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NON-GOVERNMENTAL
ST. PETERSBURG HIGH SCHOOLS
IN THE LIFELONG EDUCATION SYSTEM:
A REGIONAL PROFILE
T. Prok
St. Petersburg's non-state high schools have been an integral part of the urban regional subsystem of lifelong education for more than 20 years. In history, the process of integrating the non-governmental sector of higher education into the municipal regional subsystem of lifelong education in St. Petersburg can be divided into three main stages.
The first stage covers the period up to 1917. St. Petersburg is considered the place where Russian non-state higher education emerged and was established at the turn of 19th-20th centuries. The city also offers a prototype for modern systems of lifelong education. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 30 non-state higher educational institutions were founded in St. Petersburg, including 13 public and 17 private ones. However, by 1917 there were only 19 (11 private universities had been closed by that time). During the pre-Soviet period there was a great variety of high schools in the non-governmental sector of St. Petersburg; university-type institutions, pedagogical colleges, high schools for the training of artists, and also business, engineering, industrial, and agricultural colleges. Non-governmental schools of that period left their mark on the history of education in Russia. Those St. Petersburg private universities introduced new forms of education: graduate and postgraduate education, and advanced training. At some private universities kindergartens, primary schools and colleges were established to form what is currently referred to as “educational complexes”. In fact, they were prototypes for the modern system of lifelong education. St. Petersburg's non-governmental schools acted as a test site for education in Russia, and were several years ahead of the introduction of such innovations in other provinces of the country. Much of the heritage of St. Petersburg's non-governmental institutions seems relevant today. One example was the St. Petersburg Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the League of Education which had a powerful impact on the development of educational thought in Russia. The Pedagogical Academy was founded 1907 as the highest academic and research center in pedagogical science in the nation. Its main task was scientific and experimental development of the theory and practice of education and training, and the training of highly qualified teachers, experts in public education, teachers of extracurricular activities, managers of educational institutions, and school therapists. The academy was an experimental school with three successive stages (kindergarten, secondary school and high school). The objective of the experimental school was the comprehensive study of the psychophysiological nature of children, the conditions of their development and education using natural methods, as well as the distribution of information about the patterns of their development and the psychological foundations of education and training, which in that era exemplified an evidence-based approach to the organization of experimental educational, and a prototype for the system of lifelong education. However, after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 all private educational institutions were closed, including St. Petersburg's higher educational establishments. Many of them were then transformed into public schools that successfully operate to this
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day. After periods of restructuring and reform, the work of the St. Petersburg Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the League of Education (founded 1907) continues today in the work of the St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Training. Higher courses for women at the Prof. P.F. Lesgaft Biological Laboratory established by Dmitriev in 1906 continue at what is known today as the
P.F. Lesgaft National State University of Physical Culture, Sport and Health. The St. Petersburg Academy of Music (founded in 1862) operates today as the N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Academy of Music. The St. Petersburg State Engineering and Economics University dates back to higher business courses established by M.V. Pobedinsky in 1906. There are many other examples.
The second stage took place during the “Soviet period” (roughly from 1918 and ending in 1990). During this period, there were “quasi-non-governmental” educational institutions in Petrograd/Leningrad (St. Petersburg) such as political and trade union schools, including “komsomol” (“young communist”) schools, that provided lifelong professional education within departmental structures. Some of them, after the reforms of the 1990s, became the first non-state universities in post-Soviet St. Petersburg. Thus the largest private university in Russia, the St. Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences, as it became in 1991, dates back to 1926 when the Leningrad School for the Trade Union Movement was founded. The history of the Baltic Academy of Tourism and Business (founded in 1992) originates from courses established for the training and development of tourism and excursion staff in the north-west region of the U.S.S.R. established in November 1969 in Leningrad after a decision by the Presidium on Tourism and Excursions of the All-Union Central Trade Union Council. The St. Petersburg Institute of Foreign Economic Relations, Economics and Law was established in 1994 in cooperation with the regional organization Znanie. The history of the St. Petersburg State University of Management and Economics began on December 27, 1990, when the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council and the Leningrad Branch of the Academy of Sciences Training Centre took the joint decision to establish a small state-owned enterprise under the name Professional. The centre was engaged in the retraining and advanced training of government employees and managers working for the city of St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Oblast and government entities in other Russian regions. These non-state universities have successfully filled a niche for adult education in a timely manner by offering students the chance to obtain a second university degree, as well as retraining and advanced training for new professions that are in demand on the market economy using all positive experience accumulated during previous years.
The third stage dates from 1991 until the present. The current operations of St. Petersburg non-governmental universities are qualitatively different than previously and are taking place in a new environment. At present there are 40 nongovernmental universities in St. Petersburg (9% of the total number of nongovernmental universities of Russia) and there are 59,300 students enrolled in them. Modern non-governmental higher education in St. Petersburg combines major university centres, economic, legal, educational and other institutions of higher education, primarily in the humanities [see Table]. Despite differing initial conditions for the entry into the municipal regional subsystem of lifelong professional education, leaders in the private sector in St. Petersburg were originally focused on strategic activities within the framework of the concept of lifelong education, demonstrating a wide range of penetration into the regional
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subsystem of lifelong professional education embracing all levels of educational training: from pre-school to postgraduate education.
St. Petersburg non-state high schools (2012)
St. Petersburg non-state high schools
1. The Academy of Liberal Arts
2. Baltic Humanitarian Institute
3. Baltic Academy For Tourism And Entrepreneurship
4. Baltic Institute of Foreign Languages and International Collaboration
5. Baltic University of Ecology, Politics and Law
6. The East European Institute of Psychoanalysis
7. Oriental Institute
8. The St. Petersburg School of Religion and Philosophy (Institute)
9. The European University in St. Petersburg
10. Institute of Business and Law
11. The Institute of Decorative and Applied Art
12. Institute of Foreign Languages
13. Institute of Legal Science and Entrepreneurship
14. Institute of Special Pedagogy and Psychology
15. Institute of Television, Business and Design
16. Institute of Economics and Finance
17. International Banking Institute
18. Inter-industrial Institute for Staff Training and Information
19. Inter-regional Institute of Economics and Law
20. National Institute of Open Russia
21. Nevsky Institute of Management and Design
22. Nevsky Institute of Language and Culture
23. St.Petersburg Institute of Jewish Sciences
24. Russian Christian Humanities Academy
25. St. Petersburg Institute of Psychology and Acmeology
26. St. Petersburg Institute of Human Resource Management
27. St. Petersburg Institute of Economics, Culture and Business Administration
28. St. Petersburg Institute of Management and Economics
29. St. Petersburg Academy of Law
30. St. Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences
31. St. Petersburg Institute of Foreign Economic Relations, Economics and Law
32. St. Petersburg Institute of Hospitality
33. St. Petersburg Institute of Education in the Sphere of Humanities and Social Sciences
34. The Duke Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg St. Petersburg Institute of Law
35. St. Petersburg Institute of Dentistry
36. St. Petersburg Institute of Management and Law
37. St. Petersburg Institute of Economics and Management
38. International Management Institute, St. Petersburg
39. The Smolny University / College of the Russian Academy of Education
40. Law Institute
Year of establishment, type of ownership
1998, non-state establishment 2004, private establishment.
1992, non-state establishment 1996, private establishment.
1993, private establishment
1991, private establishment
1994, private establishment
1990, non-state establishment
1994, non-state establishment 1994, non-state establishment
1996, non-state establishment 1989, non-state establishment
1994, private establishment
1993, non-state establishment
1997, non-state establishment
1992, non-state establishment
1991, independent noncommercial organization
1995, independent noncommercial organization
1997, non-state establishment
1991, non-state establishment
1996, private establishment
1996, private establishment
1992, independent noncommercial organization
1989, private establishment 1995, private establishment
2002, independent noncommercial organization
1999, private establishment
1990, non-state establishment
1998, non-state establishment
1991, non-state establishment
1994 r.,non-state establishment
1994, non-state establishment 1998, non-state establishment
1992, non-state establishment
1997, non-state establishment
1995, non-state establishment 1994, private establishment 1989, non-state establishment
1998, independent noncommercial organization
1992, non-state establishment
Source: http://www.anvuz.ru
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