Today more than 7 million students begin the new academic year in Russian universities, according to Russian Deputy Minister of Education Maxim Dulinov. It is 500 thousand less than in 2010.

      “A certain reduction in the number of students in higher educational establishments is caused by demographic decline", Maxim Dulinov said.

      This year about 1000 universities, including 482 non-governmental ones, will receive students. Besides, more than 2 million people will attend technical schools and colleges the number of which in the country is over 2.5 thousand.

      As of the 2007–2008 academic year, Russia had 8.1 million students enrolled in all forms of tertiary education (including military and police institutions and postgraduate studies). Foreign students accounted for 5.2 percent of enrolment, half of whom were from other CIS countries.

      The number of Russian state-owner institution rose from 514 in 1990 to 655 in 2002 and remains nearly constant since that time. The number of private institution was about 193 in 1995 and now it continues to rise. 

        Andrei Fursenko, the Russian Minister of Education, began a campaign for a reduction of number of institutions to weed out substandard colleges. His initiative was supported by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who said that  such amount could lead to devaluation of education standard, but that the process of the reduction must be gradual.

      The other important process is a trend for consolidation of Russian academia, which began in 2006 when state universities and colleges of Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog and other southern towns were merged into Southern Federal University, based in Rostov-on-Don. The same conglomerate was formed in Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok. 

Source: ITAR-TASS