Back to 1930s...
A group of deaf and hard-of-hearing students from a workers' faculty1 in Moscow broke in to the office of the then Soviet Union Society of the Deaf with a claim: "We want to continue our study and we want to have a higher education!" A young interpreter who accompanied them, added fervently: "They are clever, young, talented, hardworking - why can't they study in an institute? It's unfair!"
In 1934, an "experimental" group of hard-of-hearing students started their lessons in Moscow State Technical University. They were accepted without entry tests and studied in a specially allocated classroom. At first they shunned hearing peers who looked at deaf students in amazement: they signed, waved hands and talked differently. However, over time, they got used to each other. Hearing students even started taking notes from their deaf colleagues - so concise and clear were they. It became obvious that deaf students were qualified, perseverant, communicative and able to work like anyone else.
Since then, deaf students were accepted to the University on a regular basis and under regular rules: they took entry exams, moved from classroom to classroom, graded on par with their peers and waited for professors to submit their dues. They became inherent part of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU).
Into the communist and post-communist Russia
More than 200 deaf and hard-of-hearing engineers came out of the walls of Bauman MSTU, a few students got PhD degrees. Space and defense technology was created through their efforts too.
But the perestroika period interfered. Rapid changes and reforms in the country, conversion, reduction of military orders at the enterprises, freezing of the space technology programmes created unemployment among Bauman University graduates and concerns about the University's future.
Several graduates of the University went to the U. S. to learn examples of good practices from the Rochester Institute of Technology and Gallaudet University. These experiences inspired change in Bauman University's vocational training for the deaf students. In the early 1990's, the University administration expanded programs and services for deaf students and created the special study Center for the Deaf. Since then, all deaf and hard of hearing students have been educated there. Now, it is the only educational institution for deaf people in Russia authorized by the state. About eight hundred listeners attend the Center per year.
Bauman University is one of just a few places in Russia where hard-of-hearing and deaf people can get a higher education or be accepted regularly. Bauman University experts created an unprecedented system of the common higher education in engineering.
Faculties at the University include such programmes as radio-electronics and laser devices, Information theory and control systems, mechanical engineering technologies, robotics and complex automation, engineering business and management, aerospace engineering, rocket and space engineering and technologies. The information technologies, mechanical engineering, and instrument making programmes are particularly popular with Deaf and hard-of-hearing students..
About 250 deaf students from all over Russia study in various programs across the university, and study for seven years instead of the commonly accepted 6 years. Preparation courses are offered for deaf and hard-of-hearing young people who want to enter the University, and many deaf and HoH students avail themselves of this opportunity, recognizing it as good preparation that will increase their chances of being accepted. It happened that a young deaf person from a village wanted to study in Bauman MSTU; he was taken through preparation courses where he reached a sufficient level of knowledge and skills; later he entered the University and got an opportunity to become a certified professional.
After their 3rd year, all deaf and hard-of-hearing students are released to "sink or swim" in the mainstream groups of the university. Most of them are prepared for challenges and - with due technical and psychological support - they do survive successfully and graduate in the mainstream environment.
What exactly contributes to the success of their education? Stay tuned for next part of the article!
1 Workers' faculty - general educational institution in the former USSR in 1920-1930s that prepared young people without secondary education for higher education. Purpose: to provide short-term preparation for workers and peasants/ farmers to enter higher education.
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