The article considers the reforms in Russian education throughout a large historical period comprising the 19th and the 20th centuries. The socio-political, cultural and moral basis for the reforms are established. A holistic approach to considering the reforms in Russian education uncovers a number of recurring and therefore stable features that should be taken into account in order to increase the efficiency of current educational reforms.

Daniel W. Rossides. Knee-Jerk Formalism: Reforming American Education // Journal of Higher Education. V. 75. Iss. 6. 2004. P. 667+. Ohio State University Press. (Translated from English by E. Froumina)

This article analyzes the present state of affairs in the funding of higher education. The current system of funding is the result of reforming a system that dates back to the 1950s. The reasons that made the reforms necessary are shown, as well as the consequences of the reforms. The myth of free higher education is shown to be unproductive. The grounds for introducing tuition fees and the possible scenarios for doing so are considered. The author stresses the necessity to overcome existing stereotypes concerning the interconnection between the accessibility of education and charging tuition.

The article considers the conditions in which the public consciousness was formed in the 1920s. It presents the factors that influenced the main directions of scientific inquiry, and shows the context in which new branches of Russian science, namely paedology, psychotechnics, and pedagogics, were formed. The author notes the tension and difficult circumstances of that period that affected such prominent scientists as A.B. Zalkind, I.N. Spielrein, and others.

In this article the reform of geography teaching in the mid-1930s is described in terms of geographic turnaround. Making the map a basis of school courses, converting geographic knowledge into a visual format, and concentrating attention on the cartographic skills of students is considered against the background of the principal symbolic events of the time. The transformation and transfiguration of Soviet reality takes places in the science of geography and involves nature, but it is due to the map that it gains visibility and credibility. This circumstance gives a more accurate description of the status of the new policy towards geography in school: it is a by-product of a (broadly understood) political use of geographic maps.

The article analyzes the reforms in higher education in the 1920s and 30s based on the experience of the Tomsk State University. It is in this period that the Soviet authorities, together with the faculty, searched for the optimal model of higher education. This included determining which professionals were necessary in an institute of higher education and what their training should be, as well as deciding on the organization, contents and length of university courses, the methodological foundations of education, and the examination system for students and young professionals. This resulted in a university system that was a blend of the pre-revolution Russian university tradition and the Soviet innovations introduced during this period.

The movement for equal educational rights was the first step to the emancipation of women. The issue of higher education for women was extremely acute in Siberia, as it was very remote from the center of the country. The article presents the results of research on the activities of the Siberian Higher Courses for Women and of the Tomsk State University. Admission of women to these two institutions had another important consequence: It helped to alleviate the scarcity of doctors and teachers in Siberia.

Based on the history of the oldest Siberian institution of higher education, the Tomsk Medical Institute, the article analyzes changes in medical schools in the context of the general reforms of Soviet society in the 1920s and 30s. Authorities often created unviable institutions by splitting classical universities and reorganizing them into professional colleges . The new students, who came from the working class and peasantry, were unprepared for the new methods of education. Many hasty innovations were subsequently abolished, having been proved unpractical.

James E. Rosenbaum, Takehiko Kariya, Rick Settersten, Tony Maier. Market and network theories of the transition from high school to work: their application to industrialized societies // Annual Review of Sociology. V. 16 (1990). Pp. 263–299. (Translated from English by D. Erschler)

Translated from English by A. Pinskaya.

Compiled by M.N. Melnikova.

The article presents the modern views on the crucial role of career counseling in forming the professional and personal choices of an individual. The author touches upon historical and cultural realities that influence career counseling in the West, and analyzes the psychological reasons for the emergence of career counseling in Russia. Special attention is paid to the general direction of career counseling development in countries with different levels of psychological culture.

On November 16, 2006, the editorial board of Problems of Education organized a round table, The fate of Universities in Russia.
The following topics were discussed:
1. The diversity of universities. What is a Russian university now: a typology of universities by origin (traditional, technological, pedagogical etc.) by geography (metropolitan vs. provincial — by type of region) by orientation (market-oriented, oriented towards the rent form university status etc.) by education content.
2. What social functions (educational, socializational etc.) are played by universities of different types.
3. The status of research in universities of different types (the problem of preserving scientific schools of thought and of the culture of preserving and transmitting knowledge to the next generation).
4. Tendencies and perspectives of development for universities of different types.

The changes in the education system are put by the authors into a broader framework of urbanization and postindustrialization. The analysis of intentional and spontaneous actions in the sphere of education is based on data obtained by polling students, parents, teachers, and school principals. Particular attention is given to the school as a social institute. The article analyzes the potential of this institute to absorb the innovations being introduced, discusses its interaction with society, and the necessity of school reform.

Publication and introduction prepared by M.V. Boguslavsky.
The material is based on the Law for Standard Public General Education Schools and Temporary Regulations for the Standard Public General Education School, published in the Bulletin of the State Public Education Committee (no 6–8), November 1, 1917.

(Based on the materials of Bonne International Ltd http://www.bonne-int.com/index.php?lang=ru&cont=history).

The article provides a review of American and European research on education efficiency conducted over the last decades. Special attention is given to the effect of the school, of the teacher, and of the student, on education. Possible reasons for the crisis of the modern secondary school are discussed.

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