Moscow students in 1995-2000: social situation, tendencies, prospects

Abstract

This article is based on the results of sociological research, which continues the series of empirical researches of living standards, moods, attitudes to education and labor of students and lecturers of Moscow universities conducted since 1992. The analysis of the received results concerning social stratification of contemporary Moscow student body, students’ motivation, organization of educational process, standards of teaching staff behavior allows the authors to examine the development of higher education as a social institute during the last decade. Special attention is given to rules of play, achievements and serious problems, negative aspects of the university life. These aspects served as a basis for general sociological analysis of the transformation processes of social institutes of Russian society using higher education as an example. The comparison of the data received in 1995 and in 2000 gave an opportunity to reveal the changes which happened over the last 5 years and which appeared to be hardly noticeable. In the first place it is a more life-asserting, optimistic perception of life by a modern student, which indirectly indicates his better adaptation to contemporary social reality. The stabilization of social structure, revealed by the authors, was another factor, facilitating social adaptation of new generations, perception of current conditions as safe, stable and predictable. At the same time, the optimistic assurance in the future (and vice versa, the sense of despair, pessimism) varies considerably depending on particular social, teaching and professional, and other circumstances. The analysis of the factors, contributing to or obstructing the formation of such assurance (standard of living, social and stratification position, prestige of the university and profession acquired, quality of education and so on) allows also to reveal the main problems, contradictions, painful points of contemporary student body. The analysis of everyday university life and features of spiritual and moral portrait of student body showed, that the core of Higher School transformation is concentrated exactly here. Though the authors mention certain student “diseases” (purchase of term papers, superficial attitude to study and so on), the greatest attention is given negative facts among the lecturers (bribes, profitable connections, reduction of less exigent attitude to professional level). It is a question of the deformation of standards of lecturer’s behavior, norms of relationship between students and lecturers, rules of the game and of the dysfunction of higher education as the social institute.