‘In more sought-after specialties’: State Duma offers to freeze university tuition rates again

The State Duma was introduced a bill on providing subsidies to students to compensate for universities’ annually rising tuition “in more sought-after specialties that are in Russia’s national interests.” The document was designed by a group of deputies of the lower chamber of Parliament with head of Liberal and Democratic Party of Russia Leonid Slutsky and Chairman of the Committee for Labour, Social Politics and Veterans’ Affairs Yaroslavl Nilov among them.

“Tuition in universities that obtained public authorisation in certain specialties defined by the government of Russia will be ‘frozen’ throughout the studying period,” an explanatory note reads.

It is indicated that the tuition in Russian universities in 2023 rose by 9%.

“And this is a notable burden on the family budget with a young student paying his or her tuition. The tuition of a student studying humanities is 440,000 rubles on average, that of a technical specialist is 480,000 rubles. According to some data of the Ministry of Education and Science about the 9% tuition rate rise, the tuition became some 40,000 more expensive. This is comparable with the average salary in the country,” the deputies claim.

In their opinion, freezing the tuition will “become notable support for a younger generation of specialists who are especially in demand amid sanctions.

State Duma deputies repeatedly tried to freeze university tuition. State Duma deputy Vadim Solovyov send then-Minister of Education and Science Dmitry

Ivanov an address asking the minister to impose a three-year moratorium on raising tuition in the country’s higher educational institutions almost 10 years ago, in December 2014.

In May 2020, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia recommended universities not to raise tuition in 2020 due to coronavirus. The ministry noted that such a decision will allow “protecting interests of all sides of the educational process.”