Educational system Russia

Overview:

Russia is known for its long tradition in quality education. Russia is probably one country with so much population to achieve a literacy rate of 98 %.The Russian education is predominantly run by the government and is regulated by the federal ministry of education.

According to the 2002 census 17 million people have tertiary education (minimum of Undergraduate level). In fact more women have got a tertiary degree than men.


Preschool:


The preschool education is widely run in the country mostly by public schools and no more than 20% of the fees can be collected for the education. The preschool education is between the age of 5 and 6. Certain people are entitled for free education due to very reasonable causes such as the Chernobyl veterans and so on.

School Education:


The school education takes place for 12 years (age 6 – 17) excluding the preschool education. The majority of school education is Compulsory from 6 to 15. The school education can be further seen as three levels. The primary school from age 6 to 10, then secondary education from age 10 to 15 and finally the upper secondary school for 2 years.

At the end of the school education one has to take the final examination called as Attestat o Srednem and successful students will be awarded Obshchem Obrasovanii the formal School Leaving Certificate.


Undergraduate and Graduate studies:


The tertiary education is controlled by the federal ministry of education which forms 50% of the syllabus for the courses and gives autonomous power to University to select the rest 50%. Almost half of the students will have free education and rest half will have to pay subsidized fees in state run HEIs. The private HEIs (Higher educational Institutions) can offer courses with their own fees structure.

The Bachelors degree widely called as Bakalavr's degree in Russia takes minimum of four years to complete the degree. The bachelor’s degree is offered in disciplines such as science, social, economic, engineering along with professional training, and a final research paper has to be submitted along with the state final examinations.

The master’s degree can be taken after considerably good performance in the bachelors. The advanced diploma degree can be achieved after continuous research rather than 2 years of studies as in the case of Masters.

At the end of the master’s degree a mater thesis have to be presented and defend successfully.


PhD:


The doctoral degree is considered very prestigious in Russia. There are 2 categories of Post graduate studies , the Normal doctorate which is minimum of 3 years and the Advanced doctoral candidate is very specialized and take anywhere between 5 to 15 years. The eligibility for PhD is very strict and high level of focus in master studies have to prove to gain admissions in doctoral programs.


Study Abroad:


To study in Russia as a foreign student, the Students must hold the Secondary School Leaving Certificate or its equivalent. There are compulsory pre-academic programs for those who do not have proficiency in Russian or/and for those with weak pre-university training. They must successfully pass entrance exams/tests to obtain admissions. International applicants should not be older than 28 years of age except for the doctoral applicants for them 35 is the age limit.

Russia ranked No 8th in number of International students in the country in the year 2008. More than 100,000 international students studied in Russia during the year 2008.


Summer schools:

There are numerous summer schools offering courses in humanities, linguistics, cultural studies and much more. This school very often offers courses in English knowledge to enable an international atmosphere in the courses. The duration of these courses ranges from 2 weeks to few months.


Learning Languages:


Russian is the widely spoken language and many of the younger generation learn English in schools and it is recommended to learn Russian to live a hassle free life during your studies in Russia.  Nevertheless there are language schools offering other European languages as well.