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PART Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education

Institutions of higher education in the USSR are set up and administered by the USSR State Committee for Public Education and other government departments of the Union and of the Union Republics. This division of responsibilities of higher education administration among different government agencies has caused various ill effects including an imbalance between the supply of and the demand for manpower. For this reason, it has become the responsibility of the USSR State Committee for Public Education to ensure the integral administration of higher education, eliminating barriers between different government departments and between the Union and the Union Republics.

The Union Government and the relevant government departments of the Republics set forth the number of places for first-year students for each major field of study and determine the amount of State budget appropriations to individual institutions. The establishment, reorganization and suspension of institutions of higher education are to be decided by the Union Government with regard to institutions administered by the government departments of the Union, and by the Republic government with regard to institutions administered by the government departments of the Republic. Individual institutions of higher education lay down their own rules, in accordance with the standard regulations laid down by the Union Government, for the curriculum, as well as the administration and management of each institution.

In 1987, a system of evaluation of institutions of higher education was introduced, With a view to contributing to the qualitative improvement of the educational and research activities of individual institutions, the USSR State Committee for Public Education every year selects some 20 institutions and makes an overall evaluation of these institutions with regard to diverse aspects. Including administration and management, educational and research activities, the quality of teachers and students, and physical facilities and equipment. The results of the evaluation and the measures to be taken are made public in the form of a decision of the USSR State Committee for Public Education. Institutions which receive a negative evaluation by the State Committee, may be required: to change responsible officials; to abolish the particular course, faculty, graduate school or other unit which was evaluated negatively; to administer an examination of students' competence; to punish students whose academic achievement is very low; to dismiss incompetent teachers; to reduce the number of student places; and so forth. These institutions are subject to a reexamination by the State Committee one or two years later.

Institutions of higher education are funded by: (1) budgets of the Union government and the Republic government;(2) university income derived from their own services and activities; and (3) donations from related enterprises and organizations. As state budgets are limited, individual universities are expected to increase their own financial resources. (In the USSR, in accordance with the principle of free public education. no fees are charged to university students.)