The Russian government will cut funding for state-supported universities if an audit report commissioned and supported by Russian President Vladmir Putin is implemented.
Of the 541 state universities and their 994 branches, 136 universities and 450 regional branches were branded as ‘inefficient’ in the report, according to rsc.org.
Russia has been one of the top destinations for Kenyan students pursuing post-secondary education mainly due to the relatively affordable cost of tuition and living standards. 25 percent of the universities that were identified as inefficient are unlikely to survive without state support.
The report comes at a time when Russia was ranked as the country with the highest number of population that has attained tertiary education in the world. See: Most educated countries in the world
The audit report assessed scientific activities, external revenue per lecturer, number of foreign students and sophistication of the university’s infrastructure to draw its conclusion.
The report supports President Putin’s proposes to cut down the number of universities by 20 percent and number of constituent campuses by 30 percent. The final list of inefficient universities that potentially face closure will be confirmed in early December after discussions with regional governments. The future of those universities will be agreed by the government in March 2013.
