Russia to invest US$1 billion in Crimean universities

The Russian government may invest up to US$1 billion in the development of higher education in Crimea, which it controversially controls following February's Ukrainian Revolution.

According to Dmitry Livanov, Russia's minister of education and science, most of the funding will be spent on aligning Crimean higher education with Russian standards.

This will include doubling or trebling the salaries of Crimean lecturers and professors, and modernising the infrastructure of local campuses, including building new dormitories. There are also plans for a gradual increase in student scholarships.

Establishing a new federal university, which is expected to unite several local institutions, will also help to develop Crimea's higher education system.

Livanov said the federal university would be based on the existing Tauride National University. "We will make sure that this project is open to all universities of Sevastopol and Crimea, which will have an opportunity to become part of it."

There is a possibility that the new university will have strong research base, by connecting it to several local research and development institutes.

The Russian government intends to include Crimean universities in the national monitoring of university efficiency, starting from next year.

Livanov also announced plans to provide Crimean students with state-funded places in Russia's top universities, including in Moscow and St Petersburg. The number of such places could reach 17,500.

Moscow State University leader Viktor Sadovnichii said it would design admission exams for applicants from Crimea - and he hoped other Russian universities would do the same.

Veniamin Kaganov, Russia's deputy minister of education and science, said integration of Crimean higher education into Russia would take a maximum of two-and-a-half years.

According to Vladimir Zernov, rector of Russian New University and chair of the Association of Private Universities in Russia, the government has no plans to close private universities in Crimea - although some analysts have said their quality leaves much to be desired.

Meanwhile, significant numbers of students in Crimean universities have opted to transfer to universities in Ukraine, and in particular to the national universities of Kyiv and Lviv, refusing to live and study in Russia.