ABSTRACT
U N I V E R S I T I E S E N G A G E in teaching and research. They prepare students to be come men of action in practical politics, the civil service, the practice of law, medi cine, surgery, etc. Others studying at uni versities want to become scholars and scien tists whose style of work is far removed from the on-the-spot decision-making which is so important among the former category. The professions and disciplines taught and developed at universities require a great va riety of manpower and organization of en tirely different kinds. Universities neverthe less insist on comprising all of them, in the name of an idea stemming from a time when one person was really able to master all the arts and sciences. They, furthermore, attempt to perform all these complex tasks within the framework of corporate self-gov ernment reminiscent of medieval guilds. Indeed there have been serious doubts about the efficiency of the university since the eighteenth century. Reformers of the "En lightenment" advocated the abolition of the universities as useless remnants of past tra dition and the establishment in their stead of specialized schools for the training of professional people and academies for the advancement of science and learning. This program was actually put into effect by the Revolution and the subsequent reorganiza tion of higher education by Napoleon in France. The present-day organization of higher education in the Soviet Union still reflects the belief in the efficiency of spe cialized professional schools as well as spe cialized academic research institutions.
