Starting on 1 September 2013, when a new academic year starts in Russia, a number of Russian universities will have the right to independently recognise foreign educational degrees and academic titles.
There will be 33 such institutions in this country, including People’s Friendship University of Russia (PFUR), Moscow State University, St Petersburg State University, and National Research University – Higher School of Economics (HSE).
Up until now, nostrification of foreign degrees has remained the prerogative of the Glaveksperttsentr agency, which reports to the Federal Education and Science Supervisory Service.
In a resolution passed in April this year, the Russian government waived mandatory nostrification of degrees issued by those foreign universities which are listed among the top 300 on the three most authoritative international rating lists, namely on the Academic Ranking of World Universities, on QS World University Rankings, and on The Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
The exemption applies to 210 universities from 25 countries. Most of these are based in the USA (66) and the UK (30), i.e. the two countries most popular with Russians aiming for foreign higher education qualifications.
Also listed are 13 German educational establishments, as well as some universities situated in Singapore, Denmark, South Africa and Ireland. China is represented by 11 names, including Nanjing University, Peking University, Fudan University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, National University of Taiwan, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Alumni of the exempt universities will enjoy a considerable privilege: their peers from other foreign educational establishments will still have to have their degrees officially recognised if they wish to continue studies in Russia or apply for a job here.
The nostrification process is rather lengthy and involved.
The applicant is required to pay a fee of 4,000 roubles (about $120) and submit their application and all supporting documents to Glaveksperttsentr, either in person or by post. In accordance with international practice, applications for recognition of foreign university degrees must be considered within the shortest possible time; however this process may still take up to four months.
PFUT vice-rector for international activity Gulnara Krasnova praises the new system, saying it will save the university a lot of time and money by not having to arrange for official nostrification. Each of the 33 Russian universities covered by the programme will define its own criteria for validating foreign degrees.
Russia does have a number of intergovernmental agreements which eliminate the need for bilateral nostrification of educational certificates, but there are still very many countries with which Moscow does not have such treaties.
Prof Isak Froumin, who is an academic supervisor at HSE, believes the newly introduced measures are necessary and long overdue: “This decision is totally justified and very much needed. At present, if a Nobel Prize winner wants to come to work in Russia, no scientific organisation here will be able to employ them because [that person] is not a Candidate of Science [the first post-graduate degree in Russia which does not entitle the holder to a full Professor title]. They will have to get their PhD thesis translated into Russian and so on, which is of course totally absurd. Elsewhere, including in China, there are mechanisms for recognising a foreign degree or academic title.”
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