Re: Why did the USSR fall

["Chris Doss" <nomorebounces@xxxxxxx>]

It's a little stale now, but Michael Perelman asked about whether the poor in Russia were able to attend elite colleges. I gave a bad answer.

The Russian elite often sends its children to study abroad (not always--Gorby's granddaughter recently graduated from Moscow State University), England being the destination of choice. Tatar pop star Alsu is studying in the UK, or at least was. I haven't been keeping up with my tabloids. :)

Russian higher education is is nominally free. HOWEVER, for fields of study that are in demand--business, journalism, acounting, economics, advertising, law, "politology" in the peculiar Russian sense of the word, engineering, computers--there are very long waiting lists, which can often be gotten around through paying a, ahem, informal fee (cough cough). In those fields, education is often de facto for pay.

Higher education in medicine, the sciences, teaching, and the humanities--i.e., fields that are dead-enders from an income point-of-view--is both de jure and de facto completely free.