PROFESSORIAL CORPORATION AND REFORM OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM AT UNIVERSITIES AT THE TURN OF THE XIX-XX CENTURIES

Abstract

In the late XIX - early XX centuries the Ministry of Education could no longer reform education system without relying on the opinion of the professorial corporation. The largest sessions created by the Ministry to find out the point of view of professors on the most problematic issues of university life took place in 1901 and 1906. The purpose of these sessions was to revise the university statute of 1884, but neither in the first nor in the second case did the new statute appear. The materials of the first session were buried in the Ministry, but according to the results of the second session, a subject educational system was proclaimed. Under the conditions of that time (1906), along with other easing of university administration, it was a significant step forward towards university autonomy and the freedom of education expressed in the subject system. This article provides an analysis of the opinions of professors of universities of the Russian Empire which were gathered during those two sessions and reflecting the points of view of the professorial corporation about the reform of the educational system.