Education for a social transformation Soviet university education aid in the cold war capitalist world-system

International education is seen as an effective form of soft power. This article reviews one of history's largest and most ambitious attempts to achieve global influence through university education, and to reshape the world-the Soviet university aid program, 1956-91. Drawing on existing resear...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean education Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 226 - 241
Main Authors Griffiths, Tom G, Cardona, Euridice Charon
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis 01.01.2015
Routledge
Subjects
Access to Education
Archives
Ausland
Developing Nations
Economic Development
Educational Finance
Educational History
Educational Research
Foreign Countries
Foreign Policy
Foreign Students
Frage
Higher Education
Hochschulgeschichte
Hochschulsystem
Human Capital
International Education
Program Descriptions
Russland
Social Change
Social Systems
World Views
USSR
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Summary:International education is seen as an effective form of soft power. This article reviews one of history's largest and most ambitious attempts to achieve global influence through university education, and to reshape the world-the Soviet university aid program, 1956-91. Drawing on existing research and Soviet archival materials, we lay out and contextualize characteristic features of the Soviet education aid program. Specifically, we identify its focus on students from "developing" and newly independent countries, and its ambition to form graduates who would return home to become national leaders sympathetic to Soviet socialism. We conclude by approaching the program from a world-systems perspective. Here, we highlight the intended catch-up style modernization and national economic development for countries through their participation in the Soviet university aid program as well as the intended development of the human capital of participant countries. The complex impacts on participants throughout the world and their subsequent worldview are the subject of ongoing research by the authors. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).
ISSN:1056-4934
1944-7086
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1065390