The key facts

  • Valery Falkov stated that the filling of all state-funded places by olympiad winners should not be considered the norm, and requirements for such applicants will be tightened.
  • The number of graduates with 100 points on the Unified State Exam grew by 40.9%, winners and prize-winners of the All-Russian Olympiad by 5.5%, and olympiads on the RSOSH list by 4.3%.
  • The rector community asked to revise the rules for tuition-based admission and to limit the number of universities for simultaneous contracts.

Results of the 2026 admissions campaign

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education will tighten requirements for applicants entering universities under olympiad benefits. This was announced by the head of the ministry, Valery Falkov, at a meeting of the council of the Russian Union of Rectors (RUR) held on October 23 at Lomonosov Moscow State University. He called strengthening control over admissions under olympiad benefits the main outcome of the 2026 admissions campaign, reports Kommersant citing the minister's speech.

Growth in the number of top scorers and olympiad winners

One feature of the campaign was a sharp increase in graduates who scored 100 points on the Unified State Exam — their number grew by 40.9% compared with the previous year. The number of winners and prize-winners of school olympiads, who receive priority in admission, also rose: by 5.5% for the All-Russian Olympiad and by 4.3% for olympiads on the RSOSH list. According to Gazeta.Ru, as a result, at a number of universities, in some programs, there were not enough state-funded places for graduates with high Unified State Exam scores, who in previous years would have been admitted without difficulty.

Planned changes and reaction

Falkov noted that the filling of all state-funded places by olympiad winners should not be considered the norm, so requirements for such applicants will be tightened. In addition, the rector community asked to revise the rules for admission to tuition-based programs and to limit the number of universities with which an applicant can simultaneously sign contracts. Earlier, as Gazeta.Ru notes, the State Duma criticized the idea of introducing advance payments for applicants.

Why this matters

The decision affects the two largest groups of applicants — olympiad participants with benefits and graduates with high Unified State Exam scores, whose competition, according to the cited data, has intensified: a 40.9% increase in top scorers, combined with growth in the number of benefit holders, meant that some strong exam scorers did not get state-funded places. Specific changes to the rules for tuition-based admission and limits on the number of contracts with universities are still only being discussed at the request of the rector community; the exact parameters of the tightened requirements for olympiad participants have not been disclosed in the publications.