The daily worker., 1932-06-02
Higher Technical
Education in the
Soviet Union

informed as to theory, he is bad operator and
knows very little about latest methods. The
same thing is also apparent in other countries
even including the u S. A. but in q. S. A. and
England there is huge reserve Of highly skilled
mechanics and the best Of these work on joha
which by rights should be given to engineers
with college education. There Is tendency In
U. s. A. and England to prefer this type Of en-
gineer to the college graduate. During the IaA
few years some Of the American colleges have
altered their circiculum and are endeavor1ng to
produce new type of engineer. Thus thu
problem OF training engineers is not only one for
the U. S. S. r. but one for other countries 90
well.
The industrialization plan Of the q. 8. S. r.
soon began to show the need of an immense
number of engineers. In the U. S. S. r. there Ia
no reserve of highly qualified workers, there-
fore the solution of the problem is to turn out
college graduate of the right type.
For the carrying on of Soviet industry en-
gineers are required who meet the following
demands:
1.-They must be really efficient technically
although, in large scale production 1t is only
necessary for them to master one branch Of the
industry.
2.-They must be, if possible from the class in
power in the U. S. S. r., that is the workers.
3.-They must have a thorough Marxist daIec-
tic training not merely to the extent Of knowing
what Marxism is but to the extent of using the
Marxist dialectic method in their work
4.-Whilst not neglecting the theoretical side
of their speciality, the engineer must be
thoroughly practical.
The following system in now in operation.
i-Polvtechric rolIeoes u,ara aloIisheJ a,.d jr
their place was organized Technical colleges for
each separate industry.
2.-Technical Colleges were given to the Con-
troll of the Union trust of the particular industry
concerned and those colleges which prepared
engineers for several industries for instance me-
chanical engineers, were under direct control of
the v. s. N. H.
The institute S organized on the basis of
the Ferrons Metals Department of the Siberian
Institute of Technology. The institute accepts
students, according to old conditions but as the
nine year school has been abolished 1t accepts
students who have seven year education and a
special College Preparation Course, (these
courses are in all towns and workers centers)
80 per cent of the accepted students must be
either persons having three years OF manual
work or else the children of manual workers
Collectivized peasants are accepted as workers.
The institute has its own
Workers Faculty. Most of the students receive
payment stipend of from so to 1870 roubles per
month Housing facilities are free of charge for
all and food is given at special reduced rates.
The former course of study was five years and
practical work was only compulsory for four year
students. Now the course has been reduced to
four years and the school year is divided up as
follows. Two terms of two months each in q
plant, two months vacation.
For senior students the two terms may be
united so as to give four month stay in plant.
For one and two year students the oollege and
plant terms alternate. The student go to work
in plant with special program, he starts, first
term, as an ordinary day 'laborer and gradually
rises till in his last term in the plant he may
deputize an engineer. During his stay In the
plant he receives wages but does not receive q
stipend. In some Institutes military training is
a part of the program but not In all In order to
bring tbs college nearer to the real job, where
possible colleges are to be built near up to date
plants. For this reason, after a year in Tomsk
our institute has moved to Vuznetsk where .
huge steel mill is being built, and although con-
ditions are difficult, yet the effect upon the
student body is good Next year block Of
buildings for the institute will be built.
The student has five day week, one day rest
in five and six hours kessins each day. At.
tendance TO all lessons is compulsory, except IN
every exceptional cases.
Instead of the old system Of giving student
a course comprising practically the whole steel
industry, the institute has separatae departments
for each branch. There are five departments
l, Blast Furnace; 2, Open Hearth; g. Rolling
Mills 4, Heat Treatment; S, Foundry. This
means that the blast furnace students only
learns the blast furnace, works on blast fur
mace during his plant terms and result Is that
we should get much more valuable engineer
in four years that was formerly produced in five.
OF course 1t is necessary to give the student
very short course on the specialties approaching
his, for instance, the blast furnace supplies the
open hearth so we give short informatory
course on open hearth for blast furnace men.
Besides his technical subjects, the student
is taught one foreign language German Tor
Rolling Mill men, English for all others.
Also the students have thorough course in
Leninism, Marxist dialectcs, history OF revolu-
tionary movement Besides this, the social LIE
of the student is closely bound up with the
the type Of engineer who is educated only, &C.
cording to his speciality but absolutely Ignorant
Of other matters is often the case In U. s. A.
Next year we propose to open one more de-
partment for preparing metallurgical engineers
for managerial posts Here 1t is likely that We
shall have to give general metalurgical eoursa
and a course in industrial management.
The be-. Of the students are kept on In the
Institute postgraduate students. They re-