University places

Financing leading universities in Russia in 2017-2019 will be reduced by 12 billion rubles. The resolution, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on February 10, was published on the official portal of legal information.

The previous resolution "On measures of state support for leading universities in the Russian Federation to increase their competitiveness" of March 16, 2013 said that in 2017 and in the next three years, 14.5 billion rubles should be allocated to support universities.

The government decided to reduce subsidies for 2017 to 10.6 billion rubles, for 2018 to 10.2, and for 2019 - up to 10 billion rubles. The amount of financing for 2020 remains at the planned level.

On January 27, RBC, citing a draft government decree, reported that the costs of developing a scientific and technological complex in 2017-2019 will be reduced by 25 billion rubles . Directly on scientific research, state expenses under the program will be reduced by almost 19 billion rubles.

The document developed in the Ministry of Education and Science makes changes to the program for the development of the scientific and technical complex. The current version of the program suggests that until 2020, 228.7 billion rubles will be spent on these purposes, of which 187.2 billion will be from the federal budget. 121.9 billion rubles will go to "applied scientific research and experimental civilian development."

According to the draft resolution, the total cost of the program will be reduced to 203.7 billion rubles, of which budget funds - 168.3 billion rubles. 103 billion rubles will go to scientific research. The program was adopted in 2013 and was adjusted annually.

The treasury will save primarily on research “aimed at solving comprehensive scientific and technological problems”, the explanatory note to the project says. What kind of studies are we talking about, the document does not say. The financing of this article of the program will be reduced by more than a third in 2017 and doubled in 2018-2019. On the development of scientific products and technologies, they will spend on average a third less than planned for three years than planned.

The most radical budget reduction will affect the material and technical infrastructure: it will be spent half the planned on its maintenance on its maintenance. Up to a third of budget financing will lose projects of popularizing science. Also, a third less money will be allocated for the organization of international scientific events and participation in them.

Savings is connected with the need to bring the program in line with the federal budget for the next three years, the Ministry of Education and Science explained in the press service. In particular, in 2017, the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations will receive 10 percent less than a year earlier.

There are no directions in which financing will be completely terminated is not, they say in the Ministry of Education and Science. On the contrary, previously suspended projects will be resumed: for example, competitions for the design of scientific attitudes and programs for the implementation of Russian scientific journals into international scientific citation systems.

The reduction in the budget for science and technology is inevitable, since state expenses are generally reduced, explained by the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fortov. According to him, a "political decision" is necessary to improve the situation.

In August 2016, it became known that the lack of budget funds for the implementation of state programs for science and education will lead to mass dismissal of scientists . Such a proposal was made by the Ministry of Education and Science in the documents prepared for the budget meeting with the head of government Dmitry Medvedev. By 2019, 8,300 researchers are proposed from the salary statement of the Federal Agency of Scientific Organizations.

According to the agency, the share of the scientific state program in the total budget expenditures will decrease from 0.98 percent in 2015 to 0.87 percent in 2019. Already in 2017, it is proposed to dismiss to 500 people from universities. Together with scientists, scientific studies, activities for the development of the scientific and technical base will be reduced. Not only students, their teachers and scientists will suffer. The Ministry of Education and Science insists that the limits approved in July will require a proportional reduction in subsidies for state assignment to educational institutions of all levels.