Targets in universities will be made “transparent”: brilliant students will be given 30 thousand

The other day, the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation said that as part of the new admissions campaign, the targeted recruitment procedure will change radically. An announcement about places for targeted workers will be published on a job search website, and applications can be submitted through the state portal. The other day it also became known that the size of the presidential scholarship has increased significantly; the payment “in priority areas of study” will amount to 30 thousand rubles. “MK” decided to find out what other changes the “coming year” 2024-2025 brings to applicants and students.

The admissions campaign, which will begin in 3 months, does not promise revolutionary reforms this year. There are no plans to shift the admission deadlines, which some feared in connection with the new summer retake of the Unified State Exam. “Admission will be comfortable,” the head of the Ministry of Education and Science assured, and will take place within the pre-announced deadlines: the start of accepting documents is June 20, the end is July 25. In some universities, the dates are different: in creative universities, in top ones – where there is a system of additional exams.

The system of priorities and 5 universities for submitting documents remain. That is, within one university you can write one application for all directions and groups, in all branches, and simply indicate where you want more and where you want less, in descending order. But if there are more universities, then such an application must be submitted to each. The form for submitting documents also does not change, electronic or paper. The subtleties are the same as for 2023. No new social benefits have been announced, although it was previously reported that a separate benefit for SVO participants and their children could be increased by another 10%. Now it makes up 10% of the number of budget places in each university. And in the same amount, 10%, universities have a special benefit for disabled children, orphans, etc.

But what, according to the minister, will undergo serious changes is the target recruitment. This is a form of training when the applicant enters into a contract with the future employer in advance and studies at his expense with subsequent work. The service period ranges from 3 to 7 years. In top destinations, such as popular medical universities, the share of targeted students can be significant. In some cases, these are all places except for the Olympiads and beneficiaries. According to experts, targeted training has previously been the most opaque area of ​​admissions campaigns.

And here is an innovation. Valery Falkov said that applications with proposals for targeted training will be published by companies on the electronic government resource for job search and offer. And you can apply for participation through the state portal.

“On the one hand, such news looks good, it gives every applicant the opportunity to enter a university if they have good Unified State Exam scores and, in general, the right reasons,” says education expert Maria Bushueva. – On the other hand, there is reality. All large electronic resources take 2-3 years to debug, as was the case with the same electronic service for admission to universities.

And certainly “electronic” does not mean “transparent”. You see a vacancy, apply to the target recruitment, but everything there is already taken. Or it’s busy after the system froze… Therefore, I wouldn’t immediately delude myself about the new order for target people. This applies most of all to medicine, the oil and gas sector and IT. There are still regional targeted programs: in the oil industry or for managers, they are very attractive – not only with a guarantee of employment, but also with a stipend in the amount of the average salary in the region. To get into such a “golden” target selection, you need to be either a genius, or better yet, a participant in an international Olympiad, a winner, a finalist at the All-Russian Secondary School. Or to be able to get in, and the speed of applying is not the main thing here.

Scholarships from the President and Government of the Russian Federation have been increased, the Kremlin reports. For some reason, there was a wave of reports that the presidential payment would be called a scholarship in priority areas, although it has always been called that. So, the presidential scholarship, also known as a scholarship in priority areas, was raised to 30 thousand rubles (it was 7-10). The Russian government scholarship was increased to 20 thousand rubles.

It is clear that not just anyone receives such a bonus for studying. And the same Olympiad participants, students who have distinguished themselves with scientific works and publications in international journals, winners of competitions and festivals, students with the highest academic performance (more than 50% of A’s), and so on. Moreover, stability is important: brilliant and outstanding studies should be carried out over two courses or more.

But it’s interesting what the priority areas of training are, since the emphasis is on them. Based on the priorities for the distribution of additional budget places for 2024, taking into account master’s degrees, the numbers are as follows: “Mechanical Engineering” (505 additional places), “Informatics and Computer Science” (416), “Electric and Heat Power Engineering” (304 places). In addition, 772 budget places were allocated for specialties in the “Healthcare and Medical Sciences” group.

To assess the distribution of the additional budget, it is important to know that 70% of all this was received by regional universities (last year it was even 75%). And among the capital cities, the list with the largest increase in budget places was headed by Moscow State University. Lomonosov, KFU (Kazan), National Research University Higher School of Economics, Polytechnic named after. Peter the Great (St. Petersburg), MSTU named after. Bauman.

According to official information from the department, scholarship recipients who can count on 30 thousand rubles will be students (cadets) and graduate students (adjuncts) of universities “training personnel in the interests of defense and security of the state, ensuring law and order.” Specialties for training “corresponding to the priority areas of modernization and the Russian economy” have also been identified. That is, security forces, law enforcement officers and engineering specialties of the military-industrial complex, it turns out.

We can also expect from this year noticeable repairs and improvements in living conditions in dormitories, improvements to campuses, and the organization of temporary stay groups for children of students who have already become parents. Regarding proposals previously submitted to the State Duma to transfer from paid departments to the budget students who gave birth to children while studying at a university, including master’s and postgraduate studies, no decision has yet been made.