Higher and high education in Russia likely to become paid

Signed on Monday, a federal law to scrap the 50% threshold on paid enrolment in state universities and colleges in such career fields as jurisprudence, economics, business management and state and municipal management in effect means Russia's traditional free higher and secondary education is facing extinction, Nezavisimaya Gazeta comments today.

If the new federal law is adopted, it may mean that no budget places will be provided at all in some prestigious specialties, because the managements of educational establishments might not resist the economic temptation of making tuition 100% fee-based.

All this points to the obvious that the country may soon face a shortage of highly trained specialists, since fee-based tuition in the overwhelming majority of cases is not so much a matter of acquiring solid knowledge, but that of a student's ability to pay, says Nezavisimaya Gazeta.