Universities hike cost of tuition for new academic year

Leading Russian universities have significantly increased tuition fees for the upcoming 2024-25 academic year, mainly due to high inflation in Russia and a significant increase in costs at most higher education institutions.

The largest rise in the price of bachelor programmes is a 20% increase at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia’s leading university in the field of physics. At other Russian universities the increase in the fees for bachelor degree programmes is in the range of 10%-15%

According to the Ministry of Education and Science, the most popular programmes in Russian universities are information systems and technologies, economics, management, informatics and computer science, linguistics and journalism. From September, the average cost of these courses will be approximately RUB560,000 (US$6,100) for the year, which is a high figure for Russia.

In addition to leading Moscow universities, increases in tuition costs are also reported in regional universities, although these increases are more restrained and primarily apply to technical specialties.

High demand

According to Irina Abankina, chief researcher at the Center for Financial and Economic Solutions in Education at the Higher School of Economics, high demand is contributing to increases in the cost of tuition.

The situation means that Russian higher education is less accessible to young people, many of whom take educational loans. Loans are issued for 15 years at a rate of 3%, and there is a grace period for the first three years.

As the cost of loans is also perceived to be relatively high, some local analysts expect an outflow of potential university applicants to secondary vocational education institutions.

Meanwhile, representatives of leading Russian universities say they consider the growth in tuition fees to be reasonable.

As deputy head of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) Vladimir Kolodkin said in an interview with the Russian Vedomosti business newspaper, many factors affect the cost of tuition.

“Among the main ones are the general level of inflation in the country, wage indexation in the region where the university is based, the market situation (taking into account the pricing policies of competitors) and the level of demand,” he said.

Military spending

Another reason is the booming military-industrial complex of Russia, which has, according to government figures, led to a growth in the wages of those who signed contracts with the Russian army and those who are employed in the country’s military factories.

The growth in purchasing power has stimulated inflation in Russia and an overall increase in prices in the country including tuition costs, according to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) and the Russian Ministry of Economy.

Rising tuition costs and the generally unfavourable business environment in Russia has in turn led to a reduction in the number of state-funded places in domestic universities.

According to data from the Russian Ministry of Science and Education, for the current year the number of state-funded places declined by almost 6,000, compared to 2023, according to a local media report. As a result, the overall number of such places is estimated at 620,000.