") in the course of organizing work on a startup project, an innovative product is being developed and an MVP is being formed. A Minimally Viable Product (MVP) is a product that has minimal, but sufficient functions to satisfy the first consumers. In accordance with this concept, MVP is created to test hypotheses and verify the viability of the conceived product, to understand how much it will be in demand on the market (Fig. 2). At the start of the project, the HADI-cycles method is used. HADI-cycle is an algorithm for testing hypotheses through action, to obtain data and conclusions. This approach is used for holistic, systematic thinking of startup project developers and successful idea development. The abbreviation stands for Hypothesis (Hypothesis), Action (Action), Data (Data), Conclusions (Insight).

Table 1 shows the HADI cycle with a description of each stage.

Table 1 — Structural elements of the project's HADI cycle ^[13]

The research includes a set of methods, including market segmentation and problematic interviews with potential consumers of the product.

Figure 2. The concept of MVP in startup design ^[14]

At the "LAUNCH" stage (from the English "launch"), in accordance with the name, a test launch of the project is carried out, a health check, an adjustment of the project strategy. The subsequent "OPTIMIZE" stage assumes conclusions and optimization after some time from the moment of launch: data collection, work analysis is carried out.

At the final stage of the "SCALE", 1 year after the launch, it is required to measure various indicators and compare them with the expected indicators for the development of the project.

To substantiate the need of universities to expand educational practices for the introduction of a startup as a form of WRC, we conducted a survey of students of the final year of the bachelor's degree at the SSU (4th year of full-time education and 5th year of correspondence education).

The total number of survey participants is 51 people. The majority of respondents are aged 21.  According to the results of the questionnaire survey, it was revealed that more than 70% of respondents had a desire to launch their business project during their studies at the university (Fig. 3).

Figure 3. Answers to the question about the desire to launch a business project

Based on the materials of a study conducted on the basis of Sochi State University, we will propose the structure of a model for managing student participation in a startup WRC, which is designed to give an idea of the sequence and content of the levels of preparation of a startup project and its protection as a graduate work by a university student (Fig. 4).

Figure 4. Information model of student participation management in "WRC-Startup"

Thus, considerable attention should be paid to the processes of student participation management for qualitative results at each stage of the life cycle according to the model presented by the authors when preparing a start-up WRC. The student, together with the supervisor, clarifies the wording of the topic (before its approval), then the supervisor assists in developing a work schedule, advises how to proceed with its consideration, gives recommendations on information sources and material collection, recommends introductory literature with examples of research on the topic, critically evaluates the student's choice regarding research tools. The student, in turn, follows the instructions for making corrections and changes to the preliminary version of the work (both in content and in design). At the same time, the student attends consultations with the mentor of the project part of the work, shows progress in the development of the project, asks questions about various aspects of startup design.

As a recommendation, the authors emphasize the need for the proactive participation of the head of the WRC in the processes of developing a startup project, as well as conducting creative business games for junior students in order to develop startup thinking with the prospect of future participation in the design and innovation activities of a higher educational institution.