Problems of Access to Higher Education in the USSR

Abstract

The sociological aspects of Soviet higher education have been attracting a broad interest among research workers in the West for more that a decade. It seems to me that there are two reasons for this: first, problems with our own system of higher education make us ask if there are similar problems and comparable solutions in the Soviet Union. Second, Soviet sociological literature contains a wealth of information and hidden details of how the Soviet system of education really functions. I observe the increasing bulk of Soviet sociological literature concerning higher education with a feeling of frustration; I notice a growing quantity of facts and figures, but little progress of theory. As the weakness of this kind of research is on the whole well-known to those who are interested in the subject, I should like to confine myself to discussing the following five points:

• 1 Questionnaires are the main form of gaining information. The validity of this instrument in general and the limits of particular questionnaires remain unanalysed.

• 2 The quantitative analysis of obtained data rarely goes beyond the compiling of percentage scales and drawing comparisons between them. This kind of evaluation remains descriptive and cannot possibly be considered as an appropriate instrument for revealing more complex relationships.

• 3 The research workers usually fail to relate their own findings to data already gathered. Thus it remains an open question what significance the particular (and often contradicting) data may have.

• 4 While it is true that the subjects of inquiry are becoming more and more differentiated (i.e. the motives of occupational choices), the analytical framework according to which social reality is being made an object of research is a rather simple one and has made little progress over the years.

• 5 The theoretical output is meagre, if it is intended at all. Formulation and systematic testing of hypotheses occur rarely and, obviously, certain questions are being removed for ideological reasons while others are tackled again and again.