|
Soviet Union [USSR] TRAINING
Training of scientists and engineers has been an important
aspect of the country's overall scientific and technological
effort. Soviet leaders since Lenin have strongly emphasized
education and its contribution to the development of science and
technology. The result has been the emergence of a network of
education institutions that have trained some of the world's best
scientists.
Training in science and engineering has generally begun in the
secondary schools. The nationwide curriculum in effect during the
1980s emphasized mathematics, the natural sciences, and languages.
By the time students completed their secondary education, they had
taken two years of algebra, two years of geometry, and one year
each of trigonometry, calculus, physics, chemistry, and biology.
Beginning in the seventh grade, those with special skills in the
sciences could enroll in optional science courses. Western
specialists have considered Soviet science education, particularly
in physics and mathematics, superior to that received in secondary
schools in the United States.
Soviet institutions of higher learning (vysshie uchebnye
zavedeniia--VUZy) included universities and institutes. The
universities in the Soviet Union offered five-year programs that
tended to be narrowly focused. Advanced training in many technical
fields was provided in specialized institutes. The VUZy represented
an additional source of research for the development of science and
technology. Until 1987 that research was funded primarily through
the state budget and, less frequently, through contracts with
industry. The 1987 decree, which changed scientific organizations
to self-financing status, charged Soviet administrators to develop
a plan for transferring VUZy to the same financial arrangement.
Despite the success in education, the Soviet Union during the
1980s faced several key problems affecting its ability to train
scientists and engineers and to place them where needed. Schools,
especially those outside the major urban areas, suffered from a
lack of qualified staff, supplies, and equipment. Efforts during
the mid-1980s to launch an extensive program of computer training
were hampered by the lack of computers on which to train students.
Other problems included a high dropout rate and the refusal of many
graduates to seek jobs in geographic locations and in specialties
targeted for development by government planners. In response to
these problems, Soviet officials during 1987 and 1988 initiated
measures to reform the education system once again. Among the
stated goals were an improvement in the overall training of
scientific and technical specialists and the institution of greater
cooperation between VUZy and industry.
The need to provide good training to scientists and engineers
and to tear down bureaucratic impediments between the development
of technology and its application in industry became especially
important in the late 1980s. Gorbachev's program to reverse the
country's economic decline demanded the increased application of
science and technology to make industry more effective. Although
much of the needed technology was available in the West, the Soviet
Union could neither politically nor economically afford to neglect
development of its own scientific and technological base.
* * *
Many excellent books and articles have been written about
Soviet science and technology by such authors as Loren R. Graham,
Philip Hanson, Bruce Parrott, Simon Kassel, and Thane Gustafson.
Some of the more recent publications by these and other authors
include Science, Philosophy, and Human Behavior in the Soviet
Union by Loren R. Graham; The Communist Party and Soviet
Science by Stephen Fortescue; and Trade, Technology, and
Soviet-American Relations, edited by Bruce Parrott. Another
excellent source on all aspects of science and technology policy is
the compendium of papers submitted to the Joint Economic Committee
of the United States Congress. The latest edition was released in
1987 and is titled Gorbachev's Economic Plans. A number of
studies on particularly defense-related Soviet technologies have
been published. They include The Technological Level of Soviet
Industry, edited by Ronald Amann, Julian M. Cooper, and R.W.
Davies; Industrial Innovation in the Soviet Union, edited by
Amann and Cooper; and Technical Progress and Soviet Economic
Development, also edited by Amann and Cooper. For information
on current science and technology issues, the best sources are the
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty research reports, the Foreign
Broadcast Information Service's Daily Report: Soviet Union,
and the Joint Publication Research Service's translations series,
USSR: Science and Technology Policy. (For further
information and complete citations,
see Soviet Union USSR -
Bibliography.)
Data as of May 1989
|
