History of Russian Higher Education

Founding of Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, the first university in Russia.

Founding of Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the forerunner of the current Russian Academy of Sciences.

Founding of Moscow State University (since 1940, M. Lomonosov MSU).

First higher courses for women are opened.

56 universities operating in Russia.

Distinguished Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov, a graduate of the Petersburg University (now SPbGU), is the first Russian to be awarded the Nobel prize for research on the physiology of digestion.

4 500 people teach in higher education in Russia, 127 400 people study at universities across the country.

150 universities in Russia.

Russia is the first country in the world to make higher education free. A decree is passed which allows workers to be admitted to university from the age of 16. This right is extended to all regardless of citizenship, sex, or possession of a school leaver’s certificate.

Dozens of new universities are created. They are mainly established in the major cities of the Soviet Republic.

The first polytechnic institutes are founded.

During reform of higher education, universities are subordinated to governmental agencies. They create industrial institutes based in the faculties of major universities. In the 1930s, over 40 teaching, medical, economic and other institutes are founded. Academic departments were assigned to research institutes. The first evening and correspondence departments and institutes are opened.

A fund of thesis papers is created.
In the last years of the Second World War, 60 new universities are opened.

Consolidation of universities takes place as part of efforts to improve the quality of education. Universities and departments for education specialists in the field of radioelectronics and electronic and computer engineering, automatics, biological physics, and biochemistry are opened.

494 state universities operate in the USSR.

180 000 international students at educational institutions in Russia.

Russia signs the Bologna Declaration becoming part of the single European higher education system.

Bachelor’s, Specialty and Master’s Programmes are introduced in Russia.

Graduates of MIPT Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of graphene. Russia has given the world a total of 42 Nobel Prize winners.

Law expanding citizens’ rights to education comes into force and establishes requirements for educational programmes and standards, guaranteeing compliance with global education standards.

The Russian Academic Excellence Project 5-100 is launched, which aims to increase the competitiveness of leading Russian universities at the international level.

More than 50 Russian universities are ranked among the best universities in the BRICS countries by the British company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). Twenty of them are in the top one hundred.

Seven Russian universities make the top 100 list of the best universities in the BRICS countries and other emerging economies of the world by respected UK publication Times Higher Education.