Published on: 2026-08-19
Source: Government of the Russian Federation –
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The admission of applications for budget-funded places in bachelor’s degree programs, basic higher education, and specialist degrees has ended in Russian universities. During the current admission campaign, approximately 1.2 million applicants have already submitted their documents. This was reported by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.
“During the 2026/2027 academic year’s admission campaign, 94% of university applications were submitted through the ‘Online University Admission’ service — 21% higher than the previous year. We see that an increasing number of applicants are interested in natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering fields. Their importance is emphasized by our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. According to preliminary data, the average Unified State Exam (USE) score of those admitted to budget-funded full-time places in these fields has increased by 3.5 points compared to last year. In total, this year nearly 36% of graduates chose the USE in natural science fields,” noted the Deputy Prime Minister.
Admissions are ongoing for master’s and doctoral programs. The results of the admission campaign will be summarized in September. The Deputy Prime Minister added that the development of higher education in the country is supported by measures from the national project “Youth and Children,” including the state university support program “Priority-2030.”
The number of budget-funded places allocated to universities remains high. Whereas in 2025 universities were allocated 619,000 budget places, in the current admissions campaign this number has reached 620,481, of which 446,692 places are designated for bachelor’s, specialist, and basic higher education programs. Thus, budget places were available for more than half of the graduates of 11th grade classes.
“We have developed a stable positive trend – applicants are increasingly choosing engineering fields. Thus, this year ‘Construction’ has displaced ‘Advertising and Public Relations’ from the top 10 most popular study programs. The popularity of fundamental and applied physics has grown – the number of applications compared to last year has increased 2.5 times, and the popularity of aircraft and helicopter engineering has also doubled. The number of applications in the fields of ‘Nuclear Reactors,’ ‘Construction of Railways, Bridges, and Transport Tunnels,’ and ‘Urban Planning’ has increased 1.8 times. Applications for bioengineering and bioinformatics programs have increased 1.7 times,” emphasized the head of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Valery Falkov.
Universities participating in the pilot project for transitioning to the new model of higher education are recording increased interest from applicants. Thus, for the basic higher education programs in 6 universities involved in the pilot project since 2023, 28.6% more applications were submitted compared to the previous year. A similar situation is observed in 11 universities at the second stage of the project.
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