The Russian government is concerned that there are now far too many people with higher education
In the Russian Federation, there is a significant surplus of people with higher education, and the widespread desire among high school students to enroll in universities runs counter to the actual needs of the labor market and poses a problem for the economy.
Valery Falkov, head of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, made this statement at the HR EXPO PRO forum. According to the Russian minister, universal higher education is a flawed practice, which is why the government is currently implementing a forced “rebalancing” between higher and secondary vocational education.
This statement came against the backdrop of a large-scale state campaign to redirect schoolchildren toward colleges and vocational schools, launched after the deployment of troops to Ukraine to urgently supply military factories with young workers. As part of these measures, schools in the Russian Federation began en masse to deny ninth-graders advancement to the upper grades, the State Duma simplified admission to technical colleges, and the government eliminated nearly 50,000 fee-paying spots in universities for economics and law programs. According to the Higher School of Economics’ study “Education Indicators: 2026,” in 2024, 4.4 million students were enrolled in higher education institutions in the Russian Federation, and overall, 54% of young Russians obtained a university degree.
According to statistical data, citizens with higher education are significantly more likely to work in their field of study (74.5%) than secondary school graduates (60.7%) or skilled workers (55.8%). However, according to the Russian Ministry of Education, administrative pressure from the authorities has already yielded results in terms of changing the structure of education. While in 2020, 43% of students enrolled in technical schools after ninth grade, by 2025, 63% of graduates had chosen colleges and vocational schools—an all-time record for the Russian education system.
This was reported by The Moscow Times.
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