Soviets Seek University-Industry Link

WASHINGTON—Research administrators in the Soviet Union are joining their counterparts around the world in bringing together university and industrial scientists to encourage commercial applications of basic research. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s repeated calls for perestroyka (restructuring) have reverberated through the Soviet government and bureaucracy and are being heard in the staid halls of the country’s universities. His goal is to make the entire university system more responsive to the needs of the nation’s economy and its antiquated technological base. One step in increasing the transfer of technology is the formation of “temporary associations” between the two sectors. Soviet enterprises are also being asked to support graduate students in scientific and technical fields by providmg more equipment and more space to carry out applied research. Unlike typical university-industry arrangements in the United States, the Soviet companies and industrial institutes do not provide any money for the desired research. One example of these new arrangements is the “educational scientific center” established between the Soviet Academy’s Institute of Solid State Physics and the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys. The center allows faculty, undergraduates and graduate students from the Moscow Institute to work on specific development projects in ultrasonic and laser engineering and technology, cbrrosion and automation. The center also provides training to industrial personnel in the same fields. Prof. I.V. Krutov, a member of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, said last fall that the center will lead to better “integration of education, science and production.” The approach to funding university research is also being reformed. Before perestroyka, large block grants were handed out to departments and institutes under the control of the directors. Now individual projects and investigators are being funded. Continued support hinges on the scientific merit and progress of the projects. As a result, laboratory supervisors and research directors must now list specific objectives in their proposals, and will be held accountable for their goals. A new wage scale has also been introduced to provide university researchers with greater incentives. Under the new system a faculty member will not need a Ph.D. to earn the rank and salary of a “senior scientist”; sufficient skill and a record of publications are the new requirements. A Ph.D. is still required to become a “leading specialist,” and a Soviet doctorate is needed to advance to the level of a “main specialist.” Less Talk, More Action The country’s flagship university, Moscow State University, is also changing its teaching methods to speed up the transfer of new technologies and knowledge from the laboratory to the factory. Applied science courses are being added to the curriculum, and the number of hours students are required to spend in lectures is being reduced by nearly a third from the current 30 hours a week. Gorbachev's educational reforms also call for fewer but better-trained graduates in technicalfields, tougher admissions and performance standards, special training for top students, reduction in the number of academic specialities and a more general scientific curriculum emphasizing independent study over rote learning. Possible changes in the military draft may allow top science students to avoid interrupting their studies for active duty. It is impossible to tell what effects the funding and curricula change will have on the universities and, ultimately, the Soviet economy. Only 10 percent of the country’s basic research, and less than 5 percent of its applied R&D, is actually carried out at universities. The majority of basic research is done within the institutes of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and most of the applied R&D is done by the various industrial ministries. In addition, there is little cooperation between university lab and classroom because each university has a separate teaching staff, funded by the Ministry of Higher Education, and research staff, funded by the Academy. The Soviet teaching staff generally has little time either for research or for incorporating the latest findings into their lectures. New monetary incentives for researchers are expected to attract teachers back into the labs, but the shift could lower the quality of instruction. Last year, during ceremonies marking the Day of Soviet Science, Academician Y.A. Ovchinnikov complained about the poor quality of training for young scientists. If successful, Gorbachev’s restructuring may inspire a new generation of university researchers and teachers capable of stimulating the chronically sluggish Soviet economy. McSweegan is a AAAS fellow at the US. State Department.

Soviets Seek University-Industry Link

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