Russia: The Russian government is planning to downsize its 5-100 program, which was designed to create five world class universities. The Ministry of Education and Science will reduce the number of universities funded by the program from 21 to 6 in order to meet the program’s objectives. Scheduled to run from 2013 to 2020, the program’s funds stand at $524 million compared to the more than $873 million that has already been spent.

An additional $20.2 billion will be provided for 2018–2020. The National Research University Higher School of Economics, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the Novosibirsk State University, and the St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics are among the universities that will continue to participate in the program. Researchers contend that the reputations of universities that lose the program’s support will be harmed, and that the country’s size dictates a higher number of leading universities.

Source: University World News