An Inside View of Soviet Chemical Education Gregory Slobodkin and Miles Pickeringi Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
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The senior author of this naoer (G. S.) is a second-vear graduate student a t Princeton, who received his training as a chemist at Moscow Universitv. and was eraduated in 1976. This paper reviews the soviet kdu~ationars~stem in practice as well as in theorv. Thirtv vears aeo there was meat interest I>.) that in the Soviet educ&ional &&em. Ii seems to m i (M. afollowup iioverdue,and that one who has been throuah the system is-in a better position to describe it as it reall; is in practice, than is a visiting educator looking in from the outside. Even though, this paper is necessarily based on one person's experience, recollections and viewpoint, anecdotal information is still of great value. The General Phllosophy of Education In the Sovlet Unlon
All education in the Soviet Union is standardized to the limit and is strictlv functional. The onlv function of the educational systemis seen as training a work force. o n e can compare it to training in the U.S. military to fit a military occupational specialty. This centralized approach requires formulation of standard educational requirements for every occupation, and the goal is complete interchangeability of personnel. If interchangeability is postulated as ultimately desirable. then one of the secondarv functions of the educational system is to sort pupils into appropriate "training channels." While a few eifted children as voune . as 11-12 are directed toward specia~schoolsfor advanced, in-depth education, these special schools account for less than 0.2% of school children. Most separations are achieved by competitive examinations between major steps. For reasons of state prestige, by tradition, and also because the highschool has to prepare pupils for entry into a very broad range of professional education, the standard high school curriculum in the Soviet Union places heavy emphasis on variety of hard sciences (4 years, ~ 4 5 h0 of chemistry, -200-300 h of biology, "500 h of physics, and 10 years of math, probably 150020Ml h from arithmetic to trigonometry). Remedial courses a t the college level are unheard of, because no one needing these is admitted. College education in the Soviet Union is considered a fulltime occupation, and so day students do not work, do not pay any tuition, and most of them receive small state stipends. The professional degree programs that are equivalent to our BS are standardized at five years' duration in the Soviet Union. Prospective chemistry students applv not to the university, but to itschemistry department. F& their first day rhere they are trained as futurechemists. Changesofspecialization (major) are known hut are infrequentand discouraged. This offers an advantage to the university instructor: his or her audience is homogeneous, both in major and inpreuious preparation, and it consists entirely of students of the same year of study. Moreover, the subject is equally important and equally mandatory for every student in the class. ~. Teachrnggenerolchemi~tr).t~o mixddrloso offuture biologihlu, dr~ctors,and liberal orts mujors ia toroll) unrhinkoble in the Soviet Union. While the college education is specialized in chemistry
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from the first day of the freshman year, it has real breadth in the field, including solid courses of inorganic, analytical, physical, and organic chemistry, and with somewhat smaller courses in quantum chemistry, crystallochemistry, colloid chemistrv, polvmer chemistrv. radiochemistrv (radioactive tracers), ch&&al technology; &en the h i s t o j o f chemistry. (Virtually the only relief is a few courses in cognate disciplines like physics and math, and "humanities3'-actually ideological indoctrination.) There are no electives. Such a curriculum prepares astudent to pursue advanced studies in almost any branchof chemistry. Moreover, all chemists have the same standardized preparation and, at least in theory, are totally interchangeable and need only minimal on-thejob training. Selection ot Students-The Examlnatlon Svsiem Competitive examinations limit access to the system at several places. To aet into hiah school. school children face four exams: writt'n and or; math and written and oral Russian language and literature. Failure means going to a vocational school. While in theory it is possible to go from a vocational school to college, i t is very nearly impossible in practice, and the vocational schools largely feed low-level jobs. Since few people want such jobs, by the end of the 70's considerable effort was applied to forcing them there, by toughening this transition. Competitive examinations are also used in about 10 subjects a t the end of the 10th grade. Chemistry is one of the fields a t this level. Most of these exams are oral. Passine leads to a diploma and possible college admission. College admission rewires that the candidate nass entrance ixamina~ions.'l'hkse rusually, four) arr administered by each college or university individually in the summer. Since some of these are oral, the applickt has to attend personally. Simultaneous application to more than one college is therefore impossible. Since there is always an army conscription twice a year, the number of attempts at admission is seriously limited for male applicants. Although it is perfectly possible to apply to the college after military service, in practice i t becomes more difficult, for many such prospective applicants start families, and army routine is not conducive to refreshing one's grasp of trigonometry or chemistry. Any failing grade in the four entrance exams automatically prevents admission. After completion of all four exams, the grades are summed, the average of school grades are added, and, given the number of available positions for students, the cutoff point is established. People who scored above it are in, those below are out, and applicants with the cutoff sum of points are considered individually. Since the cutoff point is published. such a svstem forces some deeree of objectivity on the admission There are two "fast tracks" for eettine into colleee. First. exceptionally successful students (abouF0.2-0.5% l f collegd applicants, with educational district quotas) are awarded gold medals. These entitle holders to entry into college if he/ she can get an A on only one of the usual four entry exams (at the college's choice). If, however, the grade is lower than an A, then such a medalist has to compete with others on equal footing. Second, there are "Olympiads", competitions at regional and nationwide levels, in math, physics, and chemis-
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Volume 65
Number 1 January 1988
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try. The winner of the first place (nationally) in any field is entitled to entry into any college or university of his or her choice within his or her winning specialization without any entry exams whatsoever. This,~obviously,concerns only a few persons every year and is mentioned here only for the sake-of completeness. Once in college, the students go through the prescribed curriculum with oral exams only, held in January and June sessions. By tradition, there must be a t least 48 (and usually a t least 72) hours between consecutive exams taken by the same student. A failing grade requires the retaking of the exam: a second failure usuallv means dismissal. The student's stipend may also be suspended fora term if his performance is inadequate. Retaking the course is unheard of, except possibly in the case of serious illness. In cases when a student is not satisfied with the grade, i t is possihle to retake the exam (only once). At the discretion of the instructor, a so-called "automat" is granted to the most successful student in the class. I t means giving them a n A grade without subjecting them to the actual exam. Such cases usually are rare (0.5-1% of erades or less). since oral ex&s are the major feature of the system, i t is worthwhile to describe the procedures used. Without exception, all examinations a r e given in previously delineated fields, and they are conducted as follows. A list of from 40 to 200 s"bjects $eviously covered in the given course is available heforehand. The student picks a ticket with, say, three of these topics and is given about 30-50 minutes for preparation. Bwks are prohibited. Scrap paper is provided. T o prevent cheating, students are closely supervised, but cheating is widespread in practice. The student then delivers oral nresentation on these topics to the examiner (one-on-one), kho may ask additional questions. By tradition, the student has the rieht to pick a second ticket, but with an automatic lowering of the examination grade by one step. Additional auestions asked by the examiner must be from the standard material covered in the course, and appropriate bookkeeping is maintained. Traditionally, all Soviet exams are graded on a five-point scale, with 5 representing "excellent" (A), 4 "good" (B), 3 "satisfactory" (C), and 2 a failing grade. The grade 1is never given. Graduate Study Usually by the middle of the fourth year of college study, the students are specialized further. This period could be compared to the BS-MS transition. They are distributed between "laboratories" (research groups) in a university department and take a few specialized courses (for example, heterocyclic chemistry, or organometallic chemistry) approoriate ro such a snecialization. The student thesis ("diploma kork") is done wkh the research program of such a labbratorv. The last semester is devoted entirelv to the thesis work. After defending a thesis before a specially appointed State Examination Board and passing the final exam in ideology ("scientific communism"), the students are issued a diploma, entitling them t o professional employment and to seek admission into an aspirantura-a graduate studies program ultimatelv leading to the degree of Candidate of Sciences. Such a p;ogram
