At Moscow State University (MSU), olympiad winners took all 35 budget places in the Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, while on the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence only five of 20 budget spots remained for those admitted by exam scores, according to RBC.
At the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), all applicants were admitted without entrance tests to the programs "Natural and Computer Sciences" and "Applied Mathematics." At the Higher School of Economics (HSE), 57 olympiad winners competed for 45 budget places in "World Economy," took 29 of 32 in "Political Science," and 35 of 48 in "Mathematics." At the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN), olympiad winners filled all budget places in 17 programs. At Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the number of such applicants exceeded the number of places in "Applied Mathematics" and "Software Engineering."
The number of applicants with olympiad diplomas is growing: at MSU it increased by 48% in a year, at ITMO University by 20%. The influx has pushed up passing scores: the average score of those admitted to MSU rose from 81 to 87, at MGIMO's economics faculty by 30 points, and at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in some programs by 10 points.
Olympiad winners are admitted first, without a separate quota. For other applicants, this means admission is not guaranteed even with good exam results. Some universities have already begun to limit benefits: MIPT reduced the number of recognized olympiads from 50 to 35.
Former Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko said that some olympiads have "devalued themselves" and proposed gradually abandoning them. MGIMO rector Anatoly Torkunov suggested "thinking about how to set quotas for the number of entrants through this line" so as not to deprive applicants with high exam scores of places.