Engineering education in the Russian Far East after the World War II (1946–1950s)

• Khisamutdinova N.V.

  Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service
  Vladivostok. Russia

Based on the archival sources, the article discusses some issues of engineering education in the Russian Far East after the Second World War (1946–1950s). The author considers this period quite demonstrative in the history of higher education. During this time, higher school management had been reformed in the USSR, and some trends were found wrong and rejected. Thus conditions were created for a qualitatively new stage of higher education development in the region. Using the historical-comparative method the author revealed and analyzed major features of the period. Among them, there are examples of new technical fields covered by engineering education, initiation of evening and distance classes and post-graduate institutions, annual graduate growth, the academic staff strengthening. The author also reveals some disproportions which happened as the result of the regional engineering education extension. The number of universities established didn’t correspond to the training facilities and human resources quality, including the faculty academic level.

The conclusion is made of the importance of the postwar period for the further higher education development in the region which promoted founding new educational institutions during coming years. At the same time, there is the necessity to avoid mistakes which happened in the past, e.g. making decisions and plans without considering available resources. The article is based on the archival documents, mostly unpublished, about the Far East higher technical education during the postwar decade.

Keywords: Russian Far East, higher education, engineering education, faculty, post-graduate institutions.