Higher education in the USSR: students’ study documents and legitimations

In the USSR, vocational training in universities and institutes was carried out according to a standardized concept. The typicality of the form and the similarity of the content of the Soviet higher education was manifested not only at the level of educational processes, but also in relation to the study documents, which legitimized the student status of their holder throughout the academic path. This was due to the fact that: 1) Soviet higher education was based on the same educational paradigm, which projected the same relational and actional frameworks for all actors of the educational process; 2) higher education institutions had the same social mission, achieved the same objectives and operated according to the same strategic plans; 3) the training process, regardless of the specialty and the field of vocational training, was carried out according to the same educational models. Documents of personal importance to students had the same concept and the same form in all institutions of higher education in the USSR, their importance varying according to significance and usefulness. The uniqueness of the form, along with the conceptual and functional similarity of the educational processes, became an attribute and a sign of the educational system in the USSR.