Russian universities admitted almost twice as many Ukraine war veterans and their children for the upcoming academic year compared to 2023-24, Russia’s Education and Science Ministry said Thursday in comments to the Interfax news agency.
President Vladimir Putin in 2022 ordered a 10% university admission quota for war veterans and their children, granting them priority and clearing them for entrance exams.
For the 2024-25 academic year, Russian universities enrolled 14,900 veterans and their children under the presidential quota, almost double the 8,500 enrolled in 2023.
Investigative media outlets previously reported that most war veterans who applied to Russia’s top universities were admitted despite failing their entrance exams.
In the 2023-24 academic year, around 1,000 universities across the country admitted a total of 4.5 million students, including 1.2 million freshmen.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said earlier this week that more than 48,000 war veterans, their children, as well as orphans and disabled people, were eligible to enroll in the 2024 academic year under a “separate quota.”
Overall, Chernyshenko said more than 1 million people submitted 2.8 million admission applications so far, with state-funded education allocated for more than 620,000 applicants.
