Remember that monitoring is annual, 812 Russian universities participate in it, including 95 non-state ones, where admission is carried out mainly on the basis of the results of the Unified State Exam. But conservatories, art and choreographic academies were not included in the monitoring – creative tests still rank first there. Law enforcement universities, where specialized school graduates mainly go, also did not participate.
The key indicator is the average USE score with which applicants entered in 2022. This, according to experts, is one of the simplest, most understandable and most reliable indicators of a university’s reputation. Also, future applicants are guided by the average USE score when choosing where to go.
So what turned out? In 2022, the average USE score for budget admissions exceeded 70, the level of the conditional “five” and amounted to 70.3. For payers, the bar is slightly lower, but also quite at the level: 65.5. The average USE score of the total admission (state employees + salaried employees) is 68.6.
– Overall, the break-even point reached in the region of 70 points means that half of the students enrolled in the budget are high school students. This is a good result, says Yaroslav Kuzminov, academic supervisor of HSE. – We see that the monitoring of the quality of admission has begun to be perceived by universities as one of the most important indicators of their work. The universities received a clear signal: we must fight for the good applicants, and they began to do so.
But something else is even more interesting. Experts have identified an important trend: Over the past two years, the average score gap between budget and first-time paid receipt has shrunk to less than five points.
– Almost all students who enrolled in paid education in 2022 could, if they wished, enroll in a state-funded place. The number of paying students with good scores is less than the number of state-funded places that, following the admission results, were occupied by students with satisfactory scores (less than 56), – noted Yaroslav Kuzminov.
Traditionally strong applicants are drawn to the largest universities with admissions of more than 4,500 people. Among the admission leaders here are the Moscow State University Higher School of Economics. Lomonosov, MSTU im. Bauman, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.
And among small higher education institutions, Innopolis University became the champion in terms of the quality of students enrolled. It showed the highest result in the country this year: more than 50 students enrolled in the budget with an average score of 99!
In general, a new phenomenon for the Russian higher education system has been clearly observed in recent years. The reputation of the main universities outside of the capital has grown so much that, even by increasing state tuition, they managed to maintain and even improve the quality of tuition, as well as expand paid tuition. These are just a few examples, in comparison with 2020. Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University: budget admission growth – 22 percent, budget average USE score increased by 1.5 points, paid admission – more of 15%. At the Novosibirsk State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, budget enrollment increased by a third, the average USE score – by 2.1 points, and paid enrollment – by 3%. At Tomsk State University, there is an unprecedented jump in budget places – by 65%! At the same time, the paid set has also been increased, and the quality of the reception is at a high level.
According to monitoring data, the proportion of enrolled students in the first year with scores above 80 remains high. 21 percent of enrolled students received very high USE scores in 2022. That is, one fifth of students in First year they came to universities not just with an A, but with very deep fundamental knowledge, and this applies to both state employees and paid students.
In general, in terms of the quality of the admissions budget, the list of leading universities with enrollments of more than 300 people remains stable. In the top ten: MIPT (97.1), HSE – Moscow (95.1), MGIMO (95.1), HSE – Saint Petersburg (94.7), ITMO (93.7), RANEPA (93.1 ), MEPhI (91.4), Financial University (91 ), St. Petersburg State University (90.1), MSLU (89.6).
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Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation:
– The training of personnel is the most important link to ensure the technological sovereignty of the country. When allocating budget places we try to respond flexibly to the demand of the market and sectors of the economy, the most important criterion for us is also the opinion of the students. We see that the top regional universities attract talented candidates from the country. And this means that the quality of education in Russia is constantly growing. Under the current conditions, the Russian government pays special attention to digital, engineering and technological areas. We will continue to increase production in these specialties. And taking into account the analytics, we will update the distribution of budget places for next year.
Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education:
– Fulfilling the instructions of President Vladimir Putin, we have given priority to regional universities in the distribution of budget places. Continuing the trend of 2021, in 2022 the number of students enrolled in regional universities increased. In just two years, the number of budgetary places in 85 regional universities has increased by more than 20%. An important result: the average admission score at the same time also increased.
