Education System in Russia

The Russian system of education is made up by the following stages: nursery school, or kindergarten (for children under 7), primary school (1st to 4th grades), secondary school (5th to 9th grades), high secondary school (10th and 11th grades), and higher education at a university.

It has a long-standing tradition in high-quality education. Russia is one of the favorite study destinations among Indian students too for higher education. With many private and state universities, Russia is able to offer end number of courses to its students.

From literature to medicine, Russian universities offer variety of courses and topics. Compared to other countries like UK and USA, the cost of living and fees structure in Russia is quite affordable, which is also one of the prime reasons to attract Indian students in German universities.

Higher Education Institutions in Russia

• University
• Technical University
• Academy, University Level
• Institute, University Level
• Conservatory
• College, Non-University Level Higher Education Institution
• Non-University Level Higher Education Institution
• Technical Institution

Entry Requirements For Russian Universities

Russia's top universities have very competitive entry requirements, and special entry exams are held each year. Applicants for advanced degrees (M.A./ M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc.) should have their prior degree in the same or a very similar field.

Distance education is also offered by many Russian universities and provides courses for the public and for specific professional needs. However, such systems are usually less developed than in the US and other Western European countries.

The academic year starts from Sept 1 and ends in Mid June everywhere, with long summer vacations from July 1st to Aug 31.

Levels of Education in Russia

• The Bachelor Level
• The Master Level
• The PhD Level

The Bachelor Level: The Bachelor degree programmes last for at least 4 years of full-time university-level study. It is a graduate programme which includes professional and special courses in Science, the Humanities and Social-economic disciplines, professional training, completion of a research paper/project and passing State final exams. The Bachelor's degree is awarded in all fields except Medicine after defending a Diploma project prepared under the guidance of a supervisor and passing the final exams. In Medicine, the first stage lasts for six years. Hence, Bachelor degree holders are eligible to get admission in to the master degree courses.

The Master Level: A master degree is awarded after a successful completion of two years' full-time study. The Institutes / Universities offering higher education in Russia has a total enrollment of more than two million students. The staff of the various institutions include more than 16,250 doctors of science and about 8,70,000 candidates of science who, apart from lecturing, are active in the development of new scientific trends and advanced technology.

The PhD Level: Tomsk Polytechnic University and other Universities and colleges in Russia offer international students a wide range of Ph. D. programs. The training of well-qualified specialists for teaching and research lasts for 3 to 4 years and ends in the public defense of a Ph.D. thesis. All these are fulfilled under the guidance and supervision of leading university scientists. The minimum qualification for a PhD course is a master’s degree. The period of part-time or distant doctoral training is about 4 years.

Grading System in Russia

Russian Federation implements a five point grading system, where:

"5", "Excellent": equal to Highest Distinction (The best possible grade, representing excellent knowledge in a given subject)

"4", "Good": represents a good knowledge of a subject.

"3", "Satisfactory": sometimes translated into English as "Fair" (This is a credit passing grade).

"2", "Unsatisfactory": hardly any knowledge, below average, represents the first level of failing.

"1", "Poor": represents complete failure and is the lowest possible grade, very rarely used.

Qualifiers + and – are often used to add some degree of differentiation between the grades, e.g. 4+ is better than 4 but a little worse than 5–. Grading varies greatly from school to school, university to university and even teacher to teacher, and tends to be entirely subjective even for courses that lend themselves to objective marking such as mathematics and applied sciences.

Even though the grades technically range from "1" to "5", "1" is not very common and is rarely given for academic reasons—in many cases a "1" is given as a result of failure to show up for an exam or to answer any questions. A "2" grade usually means that the student did not show/hardly showed any knowledge in a subject.