What benefits do students enjoy in the USSR?
A great many, apart from the principal ones-a free education and free professional training in all fields, monthly maintenance grants for those enrolled in day colleges and specialised secondary schools, and a guaranteed job in one's chosen field on graduation. The benefits embrace all aspects of life.
Out-of-town students are provided with hostel accommodation for a purely token sum of 3-4 roubles a month.
Each educational establishment has its own canteen, where meals are provided at a discount (of about 60 per cent) with the trade union making up the difference.
Students are also given a substantial discount (30-50 per cent) on tickets for air lines, long-distance trains and public transport in the cities.
Industrial and office workers and collective farm members who combine their jobs with studies at evening schools (for a secondary education certificate) have a shorter working week. Students of evening college departments are given additional paid leave I о take their exams and prepare term papers and diploma theses.
About 100,000 students each year spend their holidays at sanatoriums, holiday homes, and tourist camps at reduced cost.
The list of benefits also includes the free use of libraries and laboratories, stadiums and sports facil- ilies, reduced entrance tickets to museums and so on. The main thing is that all students without exception are provided with everything necessary lor carrying on their studies and leading a normal life.