World-class universities project faces steep cuts

The Russian government will be forced to make significant cuts on the implementation of some of the major programmes in the field of higher education this year, due to a shortage of funds in the federal budget, according to the state press service. 

As part of these plans, the government intends to cut funding of the ‘5-100’ programme, a project aimed at improving the competitiveness of domestic universities in the international arena and achieving the ranking of five domestic universities in the top 100 best higher education institutions in accordance with the QS World University Rankings.

According to the Russian Kommersant business paper, the existing project is designed until 2020, while its implementation requires RUB14.5 billion (US$245 million) of investments annually. Planned cuts mean that these figures will be revised, while the cuts will be equivalent to RUB13 billion (US$220 million) over 2017-20.

Sergey Orlov, deputy director of the department of higher education institutions of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, said: “There are serious budget constraints for the national system of higher education this year, which are caused by the ongoing consequences of the financial crisis in Russia. This is also reflected by the recent cuts in funding of the existing federal target programme for the development of higher education in Russia until 2020, as the existing financial reserves are steadily declining. 

“The participants of the project are currently divided into two categories, and in particular those universities which have achieved the declared targets, that will continue to receive full funding, as well as those which do not succeed and whose funding will be cut with the possibility of their exclusion from the programme. The cut of funding may significantly complicate implementation of the existing state plans in accordance with the 5-100 project.”

Educational loans programme

At the same time, in addition to the 5-100 project, the cuts have affected the existing state programme of educational lending, which involves the provision of educational loans to Russian students. On 20 January the suspension of the programme was announced by Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, which is owned by the state, due to optimisation procedures. 

Artem Khromov, Russia’s students’ ombudsman, has sent a petition to the Russian government, asking for it to provide help to Russian students, many of whom are faced with serious financial problems during further payment of their tuition fees. 

The programme of educational lending allowed Russian banks to provide educational loans, covering up to 100% of tuition fees for the entire period of study plus 10 years at an interest rate of 7.5%. At the same time 75% of this interest rate was subsidised by the state. 

According to the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, in recent years interest in taking out educational loans has significantly increased. 

This has been confirmed by an official spokesperson of Sberbank, according to whom, for the period of July to September 2016 about RUB480 million (US$8 million) was allocated for these needs, which is twice the amount of lending for the same period in 2015, and these figures continue to grow. 

Some 15% of universities participate in the loans programme.

Anatoly Aleksandrov, head of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, one of Russia’s leading technical universities, said: "Educational loans were not popular among Russian students for a long time, as there was some distrust in them. However, in recent years the demand for them has significantly increased, and in particular from those students who study rare specialties and courses. 

"Of course, failure of this support tool at the moment when the demand for it is just beginning to grow can bring nothing positive."