This article includes railway colleges/universities/higher-educational-institutes in the Russian empire, the Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states.
Railway colleges are higher educational institutes which train students for railway careers, mainly in engineering. They differ from other colleges by offering various classes on railway topics (such as Railway electrification, railway operations, etc.) and most students major in some railway specialty. The Soviet Union inherited a few such colleges from the Russian empire and both expanded them and created many new railway colleges. After the demise of the Soviet Union and the resulting decline in railway transportation in the Post-Soviet states, most of these colleges (often renamed into universities) continued to operate with support from the government.
Railway colleges during the Soviet era prepared students for careers in various aspects of railroading, primarily as engineers.[1] During the Soviet period they were often known as "higher educational institutes", and this designation is still in use.
In 1967 they had a total of 215,000 students enrolled, about half of which were correspondence students.[2] However, less than 7,000 students graduated each year, mostly in engineering (such as electrical, mechanical, or civil engineering with emphasis on railway applications).
Almost 10 years later (in 1976) they had a total of 130,000 students: 50,000 students, 12,000 night school students, and 52,000 correspondence students. There were 21 different fields of study including 3 new ones: computer science, applied mathematics, and automatic control systems. During the 9th 5-year plan (1970-1975) they graduated 66,000 engineers (a little over 12,000 per years) which is more than reported for the 1960s per above.