The Soviet Flagship University Model and Its Contemporary Transition

Abstract

Some 30 years ago, sociologist Burton Clark sought to illustrate and classify how different national systems of higher education were influenced by three major players: the state, the academy, and the market. In the United States, the market, in terms of students and business interests, was more influential than in other parts of the world. Soviet higher education was as on the other end of the spectrum: a highly state-regulated system, with weak authority by academics and university leaders, with little influence by markets; indeed, within a command economy, the state determined the market. All universities were “cogs” in the central-government machine.