Reds' Engineering Superior to Crimson's

Engineering at many Russian universities is superior to that at Harvard, a student at the Russian Research Center who travelled in Russia this summer reports. In addition, he said, instruction in the sciences is almost as good at the University of Moscow as it is here.

Norton Dodge, a graduate fellow in Economics, found the level of scientific training "very high," but the "general education" of the average Russian university student apparently somewhat below the standard in the United States. This is due, he said, to the Marxist ideology imposing itself on the subject matter, and to the narrow specialization characterizing Soviet education.

It is possible to compare Russian and American universities only in sciences and engineering, because "the other fields are so permeated with Marxism that it is difficult to compare them with their Western counterparts," Dodge declared. For example, in the elementary required courses, philosophy is a study of dialectic materialism, economics a study of Marxism, while history is confined to that of the communist party. "Surprised and Upset"

The students appear to be well indoctrinated, he pointed out. Dodge met only one student willing to say he actually opposed the regime. "But," he added, "certainly there are many others who are afraid to say what they think. You would have to be a Russian student to know what they really feel."

Dodge was "surprised and upset" to find that Harvard is not nearly so well known as Columbia at the universities he visited. He attributed this partly to the fact that students from Columbia visited Russia a year ago, and representatives attended the 200th anniversary of the University of Moscow last spring.

Dodge went to Russia with the hope that he could learn something about the economy at first hand, but he could obtain very little data not available here. However, it would be valuable for students in some fields to study in Russia, he maintained. In history, literature, language, anthropology, and archaeology it would be "both feasible and profitable to study in Russia," he said. "Studies in the other social sciences, particularly economics and government, although useful, would not appear possible under present conditions," he added.