“Leading Russian universities will be able to get budget-funded places without state accreditation”, said Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Dmitry Livanov.

“We can grant accreditation of programs without 5-year accreditation period to our leading universities which have recommended themselves as accomplished research and educational centers”, mentioned Mr. Livanov in the meeting on innovations.

One of the meeting participants also noted that the new Education Act dictates allocation of budget-funded places only on accredited specialties. However, the programs can obtain accreditation in case if they are implemented for 5 years. Due to this reason the educational system cannot quickly respond to changing labour market.  

In the end of February the authorities took measures to increase efficiency of Russian universities. In particular, Rosobrnadzor (Federal Education and Science Supervision Agency) has published a list of 126 educational institutions which had been expelled from the register of licenses for unsatisfactory quality of education. The lack of license means that the university does not have a right to educational activities.