Historia provinciae: журнал региональной истории (Mar 2021)

Disciplinary system of higher education of the capital in the early 20th century: the establishment and activities of the professorial court

  • Ekaterina A. Smirnova

DOI
https://doi.org/10.23859/2587-8344-2021-5-1-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 1
pp. 106 – 145

Abstract

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The article considers government measures to establish professorial disciplinary court at higher education institutions of the capital (the court conducted its work from August 27, 1902 to February 22, 1917), the work of the commission on the development of regulations for this body, and the main normative legal acts to implement it. The article examines the issues of the activity of the professorial disciplinary court and the relationship between the participants of this disciplinary system: students, professors, and the authorities. The students who appeared before the professorial disciplinary court were accused of violation of the norms of administrative law of their educational institution, and in accordance with the university charter and the rules of the university, they had to abide by the decision of the court. Professors were in the same position of dependence: membership in the Council of the educational institution obliged them to assume the role of judges. The article explains why the professorial courts did not have the opportunity to become an autonomous body, why the professors themselves did not want to take on the responsibility of judges, and whether all students were hostile to their work. Analyzing the cases of violations which were considered at that time and concerned the rules and order at a university, the author comes to the conclusion that it was not possible to ensure order and create conditions for the restoration of the proper course of academic life by introducing the system of university disciplinary proceedings. The compromise between the authorities and the students, which should have been facilitated by the existence of the professorial court, was not reached. Resistance from students and professors forced the Ministry of Public Education to reconsider the need for the existence of professorial courts and exclude them from the draft of the new university charter.

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