News and events
A joint briefing by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko and Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Valery Falkov took place at the TASS press center. The speakers talked about the construction of world-class student campuses, the admission campaign to Russian universities in 2022, restrictions in terms of the pandemics, the implementation of the state program for scientific and technological development and much more.
Start of the second wave of campuses competitive selection
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko launched a second wave of campuses competitive selection during the briefing.
“Today we are launching the selection of second-wave campus projects. Applications will be accepted till April 1 on the website of the Ministry of Education and Science "Procampus.rf" (Прокампус.рф) on the principle of “a single window”. The criteria have been finalized and the opportunities for participation have been expanded this time. Not only regions but special territories can apply as well now, for example, the federal territory "Sirius" and special economic zones and territories of advanced social and economic development. The commission will take into account the integration of technoparks into the structure of campuses and cooperation with technologу partners when considering projects," Dmitry Chernyshenko said.
Valery Falkov added that eight projects have already been selected for the construction of campuses for now. Campuses of the first wave will be built in Tomsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Ufa and Kaliningrad.
In addition to the construction of new infrastructure, major universities’ dormitories repairs are being done. Repairs of roofs, facades, engineering systems and interior work were carried out in 254 dormitories of 94 universities last year. More than 5 billion rubles were spent on this.
"There are more than 900 thousand places in universities’ dormitories. This is a very large fund, the state of which cannot be ignored. Therefore, 8.3 billion rubles have been allocated for repairs this year. The Ministry of Education and Science of Russia has already selected 103 universities in 57 Russian regions where relevant work will be carried out," the Minister said about plans for 2022.
According to Valery Falkov, more than 1 billion rubles have also been allocated for the major repairs of 33 scientific organizations in 14 regions of the country this year.
This year's admission campaign starts on June 20
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said that more than 588 000 young people will be able to get free tuition this year and the emphasis in the distribution of state-funded places among universities is made on the specialization of regions. The distribution of more than 590 000 state-funded places among universities is planned for 2023/2024 academic year.
Valery Falkov noted that the largest increase in the number of state-funded places will be in doctoral and residency programs, as well as master's degree programs this academic year.
"In terms of the distribution by domains of study, there has been a significant increase in places in engineering, IT technology, healthcare and pedagogical sciences," the Minister said.
According to the Minister, the admission campaign to universities will start on June, 20 this year. Applicants will be able to submit an application in person, send it by mail or use electronic resources, including the portal of state services and the superservice "University enrolment online".
1.2 trillion rubles allocated for scientific and technological development of Russia
A new State Program of Scientific and Technological Development of Russia has recently been launched. For the first time it consolidated all expenditures on science which were previously distributed among 34 state programs. About 1.2 trillion rubles are planned to be allocated from the federal budget for the implementation of the State Program of Scientific and Technological Development of Russia.
"587 billion will be allocated this year for the development of higher education, the provision of grants and scholarships, as well as for the creation of laboratories for the youth, support for selection centers, centers for the shared use of scientific equipment and unique scientific installations. We will allocate about 230 billion more for basic research and 235.3 billion for applied scientific research. Thanks to the implementation of the state program, the volume of research and development internal costs will grow by more than 2.5 times and amount to about 3.5 trillion rubles by 2030. By comparison, it is now about 1.3 trillion rubles. We will also increase the amount of extra-budgetary investments in science from 53% to 75%. Furthermore, we set a goal to increase the number of researchers under the age of 39 to 50% of the total number of scientists by 2030. Now this number is 44.3%," Dmitry Chernyshenko said.
15 startup studios and 30 advanced engineering schools will be formed at Russian universities this year
It is planned to create 15 pilot university startup studios within the framework of the federal project "The University Technology Entrepreneurship Platform" in 2022. 1.5 billion rubles will be allocated from the state budget for this purpose and 15 million rubles will be raised from private investors. Also 20 entrepreneurial organizations called "Boiling points" will be created at universities.
"Nowadays more than 50% of young people would like to realize themselves in having their own business. Technology entrepreneurs are changing the world and we want to give an opportunity to all the students, and we have 4.8 million of them, to try out for entrepreneurship," the Minister concluded.
It is planned to create 30 advanced engineering schools as part of the second federal project by the end of this year. They will start to train qualified staff for high-tech sectors of the economy. More than 4.5 billion rubles from federal funds and more than 900 million from private funds will be allocated for project, scientific, educational and research activities.
"Both projects are a response to the demands of society, students and applicants, and surely, the economy. The project "Advanced Engineering Schools" is being actively discussed with Russian entrepreneurs and top managers of large companies. Engineering has changed significantly in recent years. New lines of research such as software engineering, engineering of living systems, genomic editing have been under development lately. Our task is to prepare high-class leaders by the best global standards and advanced areas that will lead students and colleagues," Valery Falkov said.
Dmitry Chernyshenko and Valery Falkov congratulated the members and veterans of construction teams on their professional holiday, the Day of Russian Student Teams, at the end of the briefing.
