Separation Between Higher Education and Research in the USSR: Myths and Reality

Fedyukin, Igor Igorevich
PhD in History, Director of the Center for Modern Russian History, Leading Expert at the Head Office of the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities / School of History, HSE University, Head of the Research Group, Interdisciplinary Research Center, MIPT University, Moscow, Russia
ifedyukin@hse.ru


Abstract
It is a commonly accepted notion that the defining feature of Soviet academia was the separation between higher education and research. Whereas universities were the main hubs of research in the West, the Soviet Union developed a system where serious research was allegedly the prerogative of academies of sciences with their sprawling networks of institutes, while higher education institutions were generally supposed to focus on teaching.
This separation has been invoked to explain both the strengths of Soviet science and its weaknesses. Allegedly, the absence of tradition of university research has hampered the ability of post-Soviet HEIs to meet twenty-first-century expectations of excellence. This idea is widely accepted by academics and university administrators across the post-Soviet space, while dealing with this separation has been at the core of R&D policies in the region.
This picture is, however, somewhat misleading. First of all, while the institutional separation between research institutes of academies of sciences and HEIs was real, separating higher education and research was not the official doctrine of the USSR. On the contrary, the mantra that all HEIs must engage in research and that research must be integrated into teaching was constantly reiterated throughout the Soviet period. Secondly, calls upon universities to do research were not merely a matter of doctrine: the government repeatedly took practical steps to push HEIs to engage more actively in research and strengthen their research potential. The steps taken in the1970s–1980s were especially important, and their legacy still largely defines the landscape of university research in the post-Soviet space. Thirdly, the extent to which research was the rule or the exception at Soviet HEIs is a question that is extremely difficult to address with certainty. When we talk about the separation between higher education and research in the USSR, we must keep in mind that our assumptions are based on statistics that leave much room for uncertainty. Moreover, the situation varied dramatically across the Soviet space. At the very least, we must realize that, while Soviet HEIs might have lagged behind the Academy of Sciences in the volume and quality of research, research as an activity was never marginal in Soviet higher education. For this reason, far from being a greenfield project, building university research capacity in the post-Soviet space has had to deal with significant structural and cultural legacies.

Keywords: higher education, University, Research institute, Academy of Sciences, Research capacity, Post-Soviet countries, Soviet Union