Open AccessBefore Massification: Access to University Education in Ukraine in 1950s-1980s
Author(s) -
Sergiy Kurbatov
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international review of social research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.107
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 2069-8534
pISSN - 2069-8267
DOI - 10.1515/irsr-2014-0012
Subject(s) - ukrainian , higher education , political science , access to higher education , economic growth , point (geometry) , sociology , economics , law , philosophy , linguistics , geometry , mathematics
My paper sets to analyze the Soviet policy on access to higher education during the last four decades of existence of the USSR, with a particular focus on the Ukrainian case. It includes the analysis of discourses on planned economy and central regulations regarding access to universities, and a discussion on official and unofficial benefits (Russian original ‘blat’) during the admission process. The findings led to the conclusion that the number of students, which increased four point four times between 1950 and 1990, was less significant per 100,000 people; thus, generally speaking, access to university education continued to be rather restrictive in social terms. This was one of the main causes of the slow development of Soviet Ukraine in scientific and technological areas.