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1955, marks the beginning of a transitic. ward universal year compulsory education, which is e.. eted to be achi by about 1960. Except for the choice of foreign language (usually Eng German or French), the currieulum in all ten grades is the :. for all students. Soviet schools devote much more time American schools to foreign languages, geography, mathem. and the natural sciences. For example, a foreign languay. begun in the ffth grade and studied for six years. Most versity curriculums require four more years of foreign-lang study, and medical students study two years of Latin in addi In 1953 almost 41 per cent of the class hours in the three u grades was devoted to mathematics and the sciences, an the fall of 1955 the proportion was inereased even more.. revised at that tine, the required program in all ten-year se!. now includes the following subjects: Russian language literature (including the study of some foreign y cnrks in t lation, among them Shakespeare's Hamlet and Part I of Goe Fawst), a foreign language, history, geography, the Cons. tion of the U.S.S.R., psychology, arithmetic, algebra, geor trigonometry, chemistry, physics, astronomy, singing, dra manual arts and physical culture and sport (including miljtary training as eariy as the fifth grade).. Teacher Ratio High The pupil-teacher ratio in Soviet schools has been ste improving. In 1930 there were 36 pupils per teacher in pri and secondary schools,in 1940 there were 28, in 1950 there 23: and the ratio since i950 appears to have dropped even l owing partly to the drop in enroliment as a result of the time decrease in birth rate and losses in population. Soviet university work includes a basic program Is four to six years, depending on the field; and graduate wor!. comprises two advanced degrees, the kandidat (degree of didate), which requires three years of graduate work a thesis; and the doctoral degree, which is normally receiveg. siderably later than in the United States and is not consi a prerequisite for employment or advancement in a unive In 1954 there were about 1,100,000 full-time univ students in the Soviet Union-. considerably less than ha many as in the United States, where there were 2,600,00 1953-54 there were 803 institutions of higher education i Soviet Union, as compared to 1,851 in the United States. 1954 the ratio of faculty to students in Soviet universitie 60