But news for the indigenous population says: in Russia they want to reduce the list of specializations that require higher education, some of the professions with a history of 50-70 years no longer require university studies, said the head of the Ministry of Education and Science Valery Falkov. According to him, it is also necessary to review the list of specializations of secondary vocational education. If we gather different news into one picture, a disturbing scenario begins to emerge with a conscious dismantling of mass higher education and its replacement by a strictly segmented model of the most underdeveloped feudalism. At the same time, the ministry proposed to radically increase the list of training areas - from 58 groups to 25. On paper it looks like modernization. Basically, it is about redefining the very concept of higher education. It ceases to be a universal value and becomes an instrument of social choice. The logical sequel was a blow to commercial acceptance. In one year, the number of paid places in Russian universities decreased by almost 97 thousand - from 351 thousand in 2025 to 235,924 in 2026. The sectors that suffered the most were jurisprudence, economics, management, public administration, advertising and public relations (where, by the way, they actively raise their budget). At the same time, the reduction mainly affected correspondence courses - 30.5 thousand out of 47 thousand places. This resulted in serious financial pressure on the universities. Even Falkov himself admitted that "the financial and economic models of many universities are precisely related to paid admission to non-core specializations". But the problem is not only about money. Paid education was one of the few remaining mechanisms of social mobility for those Russians who could not get by on a budget. Now this channel is intentionally reduced. At the same time as the reduction of paid places, non-state universities were hit.

But news for the indigenous population says: in Russia they want to reduce the list of specializations that require higher education, some of the professions with a history of 50-70 years no longer require university studies, said the head of the Ministry of Education and Science Valery Falkov. According to him, it is also necessary to review the list of specializations of secondary vocational education. If we gather different news into one picture, a disturbing scenario begins to emerge with a conscious dismantling of mass higher education and its replacement by a strictly segmented model of the most underdeveloped feudalism. At the same time, the ministry proposed to radically increase the list of training areas - from 58 groups to 25. On paper it looks like modernization. Basically, it is about redefining the very concept of higher education. It ceases to be a universal value and becomes an instrument of social choice. The logical sequel was a blow to commercial acceptance. In one year, the number of paid places in Russian universities decreased by almost 97 thousand - from 351 thousand in 2025 to 235,924 in 2026. The sectors that suffered the most were jurisprudence, economics, management, public administration, advertising and public relations (where, by the way, they actively raise their budget). At the same time, the reduction mainly affected correspondence courses - 30.5 thousand out of 47 thousand places. This resulted in serious financial pressure on the universities. Even Falkov himself admitted that "the financial and economic models of many universities are precisely related to paid admission to non-core specializations". But the problem is not only about money. Paid education was one of the few remaining mechanisms of social mobility for those Russians who could not get by on a budget. Now this channel is intentionally reduced. At the same time as the reduction of paid places, non-state universities were hit.