Russian universities accepted the maximum number of graduate students in the last 10 years in 2022

In 2022, 45,100 people entered graduate school in Russia, which is 1.5 times more than in 2021 (28 thousand). The number of applicants for graduate studies in the Russian Federation last year was the highest in the last 10 years, according to a study by the HSE Institute for Statistical Research and Economics of Data, which was reviewed Vedomosti.

According to the study, the total number of graduate students in Russia reached 109,700 in 2022, up from 90,200 by the end of 2021. According to the authors, the growth is associated with an increase in the attractiveness of a scientific career and “external factors”.

The most popular science majors in 2022 were economics (22.9% of graduate students), law (10.2%), information technology and telecommunications (6.2%) and pedagogy (5.7%), the researchers report. Last year, 13,900 people completed postgraduate studies, of which 12.9% defended their dissertations, which, according to HSE accounts, is the highest figure in the last five years.

According to the results of the study, 67.6% of the surveyed graduate students intend to continue working in the academic environment (universities or schools) after defending their thesis, 27.7% want to work outside of science and higher education, 12.1% plan to do research.

It is noted that 78.3% of the surveyed graduate students want to work in Russia, 6% are thinking about leaving for a period of more than three months, 2% of respondents want to leave the Russian Federation forever.

May 12 President of Russia signed decree on the implementation from 2023 to 2026 academic years of a pilot project to change the levels of vocational education. The project provides for two levels of higher education: basic higher education and specialized higher education, as well as one level of professional education – postgraduate studies.

In 2003, Russia joined the Bologna system of higher education and switched to a bachelor’s (four years)-master’s (two years)-postgraduate (at least three years) system. In May 2022, the head of the Ministry of Education and Science Valery Falkov announced about Russia’s plans to withdraw from the Bologna system. It was proposed to make a specialty as the main educational program.

Mr. Falkov separately emphasized that the education reform singles out postgraduate studies as a separate type of training for research, development and universities. It will be available to those who have completed the basic level with a period of study of at least five years or have received a specialized higher education.

Read more about the new system of higher education – in the material “Kommersant” “Universities will have to become more flexible”.

Erdni Kagaltynov