Broad Coverage In Russian Education

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30278, 2 November 1963, Page 21

Broad Coverage In Russian Education

Russian education should not be thought of as grimly adhering to the sciences. Professor K. Ivanov, the ProRector of Moscow University, said in Christchurch. At Moscow there were 14 faculties, seven of them devoted to the humanities, and all students were lectured to and examined in one or more of these, he said.

Professor Ivanov, who is president of the U-SS.R.-New Zealand Society, is accompanied on his visit by Mr I. Lebedev, of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. They are in New Zealand principally to attend the twenty-first anniversary celebrations of the New Zealand-U.S.S.R. Society. Moscow University, which had 30,000 students, had developed separate institutes for the study of medicine, engineering, and agriculture, but even inside these institutes there was no narrow specialisation, Professor Ivanov said He was interpreted by Mr Lebedev. Political economics, a foreign langauge, and philosophy were included in the syllabus of all students, and in the first two years at university physical education or sport was compulsory. Although Moscow University was founded in 1755 more than half of the 100,000 graduates had passed through the university since the revolution. In the 1930’5, when he was a student, there had been only six faculties and 4000 or 5000 students. In the last eight years, the pace of building and expansion had increased tremendously. There were 40 universities, and a total of 800 institutes of higher learning, catering for 3,000.000 students. About one-third of the students at Moscow lived in halls of residence, which were segregated, self - governing student organisations visited by members of.the academic staff. Professor Ivanov is a keen amateur photographer, and hopes to record something of New Zealand agriculture

while he is here. New Zealand's high level of agricultural development waa impressive, and could be studied in part by Russia, although the differing climatic conditions made a wide application difficult. “If we could tell our peasants that they did not have to stock hay for the winter and fuel and warm clothing for themselves, they would think that most of their burdens were gone,” he explained. “I do not mean to say that the New Zealand farmer is idle—far from it—in a very favourable climate they do very well.” The two visitors have a full programme in Christchurch.