For money, no: how will paid admission to universities be reduced
The Ministry of Education and Science has published a draft government decree with rules for determining the number of paid places in universities for the next academic year. According to the document, they will be reduced in both public and private universities. Universities will find out the exact number of paid places in November, and there will only be five days to challenge these figures. At the same time, the contesting methodology will come into effect only by December 2025. As a result, by the end of the year, all universities will already know how many students they will be able to accept in 2026-2027 for extra-budgetary purposes. Izvestia investigated how paid admission will be formed and how painful the restriction may become for universities.
When universities will find out new volumes of paid students
The Ministry of Education and Science emphasizes that the current draft resolution on paid places applies only to the 2026/27 admission campaign. After that, the results will be analyzed and, if necessary, the rules will be adjusted.
The implementation of the system will be phased and will affect only certain areas of training. They have not been determined yet. The total number of paid places will be agreed upon by an interdepartmental working group, which will include representatives of the federal departments — the founders of universities, government authorities, as well as employers' associations and specialized organizations.
The volume of extra-budgetary resources for each university will be formed according to the methodology of the Ministry of Education and Science. It has not yet been developed, but, as the ministry told Izvestia, it should enter into force on December 1 of this year.
At the same time, according to the draft resolution, by November 5, the Ministry of Education and Science will inform each educational organization of proposals on the maximum number of places for paid admission. Within five days, the university will have the opportunity to adjust the figure. But this will require a foundation based on a methodology that is also not yet available.
By November 20, the Ministry of Education and Science is considering university proposals and submitting to the interdepartmental working group a final draft resolution on the number of "paid employees". The project is being considered until December 1, and by the end of the year, the Ministry of Education and Science approves the final volumes of paid admission.
Difficulties with forming budgets
A number of universities surveyed by Izvestia said that the deadlines set may prevent them from forming a budget for calendar year 2026 in a timely manner.
Vadim Dikikh, director of the Department of Digital Development and Admission of Applicants at the State University of Management (GUU), believes that, most likely, there will not be enough time to adjust the budget if the final figures of paid applicants are approved in December 2025. In these circumstances, universities will plan according to the maximum value, and not based on real opportunities, he says.
Oleg Kukharev, Rector of Penza State Agrarian University (GAU), also explains that if the target figures are reached on December 29-31, the university will not have time to make a correct plan: it will have to make adjustments in 2026. In general, universities expressed a desire to know the figures before the beginning of December.
Lyudmila Pankova, Vice-Rector for Educational Affairs of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU), noted that the appearance of specific deadlines only means that the amount of paid admission for the next academic year will need to be planned earlier than usual.
However, Evgeny Bely, Doctor of Technical Sciences, author of the Telegram channel "Science and Universities", believes that universities will have enough time.
"Another thing is that the options for compensating for the shortfall in income are not particularly visible, since the extra—budgetary component of many regional universities accounts for 50 percent or more of the consolidated budget," he told Izvestia.
Irina Abankina, a professor at the HSE Institute of Education, also points out another problem: universities are given only five days to make reasonable adjustments to the figures. This short period of time could compensate for the participation of universities in the development of the methodology itself, but this, apparently, does not happen either: the interviewed university rectors indicated that they did not know what this methodology would be.
What will be the methodology for determining paid admission
The Ministry of Education and Science told Izvestia that the methodology is undergoing interdepartmental coordination and will take into account both the specifics of educational organizations and the forecast of the national economy's need for personnel, especially in priority areas of training. The guideline is to ensure the technological leadership of the Russian Federation.
Evgeny Bely emphasizes that the methodology is completely new, because so far there have been no restrictions on the number of paid students.
— The main areas related to management, economics and law will be sequestered. It is also expected that regional universities and non—governmental universities will bear the brunt," the source told Izvestia.
Vadim Dikikh from GUU notes that the methodology is likely to affect the overall performance of previous admission periods.
The Bauman Moscow State Technical University believes that the reduction may affect universities with "very conditional quotas for a paid department," determined without taking into account actual current opportunities and strategic planning.
Irina Abankina points out that, most likely, the rules will take into account the existing methodology for determining the effectiveness of universities, which evaluates the employment of graduates and other parameters.
However, she fears that every case will not be taken into account: there are already distortions in the system. As an example, Irina Abankina cites the situation with a number of areas at the Higher School of Economics, where they have already had to reduce the number of paid places and even refund money to those who paid the contracts.: This affected unique and highly sought-after destinations with a large competition.
The expert emphasizes that simple criteria for regulating paid admission will be of little use, and does not believe that the restriction from above will be effective.
How did universities react to possible cuts?
As the Ministry of Education and Science clarified to Izvestia, in the 2024/2025 academic year, 2,409,828 people, or 52% of students, studied at universities on a paid basis. In Moscow, this share reaches 65%.
—At the same time, 42.5% of the paid contingent were trained in economics and law, despite the oversupply of specialists in this field," the Ministry of Education and Science said, emphasizing that regulation is primarily aimed at building a flexible system of sectoral priorities for admission to universities, rather than reducing paid places.
Many universities do not agree with the statement about the oversupply of specialists of a certain profile. So, in fact, at Zabaikalsky State University, you can study only for money in such areas as economics, law, judicial and prosecutorial activities, because budget places have hardly been allocated in recent years. However, the shortage of personnel in these areas in the region is high: there are about 130 vacancies for lawyers in law enforcement agencies alone.
Galina Merzlyakova, Rector of Udmurt State University, also points out the great need for graduates with higher legal and economic education: in 2023, only in the investigative units of the Republican Ministry of Internal Affairs, where legal education is necessary, the number of vacancies was 99. The same situation exists in the SU IC and the Prosecutor's Office. She is sure that it is necessary not to reduce the paid admission, but, on the contrary, to increase the admission control figures for budget places in these areas.
Irina Abankina notes that the desire of the Ministry of Education and Science to redirect admission to engineering and technical areas is limited by the low number of people willing to study physics and natural science subjects. Few people want to study engineering for a fee: the cost of this education is higher than the price of socio-economic or humanitarian fields, and the dropout rate is high — sometimes more than 30%.
This is partly confirmed by the situation at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. The university admissions office reported that about 2.6-2.8 thousand paid places are allocated annually, but in fact 1.5-1.6 thousand students study engineering for money. students.
How important is paid admission for universities
Apparently, technical universities will not experience any difficulties. For example, the first vice-rector of MIPT, Elena Anokhova, notes that the number of "paid" students at the Faculty of Physics and Technology has never exceeded 15% of the enrollment, and their funds in the university budget amount to less than 1%. The budget of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI receives only 8% from paid education, and the university management does not expect a reduction in extra-budgetary admission. On the contrary, the university began to recruit few paid students in bachelor's and specialist's degrees, but recently it has significantly increased admission to paid master's degree programs — up to 1,000 people annually.
Some universities have reduced and redistributed the number of paid places themselves. Thus, in 2025, SPbPU accepted 200 fewer extra-budgetary students than last year. The reason was the lack of a targeted order from an industrial partner for programs in economics, management, and humanities. At the same time, students' interest in paid tuition in engineering has grown.
The situation is different in universities of other fields. At Kuban State Medical University, about 50% of the total number of students study for a fee, and the university's budget is also formed by about half of this. Nevertheless, KubSMU believes that they have a certain margin of safety and "with a reasonable reduction in volume" they will be able to rebuild.
In Penza State Agrarian University, 43% of this year's applicants were accepted to the paid department. Extra-budgetary income from educational activities is slightly more than 20%. However, says Rector Oleg Kukharev, it is important to keep the groups filled — they should not be less than 15 people.
In GUU, the extra-budgetary enrollment is 80% of the admission. A 20% reduction is called critical for the university's budget: it will be necessary to abandon training areas, cease cooperation with industry organizations, and possibly increase tuition fees.
Lev Surat, rector of the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, believes that the introduction of quotas will not only limit admission figures, it will suppress the natural desire of universities to respond to the challenges of the time.
"Student tuition fees are the main source of funding for our private university," he told Izvestia. — We have budget places, and this is an important part of the activity. But, unfortunately, the volume of such subsidies will not allow for comprehensive development.
Lev Surat believes that instead of artificial restrictions, emphasis should be placed on developing a quality control system for education, supporting real academic autonomy and creating healthy competition between universities.
The restriction of enrollment in economic and legal fields will have a significant impact on the financial stability of Udmurt State University, says Galina Vasilyeva, Vice Rector for Economics and Human Resources at Udmurt State University. She fears a reduction in staff and teaching staff. At the same time, UdGU advocates centralized management of admission procedures to private universities, which are currently pursuing a dumping pricing policy to the detriment of the quality of education.
And Alexander Rusakov, a member of the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture, former rector of Demidov Yaroslavl State University, expressed the hope that the methodology and changes in general would be conservative and would primarily affect those who provide poor-quality education and at the same time pursue a dumping pricing policy.
Many universities reacted calmly to the plans of the Ministry of Education and Science and expressed their willingness to "adjust." For example, at the A. I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University, extra-budgetary students are called an important component of the financial stability of the university, but they consider the restriction of paid enrollment to be only "another tool for quality control of education."
Boris Ilyukhin, a senior researcher at the Center for Economics of Continuing Education at the Presidential Academy, believes that if the funds from paid admission now make up the majority of the university's budget, this is a reason to think about its diversification.
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