Translated material
Special selection
The government allowed 11 universities to introduce additional exams
The list of universities that will conduct additional specialized tests this summer in addition to the unified state exam has been approved by the government. According to the White House decision, 11 universities will be allowed to select applicants not only by the Unified State Exam, but also through their own exams, which is more than half as many as last year. As part of the 2009 admissions campaign, additional tests were carried out in 24 universities.The right to conduct their own exams was introduced not only to help universities select the truly best, but also to avoid a repetition of last year’s conflicts, when the number of applicants with equal scores obtained during the Unified State Exam exceeded the number of places for students paid from the budget. The introduction of internal assessments in addition to Unified State Examination certificates will make it possible to select the best among equals. The list of selected universities in 2010 included Moscow State Linguistic University, Moscow State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI", Russian State Humanitarian University (RGGU), State University - Higher School of Economics, Moscow State Institute International Relations (MGIMO), St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University named after N.A. Dobrolyubova, Russian Law Academy of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and Moscow State Law Academy named after O.E. Kutafina. The government decree signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also determines the list of specialties for which students will take a specialized exam upon admission.
Moscow and St. Petersburg State Universities stand out separately from the list of selected universities - they have recently been in a special position and received from the government the right to introduce specialized exams a little earlier. Moscow State University Rector Viktor Sadovnichy did not fail to take advantage of this. Shortly after the New Year holidays, he announced that Moscow State University would introduce additional exams in all faculties.
“The resolution is not binding, but rather permissive,” emphasized Grigory Kantorovich, vice-rector of the State University - Higher School of Economics, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent. Universities can follow the path of Moscow State University and conduct their exams in all permitted specialties or limit themselves to a few faculties. The leadership of MGIMO, for example, decided to additionally test applicants for knowledge of a foreign language in all faculties, except journalism. But an additional creative competition awaits applicants at the journalism department, Anton Moskalenkov, head of the MGIMO public relations department, told Vremya Novostei. The State University Higher School of Economics did not establish specialized subjects in all permitted areas, limiting itself to an additional exam at the Faculty of Mathematics. “The faculty leadership asked for this,” says Mr. Kantorovich. “The ability to solve complex problems is important to them.”
In 2009, 24 universities conducted additional exams. Both last year’s and the current register of special universities are determined by the government on the proposal of the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science and the Ministry of Education and Science. When selecting, firstly, “indicators of the competition for admission to a university in the corresponding field of study (specialty) for the two years preceding the year of admission” are taken into account, and secondly, “the actual results of the enrollment of persons in the first year for the two years preceding the year reception." Among the universities that had the right to have their own exam in 2009, the list for 2010 did not include, in particular, MIPT, the Financial Academy and the Sechenov Medical Academy.