The reform of Higher education in 1958 and Irkutsk Mining and Metallurgical Institute

The era of N.S. Khrushchev's regime became a transformation in many spheres of life in the USSR. They affected the entire national education of the country, including higher education. The head of state put forward this idea at the XX Congress of the CPSU in 1956. And already in 1958, under the slogan “For the close connection of the school with life,” this reform began to be implemented. And now the road to universities was directly related to professional training at enterprises, which, according to the developers of the reform, should have been of great educational importance. In 1959, students were entered at the Irkutsk Mining and Metallurgical Institute according to the new rules. This law expected the restructuring of the entire higher education system, which had been developing for decades. The solution of the immediate tasks in the field of educational work for the implementation of the law, mainly fell on the deans of faculties shoulders. They needed to establish a system for informing the elders of the student groups that were located at the enterprises of Irkutsk, Cheremkhovo, Baley, Bodaibo, Krasnoyarsk, Norilsk, Stalinsk and others, in order to more clearly carry out operational management. The Institute faced major problems related to a sharp increase in the number of students, the lack of methodological guidelines and control tasks in most special disciplines, and a lack of supply of textbooks. The reform of higher education has also led to serious problems in the development of research work at the Institute. The reform directly affected not only the students entered in the 1959/1960 academic year, but also the 2nd-5th year students. Their practical training time has increased significantly.

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