"The current results of the Unified State Exam are the breakthrough of the year"

Graduates' interest in the natural sciences is growing, which means that universities have the opportunity to select the best personnel for training specialists. The head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Education and Science (Rosobrnadzor) told Izvestia about this, as well as about the situation with the Russian language among migrant children, the USE demos and the prospects for canceling the Unified State Exam on the sidelines of the SPIEF Anzor Muzaev.

"Engineering sciences and personnel are the most necessary resource for the economy today"

— The main period of the Unified State Exam has already ended this year, there are only reserve days and retakes left. Is it possible to sum up some preliminary results already? Were there any surprises or unpleasant incidents this year?

— Yes, the main days of exams are over. The reserve days have started this week. Most of the graduates have successfully completed their assignments, are getting results, and will not use the reserve days. Based on these statistics, we can draw fairly confident conclusions about the average scores and the number of exam participants in 2025. I would like to congratulate all participants in the educational process, and I believe that this year has been a success for everyone.

At the beginning of the year, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with departments, drew attention to difficulties with natural science subjects: chemistry, biology, mathematics, physics. There are fewer of them, and the results are worse. But engineering sciences and personnel are the most necessary resource for the economy today. The training of such personnel is an important task for society and universities. This year, we have seen a significant increase in those who want to take science subjects. Graduates didn't just show up — they came to the exams and passed them. At the same time, we managed to maintain the average exam score. After all, it often happens that when the number of graduates increases significantly, the average score drops.

— What results did the graduates show in physics, specialized mathematics, biology and chemistry?

The average score has been preserved. This means that the quality has also been preserved. We see significant improvements in a number of positions. This year, 6 thousand more people took the Unified State Exam in chemistry than last year, and 30 thousand more took specialized mathematics. An increase of 8-10% is a big step. Even when the number of computer science students increased, the indicator did not grow at such a pace. And before that, we were happy with a plus of 500 people. In 2025, we took the 60+ point target as the basis for calculations.

It turned out that the number of graduates who scored more than 60 points in one exam increased by 4.5 thousand compared to 2024. This is more than 10%. In addition, the number of those who could not overcome the minimum threshold is decreasing or remains at the same level. Biology, the second most popular subject when choosing the Unified State Exam, was passed by 8 thousand more graduates — an increase of 7%. The average score in the subject remained, and the number of graduates who passed the exam by 60+ points increased by 3 thousand people to 48 thousand. 13,000 more students took physics in 2025 than in 2024. 49 thousand graduates wrote the subject for 60+ points. The average test score has decreased slightly, however, but within the margin of error per thousand people.

— How do you assess such indicators?

— These figures mean that this year's university competition will be of a higher quality. Universities will be able to select the best students, so universities will train highly qualified specialists. We are finally entering a trend where school graduates are starting to choose science subjects, plan to be engineers, and enroll in specialized universities. This is exactly what our country's economy needs today. This is the breakthrough of the year.

"After the Izvestia article, we once again sent letters to the subjects stating that payment for services should not be conditional."

— Did you expect similar results on the Unified State Exam? Maybe you were able to predict such indicators, looking at the results of the All-Russian verification work?

-- The results of the vlookup are not uploaded immediately, because the amount of work is greater. So, we will receive a full analysis of the VPR only by August. On the one hand, the results on the Unified State Exam were unexpected for us, but on the other hand, they were not. After all, many programs have been established and implemented over the years. Universities and schools conduct more career guidance classes. There is also a background: there are not enough engineers since 2022, salaries are rising in this area, and you can be successful here. This also affected the results. We were afraid that this process would be much slower.

— Won't the history of economists and lawyers repeat itself, when everyone started to receive economic and legal education, and there was an oversupply on the market? Can such a situation happen to engineers?

— According to forecasts, the demand for engineers will remain for another five years, if not more. We definitely haven't reached the peak yet. Judging by the labor market, there is no glut of engineers. Therefore, parents and graduates can not worry about the future. In addition, with the education of an engineer, a lot of opportunities are open to a person, a large selection of tracks. You can draw an analogy with IT specialists. There were not enough such specialists, there was a big request. Therefore, many began to take computer science. Then the cooling happened. The number of people taking the Unified State Exam in computer science is not growing, and in some cases it is even decreasing.

— Izvestia wrote that teachers in many regions refuse to participate in the organization of the GIA due to low pay - 120-150 rubles for a full—time job. Are there any solutions to this problem already?

— Financing for the OGE and the Unified State Exam should be provided by the regions of Russia. After this article, we once again sent letters to the subjects stating that payment for these services should not be conditional. When the state exam is held, we will re-monitor this situation and see how much it has changed. But I would like to note that there is not a single subject, not a single exam venue, in which it would be disrupted due to low payments.

"To cancel something, you need to present something in return"

— They have been talking about the abolition of the Unified State Exam for many years. And in April, the State Duma once again refused to consider the abolition of the Unified State Exam. It's not very clear why such offers are created. Is the idea of cancellation being pushed through, or are people just playing on their parents' nerves? Is there any chance that the state will cancel the Unified State Exam?

— To cancel something, you need to present something in return. Yes, there was a question of conducting the Unified State Exam in covid. And the universities themselves asked not to cancel the Unified State Exam. That is, when the threat really loomed, even those who criticized the Unified State Exam said: "No, let them take the Unified State Exam, we can't leave students without university enrollment." Proposals to cancel the state exam are more statements to attract attention. We are not canceling the Unified State Exam, because no one offers a new model. Even when such round tables arise, we discuss "water". There are essentially no proposals.

— In June, a survey on the topic of refusing to publish a demo version of the Unified State Exam ended at Public Services. Why change the demo version? What did the survey show?

— A lot of questions were related to the training of students. Some people believe that the demo version of the Unified State Exam is a guideline that helps people not to prepare deeply for it, and that people understand the structure of the next year's exam by the demo version. Perhaps, without this base, students will be calmer, they will go to lessons every day, study, prepare without regard to the structure and tasks of the exam. The overwhelming majority did not support the proposal to cancel the publication of the demos. We see that teachers and future graduates like that this tool is available. We haven't drawn any conclusions from the survey yet. But we will definitely be publishing demos this year. Moreover, we will introduce changes. In the 2025 demo, there will be links to which class and on which topic the student took this material.

"55% of migrant children successfully passed the Russian language test"

— Let's move away from the Unified State Exam. The majority of future schoolchildren among migrant children failed the Russian language tests. What are you planning to do now? Will you organize express courses or put children in classes without language skills, as they do, for example, in Germany?

— Following the example of Germany, we worked before the adoption of the amendments. We came to sad results: conflicts in schools, problems for teachers, which led to ethnic strife. The example of Germany, their migration policy is a failure, this is not a good experience. Fortunately, we got away from him. New requirements are in effect now. The parent must present a package of documents that will contain information about him and how he will exercise his parental rights, which will not outweigh them for the state, that the parent is solvent and legally located in Russia. The second requirement is that the child must know Russian at the same level as our children do. And of the migrant children who recently took the exam, 55% of the 509 successfully passed it. The others failed.

— What should these 45% do?

— They can take the exam again in three months. And the preparation of a child is the responsibility of parents. They should make sure that the child is engaged, and not wobble and create conflict situations. We are currently building this system. The Interior Ministry will monitor the migrants. We are building a new system, it has started working and is bearing fruit. Our citizens need to be patient so that the mechanism is fully operational.