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- Final motivation: universities have approved the lists of the Unified State Exam according to the new rules
Final motivation: universities have approved the lists of the Unified State Exam according to the new rules
Universities have approved the lists of entrance tests for applicants according to the new rules 12 days before the end of students' applications for the unified state exam. The changes affected 48 training areas, Izvestia calculated. Now future teachers are required to take the Unified State Exam in their core subjects, physics has become mandatory for most engineering fields, and history for the humanities. The innovations are aimed at enrolling applicants who are more prepared and interested in the specialty and will become a kind of filter. At the same time, the changes cause concern and discontent among many schoolchildren and their parents. For more information, see the Izvestia article.
New requirements for applicants
12 days before the deadline for applicants to submit applications for the Unified State Exam, Russian universities partially changed the list of exams required for admission to certain fields. At the same time, students usually begin to prepare in two years — even in the tenth grade. The innovations are related to the introduction of changes to the list of entrance examinations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. According to the draft document, which will enter into force only on March 1, 2026, physics has become the main exam for technical areas, and history for the humanities. The changes affected 48 areas, Izvestia calculated.
Applicants usually need to take three exams for admission, in rare cases four. The first entrance test is always the Russian language. The second, the profile exam, is determined by the university, but taking into account the list of the Ministry of Education and Science.
According to the innovation, physics will now be compulsory in 26 areas, such as Radio Engineering, Nuclear Physics and Technology, and Energy Engineering. In addition, future physics teachers will have to take the subject.
Previously, universities could accept students in the field of "Pedagogical Education" with social studies, but now they are required to introduce a specialized subject: future history teachers must take history, and chemistry teachers must take chemistry.
In addition, the list of subjects for the third test was significantly reduced in these areas: the number of subjects decreased from nine to ten to one to five. Russian Russian Language and Literature in 2026 requires applicants to take the Unified State Exam in Russian language, literature, and history, and last year, ten subjects were offered in the list for this field (11 subjects in total). The situation is similar with the Biology profile: You can only take Russian, biology, and chemistry classes there.
Universities also got the opportunity to assign the Unified State Exam in history as a mandatory specialized entrance test for 21 areas of study, Izvestia found out. Thus, educational institutions can establish history as a mandatory Unified State Exam for admission to "Pedagogy and Psychology of deviant Behavior," although this subject was not on the list last year.
And with the direction of "Urban Planning", applicants from the Unified State Exam in geography will be able to accept, with the direction of "Political Science" — computer science — these subjects were added to the third and fourth entrance tests.
Which universities have changed exams?
The list of entrance examinations for admission to universities began to operate on March 1, 2022. It is periodically updated in connection with the comprehensive improvement of the higher education system, the Ministry of Education and Science said. The changes that universities have now made are related to Order No. 904 of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated November 26, 2025. They are required to publish the final list of entrance tests by January 20, 2026. At the same time, you can apply for participation in the Unified State Exam only until February 1.
Thus, V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University (KFU) has left the same set of Unified State Exams for traditional areas, Alexey Gusev, deputy chairman of the university's admissions committee, told Izvestia. The educational institution tries not to change the list of entrance tests without federal requirements, so that applicants understand which exams they need to take from year to year.
— The exception is teacher education. Here, instead of one general education subject, a professional exam is being introduced," said Alexey Gusev. — This will make it possible to select future teachers based on their professional skills. Moreover, this measure simplifies the procedure: fewer results are required for admission.
At the National Research Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N.I. Lobachevsky (UNN), the changes affected only two areas: "Special Radio engineering systems" and "Electronics and Nanoelectronics," Pavel Agrba, head of the Department of Career Guidance and admission of applicants, told Izvestia.
— In several humanitarian areas, the opportunity has been added for universities to establish the history of the compulsory entrance test, while maintaining the possibility of admission in social studies, — he said.
The Unified State Exam in physics has become mandatory for admission to engineering courses at the Siberian Federal University (SFU). In particular, for radio engineering, the design and technology of electronic communications, radio electronic systems and complexes, special radio engineering systems, photonics and optoinformatics, thermal power engineering and thermal engineering, electric power engineering and electrical engineering, Margarita Kuznetsova, head of the office of the new set of SibFU, told Izvestia.
— Since the beginning of December, SibFU has been actively working on information at the university, — said Margarita Kuznetsova.
At the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MGTU) Last year, they introduced the Unified State Exam in physics for a wide range of specialties, so now there are no major changes in university admission.
"The only thing that surprises us in the current version of the document is that a set of entrance tests for engineering specialties can be without specialized mathematics," the university told Izvestia. "We believe that specialized mathematics is essential for the successful development of higher education programs in the field of engineering."
At Ural Federal University (UrFU), specialized mathematics was replaced with physics in 14 areas, and mathematics became an elective subject, the educational institution told Izvestia. In addition, history was added to the list of elective courses in Customs, computer science and mathematics in Political Science, and the Unified State Exam in mathematics became mandatory in Intellectual Systems in the Humanities, and exams in history and literature were included in the list of elective subjects. At Philosophy, literature became the subject of choice.
The Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) has also added elective subjects in six areas, the university told Izvestia.
Why do we need stricter measures?
The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) has been advocating for several years to increase the requirements for training future engineers, the university's press service told Izvestia.
"One of our proposals was to make the Unified State Exam in physics a mandatory entrance test for engineering applicants in all universities of the country. Support for this initiative at the federal level allows us to count on a systematic increase in the quality of specialist training," the MIPT noted.
At the same time, increasing the importance of the Unified State Exam in physics should also be accompanied by strengthening school teaching of this subject, the university added.
"The introduction of a compulsory physics exam will have a positive impact on both the quality of the educational program and the motivation to go to the forefront of science and technology," Andrei Voronin, Vice—rector for Education at the University of Science and Technology MISIS (NUST MISIS), told Izvestia. — The natural science picture of the world, critical thinking is a necessary foundation for any specialist, and physics is the basis for this.
Changes to the Unified State Exam lists are expected and discussed earlier — this did not become "stunning news" for students preparing for admission, says Irina Abankina, professor at the HSE Institute of Education.
— For example, people go to pedagogical universities and choose a natural science course, although they passed the Unified State Exam in humanitarian fields. As a result, they do not master this field well, and neither physics teachers nor chemistry teachers go to work in schools. We have a large shortage of teachers in mathematics and natural science subjects," the specialist told Izvestia.
Passing the EXAM subjects corresponding to the chosen profile will help to understand how interested the graduate is in the future specialty, and to test his knowledge, she noted.
— In technical universities, when there was a shortage even for budget places, applicants who took computer science instead of physics were often accepted. Sometimes they were accepted even with any exams. However, this could lead to very high dropout rates. In some universities, 30-40% of students were expelled after the first or second year," said Irina Abankina.
To prevent such a wave of deductions in the future, they decided to make the Unified State Exam in physics mandatory for engineering, technical and specialized pedagogical areas, she explained.
According to her, graduates and their families will have to make a very responsible choice. The workload for schoolchildren is high now, and the competition among university applicants is only growing every year. Due to the current situation, applicants may transfer to private universities and colleges.
— At the same time, for many years the average score in subjects has not exceeded 60, — Irina Abankina pointed out. — This means that a significant proportion of students with 50 or 40 points enrolled in certain areas, even with such a low score. Therefore, the increased competition here is aimed at enrolling more prepared students. Mechanisms are needed to install filters.
How did students and parents react to the changes?
Changes in the Unified State Exam lists are causing concern and discontent among many schoolchildren and their parents, Olga Letkova, head of the Association of Parents' Committees and Communities of Russia, told Izvestia.
— Children were preparing for exams according to the same scheme, and now, just a few months before passing the exam and admission, many will have to do it all over again, — she said. — If a child is seriously preparing for admission to a particular university, for example, to an IT specialist, which our country, by the way, really needs, but at the last moment the requirements have changed, then in the end the graduate may not go where he wanted.
According to Olga Letkova, the new rules put schoolchildren in a strict framework — it is necessary to "redo everything on the run," which is why children experience great stress.
— We already have a lot of surprises and stress on the Unified State Exam. We need some kind of stability guarantees for children, and we would like new rules to be introduced at least a year in advance," she said.
There are active discussions under the publications about changes in the list of entrance examinations. One of the users believes that the school is not able to provide the material to the extent necessary for exams.:
"If, after studying at school for 11 years, excellent students faint from the news that they need to take another subject, this is not a wake—up call, it's a wake-up call that it's time to stop being smart and take something that has worked for several decades."
Physics should be studied in universities, another user believes. According to him, "if you shift education to school, then there will be no competent engineers."
To prepare for a new subject in a short period of time, it is important to build a clear plan of action, psychologist Natalia Naumova told Izvestia.
— It is important to plan how much time the child is willing to spend on each of the topics. If it's difficult to do this on your own, you can seek help from a tutor or go to preparatory classes at school," she said.
Besides, a lot depends on self-belief. According to the expert, it is those students who have been studying hard for exams who are most worried.
— They have a lot of information in their head, but it is important to structure their knowledge. Video materials, notes with approximate answers to questions, as well as solving demos for exams help in this," she said.
In order to feel better before exams, the expert advises learning self-regulation skills, such as breathing practices.
— It is important to listen to yourself, notice your breathing and relax your body. This will allow you to slow down, become more stable and confident. Meetings with friends, communication with loved ones and family support also help," the psychologist pointed out.
Parents should not punish and scold a child for grades: the exam is not the end of the world, but just one of the stages of life, the expert concluded.
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