The Monitoring Enrollment in Russian Universities survey is conducted each year by the Higher School of Economics with support from the Russian government. The results of this study are indicative of both the students’ proficiency levels and the universities’ reputation.
The survey has been conducted since 2009. This year, it comprised 812 entries, including 396 main facilities and 321 branches of state-owned universities, along with 95 private institutions, which means that virtually the entirety of higher education institutions in Russia were covered. The quality of admissions was determined by calculating the average Unified State Exam (USE) score of the successful applicants. Those students who were admitted as academic competition winners were counted as having scored a full hundred points.
Along with MIPT, HSE Moscow, MGIMO, and HSE St. Petersburg, ITMO is one of the top five universities in terms of admissions quality for tuition-free positions . For the second year in a row, the average score of applicants enrolled at ITMO was 93.7.
In 2022, 1,301 (1,305 according to the Admission Office) of all those welcomed into the ranks of ITMO students were admitted into tuition-free positions. There was also a new record set in terms of the number of academic competition winners among the applicants, with 609 winners being admitted. This is a new high for St. Petersburg, exceeding the second top university’s count by almost twofold. For comparison, only around 500 such students were recorded in 2021.
When it comes to the quality of admissions to paid positions, ITMO is ranked sixth in Russia. In 2022, 1,020 students successfully applied for these positions, with their average score being 78.1.
Key figures and trends
In total, 529,000 students were admitted into universities all over Russia, with 347,500 of them having their tuition covered, while 181,500 paid their fees themselves. By and large, this ratio and the overall numbers remain unchanged since last year.
The average USE score of the applicants is also approximately the same as in 2021: 70.3 for tuition-free positions, 65.5 for the rest, with the overall score being 68.6.
The authors also point out that the share of students who were admitted with a score above 80 remains at more or less the same level. In 2022, it amounted to 21% of all successful applicants (in 2021 it was 22.3%, in 2020 – 21.7%, in 2019 – 18.9%). Thus, it can be said that a fifth of all new students possess not just excellent grades, but a profound knowledge of the fundamentals of their chosen subjects. This share amounted to 26.1% among tuition-free admissions and 12.3% among the rest.
The authors of the survey say that such a disparity can be taken as proof that the demand for paid positions in top universities is rising among the more gifted prospective students. It can also be explained by the still-present shortage of tuition-free options in some programs, primarily those related to humanities.
You can view the results of the survey Monitoring Enrollment in Russian Universities (in Russian) on the HSE University’s website.
