Student Population

the totality of students enrolled in higher educational institutions. The term “student population” (in Russian, studenchestvo) may designate (1) students as a so-ciodemographic group, with a certain numerical, age, and sex composition, territorial distribution, and other characteristics, (2) the specific social position, role, and status of students, or (3) the particular stage of socialization—namely, the student phase—that large portion of youth passes through and that is characterized by distinct sociopsychological features.

Students emerged as a distinct group in 12th-century Europe, with the formation of the first universities. The students of the Middle Ages were extremely heterogeneous, both in social standing and in age. With the development of capitalism and the growing significance of higher education, students began to play an ever greater role in society. In addition to being a source of replenishment for the professional ranks and the intelligentsia, students themselves make up a rather numerous and important social group. Although high costs and a whole set of social barriers made higher education accessible in most instances only to the well-to-do, and while such education in turn granted significant privileges to its beneficiaries, by the 19th and early 20th centuries students already displayed a high level of political activism and played an important role in social life.

In 1903, V. I. Lenin wrote that students “are the most responsive section of the intelligentsia, and the intelligentsia are so called because they most consciously, most resolutely, and most accurately reflect and express the development of class interests and political groupings in society as a whole. The students would not be what they are if their political grouping did not correspond to the political grouping of society as a whole—‘correspond’ not in the sense of the student groups and the social groups being absolutely proportionate in strength and numbers, but in the sense of the necessary and inevitable existence among the students of the same groups as in society” (Poln. sobr. soch, 5th ed., vol. 7, p. 343).

The scientific and technological revolution resulted in major shifts in the standing and composition of the student population. Everywhere, the need for educated personnel stimulated rapid growth both in the absolute number of students and in their proportion to the total population, particularly to their own age group. Between 1950 and late 1966, the number of all the world’s students in institutions of higher learning increased by a factor of 3.2. In 1913 the number of students per 10,000 inhabitants in Europe varied between 7 and 11, whereas in 1934 it ranged from 11 to 30. More recently, this proportion has increased as follows: in the United States, 273 students per 10,000 inhabitants (1971–72 academic year); in the USSR, 186 (1973–74); in France, 132 (1970–71); in Italy, 118 (1972–73); in Great Britain, 94 (1971–72); and in the Federal Republic of Germany, 66 (1971–72). The number of students in the developing countries is growing rapidly. As institutions of higher learning expand, there is increasing concentration of students, with ever greater numbers living on campuses. More and more, higher education is acquiring a mass character, which undermines its former elitism, and is creating a student population that is more democratic in its social origin. There are also noticeable changes in the sex and age composition of the student population, with a particular increase in the number of women.

Despite differences in their social origins and consequently in their material opportunities, students are linked together by common pursuits, and in this sense they form a distinct socio-occupa-tional group. Their shared activity, combined with their territorial concentration, gives rise to a certain identity, to group consciousness, and to a specific subculture and way of life, further enhanced by the group’s homogeneity in terms of age—something lacking in other socio-occupational groups. Students’ sociopsychological sense of community is externalized and reinforced through activity in a whole range of political, cultural, and educational student organizations and through sports and other student activities.

However, despite these common features, students are not a socially homogeneous population, and there is no basis for regarding them as a social class, as proposed by some Western sociologists—for example, I. L. Horowitz and W. H. Friedland of the United States. The student population does not constitute a permanent sector of the work force. The social position and specific problems of students are determined by a given social structure and depend on the level of a country’s socioeconomic and cultural development, including the specific features of that country’s system of higher education.

In the capitalist countries, despite the significant growth in the number of students, higher education remains class-determined. Inflation, the rising cost of higher education, the shortage and inadequacy of scholarships, and the unpreparedness of the institutions for the influx of students are some of the factors whose effect is more severe among the poorer strata of society. In the higher educational institutions, the children of working-class and especially of peasant families are significantly fewer as compared to other strata, and they also drop out more often. In many countries, including the developing nations, the content of education does not correspond to life’s demands, and an archaic system of higher education—particularly when biased in favor of the humanities—fails to ensure a supply of trained specialists of the type required by the national economy. In other countries, such as the United States, oversaturation of the labor market results in high unemployment among professional personnel. This affects the students’ situation and attitudes and arouses them to protest.

In the socialist countries, students represent the vanguard of youth. While the population of the USSR increased by 55 percent between 1922 and 1972, the number of students in higher educational institutions increased by a factor of 21. In the 1940–41 academic year, there were 812,000 students in the USSR, while in 1973–74 there were 4.621 million. The number of specialists graduating each year rose correspondingly, from 126,100 in 1940 to 692,300 in 1973. The greater proportion of women in the student population, rising from 28 percent in 1927–28 to 50 percent in 1973–74, has been a significant achievement. The systematic increase in funds available for student stipends is only one of the measures being adopted to improve the students’ financial security. Preparatory courses, workers’ schools (rabfaki), and entrance regulations aim to facilitate the admission of working-class and peasant youth to higher educational institutions and to ensure equality of social opportunities for all classes and social groups. In addition to their scholastic pursuits, the students display a high degree of social activism by participating in the nation’s sociopolitical and working life—for example, in the summer work semester and in Komsomol activities. The Communist Party and the Soviet government devote much attention to improvements in the educational system, as well as to the political and ideological training of students and stimulation of their interest in independent scientific and scholarly work and expansion of their cultural horizons.