Dmitry Medvedev proposed supporting students who struggle to pay for their studies, and the Education Ministry is already preparing measures to transfer successful students from fee based programs to state funded places. For other fee paying students, tuition is planned to be fixed in rubles so it does not depend on exchange rates during the academic year. Amid the financial crisis, such steps should help students and at the same time reduce losses for universities, which according to forecasts may lose up to 25 percent of income from paid education.

The day before, Dmitry Medvedev said in his video blog that students experiencing problems paying for their education need to be provided with financial support.
The Ministry of Education and Science is already developing an action plan under which some students will be transferred from fee-paying departments to state-funded places for good academic performance. For “negligent” fee-paying students, in the president’s view, it is necessary to set a fixed price in rubles that will not fluctuate depending on the exchange rate during the academic year.
“In this case, higher education institutions will receive money for education, perhaps slightly less, and at the same time the student will be in a more comfortable position in this situation, when he does not have to chase the exchange rate, he does not have to constantly carry out indexation, look for new money,” the president noted.
These measures are timely: students studying on a commercial basis began approaching university administrations with statements that they could no longer afford to pay for their education back in late autumn, when Russia felt the impact of the financial crisis. At the end of January this year, students’ financial problems were discussed at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. It was then decided that in 2009 the number of state-funded places would remain the same, but fee-paying students would be transferred to them more actively by expelling underperforming students.
In total, according to forecasts by the Russian rectors’ community, by the end of 2009 Russian universities may lose up to 25% of their income from fee-paying departments.