Tatarstan universities losing students, law becoming popular with their applicants

On 25 January, Russia celebrated Student's Day, also known as Tatiana's Day. The decree on its celebration was signed on January 25, 2005, and two years later Day of Russian Students became one of the memorable dates of the state. The holiday is also associated with Moscow University (M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University) — on this day, the document on its foundation was signed by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Holy Martyr St. Tatiana is considered the patroness of students, since the date is the day of her memory. An interesting fact is that Ivan Shuvalov's mother, at whose request Elizabeth Petrovna signed the historical decree, was called Tatiana, and, according to some reports, he “deliberately chose this day to present the project to the empress: he wanted to please her with his new appointment as curator of the Russian university”. To date, the authorities pay great attention to Russian students. After graduating from school and going on a free voyage, young people are trying to enroll in the prestigious university, including rushing to Tatarstan and its capital. However, despite that Kazan is sometimes called the city of students, their number is decreasing from year to year. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.

Tatarstan students choose intramural form of study in state universities

According to official statistics at the beginning of the previous academic year (2021/2022), there were 141,4 thousand students in public and private universities of Tatarstan. According to Realnoe Vremya, in five years their number has decreased by 5,7%, and in six — by 7,6% (in 2016/2017 there were 153 thousand of them). According to the Ministry of Education and Science, today 143 thousand people study in Tatarstan universities.

Most often, applicants choose state universities of Tatarstan — they accounted for 86% of the total number of students, or 121,4 thousand people, at the beginning of 2021/2022. 19,9 thousand people received education at private universities.

Out of 141,4 thousand students in Tatarstan universities at the beginning of the 2021/2022 academic year — 41,122 were just starting their student journey. The majority of first-year students chose state universities — 34,5 thousand, or 84%. Only 6,5 thousand people preferred a private university diploma.

For comparison, 38,260 people enrolled in institutes and universities of Tatarstan in 2020. The increase in the number of first-year students did not affect private universities — as in 2021, then there were 6,5 thousand. The number of newly enrolled students at state universities has increased — in the pandemic 2020, there were 31,757 of them.

More than half of Tatarstan students — 64,3% — received full-time education last academic year. Compared with the data at the beginning of 2020/2021, this share of the population remained unchanged (62,3%).

In the 2021/2022 academic year, every third student of Tatarstan (30,9%) had extramural form of study. Over the year, their share decreased by 3,3 percentage points. At the same time, the number of students who chose full-time and part-time education increased from 3,5% to 4,8%.

Education and pedagogical sciences have come forward

At admission in 2021, education and pedagogical sciences became the most popular specialty in Tatarstan universities. Prior to that, for two years, in 2019 and 2020, economics and management were in the lead, and educational programmes for future teachers occupied only the second place among applicants in terms of demand.

Despite that education and pedagogical sciences topped the ranking of the most popular specialties according to the results of the admission campaign in 2021, not even one in ten chose them — only 8,9% of the total number of first-year students. For comparison, in 2020, this share was 10,1%.

The top 5 popular specialties for admission to universities of Tatarstan in 2021 were as follows:

• education and pedagogical sciences — 3,653 people, or 8,9% of the total number of applicants;
• economics and management — 3,153 students, or 7,6% of the total number of applicants;
• computer science and information technology — 2,428 students, or 6% of the total number of applicants;
• electrical and thermal power engineering — 2,004 students, or 4,87% of the total number of applicants;
• chemical technologies — 1,724 students, or 4,2% of the total number of applicants.

The top 5 most popular specialties for admission to universities in Tatarstan has changed. Jurisprudence disappeared from it, which, according to the results of the admission campaign in 2020, took the third place — it accounted for 7,6% of the total number of applicants. It was also in the top 3 during the 2019 admission campaign — the same 7,6%.

A newcomer in the top five most popular specialties for admission to universities of Tatarstan — chemical technologies. In 2020, they were in 7th place in the ranking, behind mechanical engineering (6th place), electrical and thermal power engineering (5th place), computer science and information technology (4th place).