Russia ranks first in the world in terms of the number of educated people. How many people with higher education in Russia

According to data published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), more than half of adult citizens of Russia in 2012 were holders of higher education diplomas, more than in any other country in the world. In China, meanwhile, higher education in 2012, only four percent of the population boasted, the lowest.

The most educated, according to the results of a sociological survey, is the population of those countries where spending on higher education is quite high, above the average of $ 13,957 per student. In the United States, for example, this figure is $ 26,021 per student, the highest in the world.

Korea and Russian Federation in 2011 they spent less than $ 10 thousand per student, which is even lower than the average worldwide. And, nevertheless, they confidently occupy leading positions among the most educated countries in the world.

Below is a list of the countries with the world's most educated populations:

1) Russian Federation

> Percentage of population with tertiary education: 53.5%

> Cost per student: $ 7,424 (lowest)

More than 53% of adult Russians aged 25 to 64 had higher education in one form or another in 2012. This is the highest percentage among all countries in which the OECD study was conducted. The country has managed to achieve such exceptional performance despite record low costs of $ 7,424 per student, well below the average of $ 13,957. In addition, Russia is one of the few countries where education spending fell from 2008 to 2012.

2) Canada

> Percentage of population with tertiary education: 52.6%

> Average annual growth rate (2000-2011): 2.3%

> Cost per student: $ 23,225 (2nd place after US)

More than half of adult Canadians were graduates in 2012. Only in Canada and Russia, the majority of the holders of higher education diplomas among the adult population. However, Canada in 2011, Canada spent $ 23,226 per student, second only to the United States.

3) Japan

> Percentage of population with tertiary education: 46.6%

> Average annual growth rate (2000-2011): 2.8%

> Cost per student: $ 16,445 (10th place)

As in the United States, Korea and Britain, most of the spending on higher education is private spending. Of course, this leads to a greater stratification of society, but it should be noted that, as in many other Asian countries, the Japanese tend to start saving money for their education immediately after the birth of a child. Unlike other countries, where there is no direct relationship between costs and quality of education, in Japan the high cost of education gives excellent results - literacy of 23% of the population is assessed with the highest score. This is almost twice as high as the world average (12%).

4) Israel

> Percentage of population with tertiary education: 46.4%

> Average annual growth rates (2000-2011): no data

> Cost per student: $ 11,553

Most 18-year-old Israelis are drafted into the military for at least two years. Perhaps due to this circumstance, many residents of Israel receive higher education somewhat later than residents of other countries. However, conscription does not negatively affect the general level of education in this country. 46% of the adult population in Israel had a college degree in 2012, although the cost per student here is lower than similar costs in other developed countries ($ 11,500).

5) USA

> Percentage of population with tertiary education: 43.1%

> Average annual growth rate (2000-2011): 1.4% (lowest)

> Cost per student: $ 26,021 (highest)

In 2011, the United States spent $ 26,000 per student, nearly double the OECD average of $ 13,957. Most of this amount is private spending. The high cost of education, however, pays off, since a significant number of Americans are highly qualified in the most different areas... It should be noted, however, that between 2008 and 2011, due to financial problems, funds allocated to public education were significantly reduced.

Rosstat continues to publish the results of a large-scale survey of the living conditions of the population of Russia. About how and what we learn and where we spend our leisure time, "RG" was told by the deputy head of Rosstat Konstantin Laikam.

What is the level of education of today's Russians? Compared to the Soviet period, who is more educated?

Konstantin Laikam: The share of the population with higher education is now twice as large as in Soviet times. The number of university students has tripled. In terms of formal status, our population is now very educated.

Indeed, almost a quarter of the Russian population (15 years of age and older) have higher education, the same number - secondary vocational, primary vocational - 18 percent, secondary general education - 18 percent. 3.4 percent of all respondents do not have a basic general education, and in the city this figure is 2 percent, and in the countryside - 6 percent. And in general, the level of education in the city is significantly higher. For example, more than 27 percent of the population has a higher education, in the countryside - half as much.

In the gender aspect, the situation is not so unambiguous: among men, 21 percent have a higher education, and among women - 26 percent. But among those who do not even have primary education, there are fewer men than women.

Among managers, two-thirds have higher education, every fifth has a secondary vocational and 6 percent each has an initial vocational and secondary general. Among specialists of the highest qualification level 85 percent have higher education ...

It turns out that specialists are more educated than their leaders.

Konstantin Laikam: Only a few are the most qualified. And I don't see a problem in this - the task of the leader is to create a team in which there should be real professionals. In addition, it is often (in a small business, for example) practical and simple life experience a leader is more important than having a diploma. Among other categories of specialists, the share of those with higher education is significantly lower - from 6 to 38 percent. Moreover, every fifth employee does not even have a basic vocational education.

What level of professional education do Russians prefer today?

Konstantin Laikam: Three out of four graduates of regular schools and almost 90 percent of high school students are going to go to universities.

That is, the dream of the majority is to get a higher education diploma?

Konstantin Laikam: Not just the majority, but the overwhelming majority. Apparently, the value of education for today's youth is obvious. This is good news. But there is also a downside to this medal - the specialty received and the work actually performed do not always coincide. For example, in the formal sector of the economy, work corresponds to the received specialty only in 43 percent of cases, and in the informal sector, the correspondence is even lower - 24 percent. And this is not only wasted study time (as a rule, best years life) and ineffectively spent money, including budget money. Insufficient (for the work performed) qualification means low productivity, which means lower wages and worse conditions labor, hence the dissatisfaction with work and living standards, etc.

But the main thing is that people have a desire to learn.

Konstantin Laikam: For young people, yes, but with age, the desire to learn quickly decreases. Already among 20-24 year olds, two thirds do not study anywhere.

I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that girls like to learn more than boys.

Konstantin Laikam: The survey results confirm this. There are 13 percent more girls in universities. They are much more likely to take part in school Olympiads. 8 percent of them take part in international and All-Russian Olympiads! This is an order of magnitude more than young men. In lyceums, there are also significantly more girls than boys.

And how widespread are lyceums and special schools in our country?

Konstantin Laikam: Of course, most of the children go to regular schools. Only 12 percent study in lyceums or special schools with in-depth study any subject (in the city - 14.5 percent, in the village - only 5.6 percent). But here's another interesting thing: graduates of lyceums and special schools for passing the exam and admission to universities is much more likely to undergo additional, and paid training: they study with tutors, go to the preparatory departments of universities. It is also surprising that in rural areas only 6 percent of high school students do not specially prepare for the Unified State Exam, this is half as much as in the city!

That is, in the city there are twice as many "rascals" as in the village. What do children do at school besides the main program?

Konstantin Laikam: Every second young man goes in for sports. Among girls, there are 22 percent of them, their priority is electives (50 percent) and classes with tutors (22 percent). For children, after sports, these activities are in second place (40 and 20 percent). Music schools are attended by only 4 percent of our children over the age of 14. 6 percent of children are not engaged in anything else.

Not so bad. At the end of socialism, when all clubs and sports clubs were absolutely free, about two-thirds of my classmates "chased dogs" in their free time.

Konstantin Laikam: Times change. Only 5 percent of schoolchildren said that they do not use computer technology in their school. I think that for our huge country, with big amount hard-to-reach settlements and small schools, this is not a bad thing. At the same time, according to our respondents, 10 percent of schools do not even have a gym. This, you see, is a lot.

There is a widespread opinion that almost all vocational education is paid today.

Konstantin Laikam: The percentage of state employees varies greatly depending on the level of education received. For example, 92 percent study free of charge in the primary vocational education system. In the system of secondary vocational education there are 71 percent of them. In universities - almost 41 percent.

These figures are not encouraging. 60 percent of university students get higher education for money!

Konstantin Laikam: The scale of paid higher education in our country has indeed increased by an order of magnitude over the past twenty years. And the quality of this education raises serious criticism. But at the same time, it should be noted that the state during this period not only did not reduce free admission to universities, but even increased it.

And who pays for education today if it is paid?

Konstantin Laikam: 90 percent of the respondents answered that education is paid for at the expense of households, that is, in fact, by the parents. At the same time, 9 percent said they had taken out a loan. Just over 6 percent indicated that they study at the expense of sponsors. And only 0.6 percent study at the expense of enterprises and organizations at the place of work.

Are we talking about basic vocational education?

Konstantin Laikam: Yes. If we talk about additional vocational education, then the situation here is fundamentally different. 46 percent of the respondents said that their studies are paid for by employers, 28 percent spend their own money for it, parents pay for every fourth student. Unemployed people primarily (41 percent) point to funds public service employment.

How popular is additional education in our country?

Konstantin Laikam: At the time of the survey, 3 percent of the respondents were receiving such education. In addition, 5 percent are looking for such an opportunity. And every tenth would like to receive additional education, but does not see such an opportunity for himself

What forms additional education most common?

Konstantin Laikam: The most common types are refresher courses (44 percent) and professional courses and trainings (30 percent). Then there are all kinds of amateur courses (including driving) - 20 percent, conferences, seminars and courses foreign languages- 10 percent each.

What form of education do today's students prefer? There is such an observation: on the 3-4 course, children leave the daytime department for the evening or correspondence department in order to gain work experience by the end of their studies and be more in demand in the labor market.

Konstantin Laikam: Perhaps. Up to the age of 19, more than 90 percent of young people prefer full-time education, and at the age of 20-24, only about 56 percent of them remain. Three quarters of those who work and study prefer part-time education, 12 percent prefer evening education, and almost 13 percent work and study full-time.

You were also interested in what people do with us in their free time from work and study. And what then?

Konstantin Laikam: Young people are the most active: almost 90 percent of high school students spend their time talking with friends, 70 percent - in "talking" with a computer, 38 percent - watching TV. 26 percent go in for sports.

We drew attention to the fact that young students are constantly busy with something in their free time (sports, tourism, hobbies). Of these, only 1.6 percent could not say what they devote their leisure time to. At the same time, more than half of the "non-studying" youth could not explain what they were doing in their free time.

In general, the most popular type of leisure for the population is going to restaurants, cafes, bars - almost 40 percent, almost a third visited religious institutions, 19 percent - sports events.

What can you say about the claims that Russians have lost interest in culture?

Konstantin Laikam: 31 percent of those surveyed noted that in the past 12 months they have visited a cinema, 24 percent - concerts, 15 - theaters and 12 - art exhibitions or museums. One in five attended a sporting event. Gender differences in interests are obvious here: if men and women visit cinemas in the same way, women go to concerts 1.5 times more often, and to theaters, art exhibitions, and museums - almost twice as often. Men are ahead of women in their interest in sports events and attend them twice as often.

How many of us are engaged in outdoor activities?

Konstantin Laikam: Half of Russians are committed to them. Every eighth attends the sports section, every tenth - fitness, were engaged in water sports 18 percent, tourism - 16, outdoor games - 27 percent.

Well, what about excursions?

Konstantin Laikam: Excursion or tourist trip for Last year only 19 percent of Russians did. You might be surprised, but more than half of the respondents have never made such trips at all. Of these, 45 percent said that they could not afford them due to lack of funds, 5 - for health reasons, 13 - for family reasons. 14 percent have no interest in such trips at all. 17 percent prefer to have a rest in the country, with relatives and friends.

And what has become known about the level of civic activity of Russians?

Konstantin Laikam: Judge for yourself: only 2.3 percent of the respondents indicated their membership in any public, voluntary or charitable organization.

Last week, Olga Golodets, Assistant to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, was on a working visit to Anapa, where she visited children's institutions and social facilities. During a visit to the All-Russian child Center Smena, the deputy prime minister, told reporters that two-thirds of Russians do not need a higher education. This statement by the official caused a lot of publications in the press, most of which express clear disapproval of the deputy prime minister's view of the need for higher education for Russians. To what extent does the Russian system of higher education correspond to the needs of the country's economy and how justified are the views of the Deputy Prime Minister on this system?

What did Olga Golodets tell reporters?

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, in Russia, from an economic point of view, 65% of the working-age population does not need higher education. “We have a calculated balance, it is about 65% to 35%. Moreover, 65% are people who do not require higher education. Therefore, in the near future, the proportion in the economy will change towards an increase in the proportion of people without higher education, ”the official told reporters in Anapa. On the basis of what data this "balance" was calculated, the official did not specify, but many central publications immediately published information from VTsIOM, according to which in 2010 only 23% of Russian citizens are holders of a higher education diploma. Olga Golodets's statement drew a lot of criticism in the blogosphere, especially against the background of the fact that within his family, the Deputy Prime Minister considers only 100% higher education acceptable. Another deputy prime minister of the government, Dvorkovich, was even forced to come up with explanations about the statement of his colleague in the cabinet, saying that Olga Golodets's words that higher education is not needed by most of the population of Russia were misinterpreted and it comes only about some professions. How did Deputy Prime Minister Dvorkovich manage to interpret this completely specific figures and the words of a colleague were not reported. But attention is drawn to the fact that it is an official whose public statements need special explanations and interpretations to decide what and how much Russian citizens need in the field of education (and not only).

How many universities are there in Russia?

Today, the Russian higher education system includes more than 900 higher educational institutions. Of these, about two thirds are public and one third are private. The number of students in all universities is about 5 million people, about 1 million people entered the first year last year, a little more than half of them went to budget places. Less than 3 million Russians study in the system of primary and secondary vocational education. Experts say that the ratio should be the opposite - people with higher education need about one and a half times less than specialists with secondary vocational education.

In the 1960s, there was such a proportion in the USSR, but over time, the number of university graduates began to grow, while vocational schools and technical schools, on the contrary, began to decline. After the collapse of the USSR, this process took on an avalanche-like nature: private universities began to grow like mushrooms after rain, and primary and secondary vocational education fell into complete decline.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the number of places in the country's universities equaled the number of school graduates, although one of the reasons for this was the demographic hole of that period.

Is there a lot of higher education in Russia compared to other countries?

When Deputy Prime Minister Golodets said that in Russia there should be no more than 35% of people with higher education, she probably relied on data on a certain age category of citizens of the Russian Federation. Today, about half of the graduates of Russian schools go to higher educational institutions. According to the 2010 European Social Survey, in the 25-39 age range, the proportion of Russians with higher education is 39%. According to this indicator, our country is in close positions with such states as Poland, Israel, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain. That is, our state is neither a leader nor an outsider among developed countries in terms of covering the population with higher education. We are lagging behind Norway, where more than half of its citizens have higher education diplomas, but we are three times higher than the Czech Republic and twice as large as Portugal.

China lags far behind us in terms of the prevalence of higher education - in 1998 there were less than 900 thousand people with HE in this country, in 2013 there were more than 6 million people. Although the dynamics of growth are very impressive, relative to 1.4 billion of its population, this is only a fraction of a percent.

Sometimes, criticizing the Russian higher education system, they cite Japan as an example, claiming that the coverage of HE citizens there is approaching 100%. Such data does not correspond to reality. In this country with a population of 127 million people, the number of universities is about 800, which per capita is comparable to Russia. There are less than 200 state ones, it is difficult to enter a university, education is quite expensive and not affordable for most Japanese (a six-year study at the medical faculty of Tokyo State University costs 3.5 million, which today corresponds to about 2 million rubles. the order is more expensive). As a result, as of 2010, 45% of Japanese had a higher education diploma.

What is the quality of Russian higher education?

Higher education began to degrade back in the days of the USSR, when the prestige of many professions requiring higher education began to decline, for example, the profession of an engineer. V recent history Russia took a course towards the commercialization of education, officials stated in plain text that education should be profitable (although it was not specified to whom), many non-core faculties began to open in universities, for which there was not enough the required number of teachers. Not to mention the fact that no one in the government thought about the demand for the country's economy of specialists of such a profile and in such a number: there was an idea that the demand and supply of the market would themselves "put things in order" in the industry. All this "development" was accompanied by endless educational reforms, mergers and enlargements of universities, the introduction of the Bologna system, which many strong European universities are rejecting. In Russia, "bolognaization" was carried out under the auspices of integration into the Western educational system. The ongoing efforts of our officials to further advance this "integration" look very surprising against the background of today's difficult relations between Russia and the West. At the Higher School of Economics, for example, they spend a lot of effort and state money on teaching specialized subjects for English language with constant professional development of teachers, with a correspondingly expensive methodological support, with the purchase of equipment necessary to ensure the process. And all this is necessary for a specialist to master English at the level of a language university, receive an appropriate certificate and a diploma recognized in the West. It is not clear why our state needed to raise specialists who plan to leave to work abroad for considerable funds. By the way, the word “knowledge” is never mentioned in the document. There is no place for him, only “competence”. Development of competencies "at the touch of a button right button"- the competence" by pressing the left "will be prepared by the neighboring department.

All this stormy activity of our officials in the field of education affected the latter in the most sad way. Not everywhere, of course. There are still universities in the country that produce quite decent specialists (it is not for nothing that various TNCs like Intel or Microsoft rushed to open many of their branches in Russia), but there are relatively few such universities. In the rest, there is a race for "paid students", forcing students to enroll in all sorts of additional paid courses, completely disregarding the needs of the labor market.

It can serve as a weak consolation in what is happening only in one thing - a similar situation is developing not only in Russia. There are a number of elite and very expensive universities in Europe (mainly in the UK) and the United States that provide a decent education, but in the mass segment, higher education in the United States and in Europe looks rather dull. Among other things, the US higher education system is in many ways a financial bubble like a mortgage. The volume of educational loans issued in this country has exceeded a trillion dollars, and the number of defaults on them is growing rapidly.

Why did the government need to reduce the number of universities?

Neither the number of specialists graduated by our higher education system, nor the range of these specialties, for the most part, meet the needs of the market. In addition, a significant part of commercial universities is, in fact, a "diploma factory". Establishing elementary order in this area is undoubtedly not superfluous. Improving the education system is also a completely natural process - neither science nor industry stands still. More precisely, they should not stand. But this should be done in an evolutionary way, with the preservation of a certain foundation in education, ensuring the continuity of knowledge, taking into account the cultural and historical traditions of the country. Today, the reformist activities of the government in the field of education are taking place under the auspices of raising primary and secondary vocational education. It is believed that the need for this market is gigantic, and lazy Russians simply do not want to work and go to universities, only to "roll away" from the army. With regard to the army, such statements are partly true. As for the rest, the desires of school graduates are dictated not so much by a lack of understanding of their place in life, but by the demands of the labor market. An employer today prefers, first of all, a ready-made specialist, at worst a young one, but with a higher education. Education can be non-core, which is not very important in the case of "office plankton". Simply, the candidate's lack of HE means only one thing - it is not just a “victim” of education reforms, it is most likely a “super victim”. With all that it implies.

As for the overabundance of specialists from higher education and the shortage in the segment of primary and secondary vocational education, this situation has developed not at all due to problems in the field of education. Against the background of the destruction of production and science in the country, the need for jobs is also decreasing. Hidden unemployment in Russia is tens of percent. The complaints of some manufacturers that they cannot find a decent turner or other professional in production in the daytime with fire are justified. The only trouble is that today the number of such operating industries is very small, and these enterprises cannot create a labor market for the needs of which it is possible to build a full-fledged education system. It is much easier to attract guest workers, albeit not always of decent qualifications, but inexpensive.

In other words, building an education system begins with some effort to create an economy that needs educated professionals. Apparently, our government is not ready for such efforts either morally or in terms of "competencies." “Optimize” is more usual.

Let's turn to the most recent thematic overview of the education sector, prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which today unites 35 of the most industrialized countries in the world - Education at a Glance 2017. It really follows from it that according to the first of the indicators indicated by the minister, Russia is ahead of all OECD countries, except Canada, not to mention the fact that the OECD average is one and a half times lower than the Russian one. Let us only clarify that we are talking about the share not in the total population of a particular country, but only about age groups in the range of 25–64 years:

Based on the estimates given by the OECD in the same report, the second of the indicators indicated by the minister - the proportion of young people who have not finished school - is one of the lowest in Russia in comparison with the OECD countries. And young people with higher or secondary vocational education, on the contrary, are again one of the highest:

“During the period from 1989 to 2014, the number of Russia's population who received a higher education more than doubled, and the total number of universities in the country increased from 514 in 1991 to 896 in 2015, an extensive segment of non-state universities has formed in the country. (41% of their total number) ”, - noted in a recent study by the Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. And often the level of 50% or more began to be perceived as an indicator of the prevalence of higher education in the country. This is where clarification is required.

According to the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, there were 83.384 million people in the country in the age categories from 25 to 64. Of these, 27.5 million declared higher education, that is, 33.4%, but by no means “more than half” of all, as OECD estimates can often be perceived. “Many are convinced that Russia is ahead of most other countries in terms of population coverage with higher education ... This fact is so firmly established in the mass consciousness that few question it. In fact, this point of view is a myth that is not based on real statistics, ”experts say. High school economics in a recent article for the newspaper "Vedomosti", which is titled: "The myth of universal higher education."

The fact is, the authors of the study, published in the latest issue of the journal Voprosy obrazovaniya, explain that OECD statistics in the tertiary education category unites both people with higher education and graduates of technical schools and colleges: “Russian higher education is classified by the OECD according to the international classification as ISCED5A and secondary vocational as ISCED5B. It is the prevalence of secondary vocational education that makes Russia one of the leaders in a kind of rating of the OECD countries ”.

Indeed, in younger generations, more and more people are getting higher education, the same experts continue in their article for Vedomosti, but this is an international trend, and Russia is no exception: “In Great Britain, France, Germany, the percentage of people with higher education is higher. Russia is on a par with Latvia, Bulgaria and Poland ... OECD does not have independent data sources, and their estimates are based on Rosstat data ”.

At the same time, the very availability of higher education in Russia for young people aged 17–25 years varies greatly by region, note the authors of another study by the Higher School of Economics. This refers to three parameters: the general availability of places in universities of a particular region for those wishing to study in them, as well as the financial and territorial availability of higher education for young people living in the region. The average for the regions of Russia, the overall indicator of such accessibility is 33%, while in almost half of the regions it is below 28%.

The authors of this study also note that in more than a third of Russia's regions, young people simply do not have the opportunity to get exactly a “high-quality” higher education. As an indicator characterizing the quality of education in the region, they use the share of students in the universities of the region enrolled in the first year with an average USE score of 70 points and above. “The average USE score is not only an indicator of the selectivity of a university, but also indirectly speaks of the quality of education,” the experts explain. “That is, it is assumed that the more applicants with a high assessment of their knowledge aspire to a particular university, the better education they can get there.”

As a result, the probability of becoming a student of a higher quality university is higher in the St. Petersburg and Moscow regions, Tomsk and Sverdlovsk regions... While in 29 regions there are no universities with a USE score above 70, the authors of the study conclude.

If we return to the OECD data, then in Russia as a whole, 82% of adults with higher and average vocational education employed. This is slightly below the OECD average of 84%. Employment of recent university graduates in Russia, according to the latest monitoring by the Ministry of Education and Science, is 75%, which is also slightly below the OECD average (77%).

I wrote to you specifically for URFU:

This year, UrFU is receiving 4953 budget places... This is 224 more places than in the past, when there were 4,729 places. An increase of 5% is a unique situation for the Ural university, given that the admission target figures have not changed on average throughout the country. The most notable "enlargements" in the group of physical and mathematical directions - from 302 to 356, and in the group "Metallurgy, mechanical engineering, material processing" - from 410 to 519 places. The decrease in the number of budget-funded places occurred in such areas as "Economics, Management", humanitarian and social areas. In addition, the largest of the federal - the Ural University plans to accept almost 5,000 people for a contract form of study.

http://urfu.ru/applicant/...kol-snova-vybirajut-urfu/ 50% of state employees, 50% of paid employees. Moreover, out of 50% of paysites, most of them are either evening students or get a second higher education. In groups in the full-time form of study, they study for free. And here are the data on MEPhI: http://www.mephi.ru/entra...t/entrant2010/konkurs.php 5017 budget places. Paid parties are only 244. Here at MSTU (Nosova in Magnitogorsk)): http://www.magtu.ru/abitu...ye-czifry-priema-vpo.html (the proportion of public sector employees to paid employees is 8/3) MIPT: http://mipt.ru/pk/priem2012.html (proportion of public sector employees to paid employees - 8/2) SUSU http://www.susu.ac.ru/ru/...ichestvo-byudzhetnyh-mest 3000 thousand budget places (an increase of +183 people compared to last year). Altai http://altapress.ru/story/87733/ 6900 budget-funded places in the universities of the region (most of them are in the Altai Technical University). etc. etc.

As a result, 313 state universities, 54 non-state ones and one university owned by regional authorities will receive the right to admit applicants to places, the funding of which will go from the federal budget. Note that we are talking about higher education programs. As for the programs of secondary vocational education, which also exist in higher educational institutions, 13 non-state universities will receive budget funding. In total, 351.8 thousand budget-funded places will be opened in universities subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science, of which 288.6 thousand will be full-time.

http://www.rg.ru/2012/06/01/byudjet-site.html 351.8 thousand budget places open to applicants to Russian universities. Considering that the total of school graduates who have passed the USE in Russia is about 700 thousand people, it turns out that every second of them can study at universities on a free basis! This is a very good indicator. In fact, in order to enter a university on a budget, it is enough to be in the upper half of the class in terms of academic performance, that is, good students and even some high-grade drummers calmly enter the budget form. And let the rest work in factories and farms. If everyone goes to science, who will be behind the machines? Edited: user78 ~ 15: 04 09/13/12