Higher Education the USSR, 1964 w. Photos and Statistics

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

Leaflet: Higher Education the USSR, 1964

We have looked at the astonishing progress that was made in the USSR at all levels of education before in posts like Public Education in the USSR and USSR -- Education, 1970.

This leaflet reviewed the system of higher education that existed in the Soviet Union in 1964. The gigantic strides in learning and the creation of an extensive, internationalist and highly successful school, college and university system that was almost entirely free of charge, as well as the eradication of illiteracy -- prior to the revolution 70 % of the people in the territory of the USSR were illiterate with an illiteracy rate of 88% among women -- are among the most significant accomplishments of Soviet socialism and among the most important to study.

Here the growth of the university system is reviewed with specific examples such as the expansion of Moscow University or the creation of Tashkent University. Aspects of it such as how the entrance exams worked or the subsidies that students received are detailed along with steps that were taken to facilitate higher learning for working people later in life.

We learn, for example:

Part-time education, at evening or correspondence colleges, faculties or departments, is free of charge, just like full time study at higher schools. The necessary funds are appropriated  by the State Budget. Correspondence course students do not pay for the course of instruction that is mailed to them. Textbooks are supplied free of charge by the correspondence college library. There is no fee for examinations.
The Government gives special privileges to persons who maintain a satisfactory scholastic record while continuing at their regular jobs. First-year students at correspondence colleges receive an additional thirty-day paid leave of absence from their jobs during which they do their laboratory assignments and take tests and examinations. Students in their second and subsequent years get an additional paid leave of forty days annually.
Correspondence students receive a leave of four months of which two months are paid by an enterprise and the other two months part-time students receive scholarships to prepare and present their diploma projects. In their last two years of study they are given one additional day off from their jobs every week, for which they receive fifty per cent of their regular wage. If they wish, correspondence students may get another day or two off a week, but without pay.
The state pays fifty per cent of the correspondence student's railway or bus fare when he travels to his college for laboratory sessions or to take tests and examinations. 

A system like this, as well as the fact that ALL higher education at all levels was free and based solely on merit would be a dream to students in Canada and the United States.

There are sections related to research work, technical and agricultural education, teacher's colleges, etc.

The internationalist aspect of Soviet education is also looked at. In 1964 there were 21,000 international students from 116 countries studying in the USSR with the bulk of them being from other socialist countries and the Third World. Some of them studied at the Patrice Lumumba Friendship University in Moscow. Again:

An education at Friendship University does not cost the student a single kopeck. He gets hostel accommodation, free medical care and all the war clothing he may need in winter.
Each student is paid a monthly grant. He gets all the textbooks and study aids he needs free of charge.

(Click on scans to enlarge)