Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:40:38 +0000

M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) is the largest university in Russia. Established in 1755, it also claims to be the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. The university has more than 40 000 undergraduates and about 7 000 postgraduate students. Every year Moscow University enrolls about 2 000 international students from all over the world. Moscow University has at its disposal more than 600 buildings and facilities including the sky-scraper on Lenin Hills, occupying over 1 million square metres. The University is named after Academician Mikhail Lomonosov, an outstanding Russian scientist, who greatly contributed to the establishment of the university in Moscow.

Tuition

The academic year at MSU starts in September and ends in June (01.09-30.06.). The tuition for the degree of Bachelor (BSc/BA) 4 academic years; Specialist – 5 (5,5) academic years; Master (MSc/MA) – 2 academic years; Doctor (PhD) – 3 academic years. All the faculties provide the full-time tuition. Post-graduate studies can be either full-time, or part-time. All the courses are given in Russian. The applicants are enrolled according to the results of entrance examinations (interview, test). If you are interested in the curriculum of a particular course, please use the web-sites of the faculties. You can find the list of the sites at the Centre of International Studies Internet-site. Further information may be requested from the department of international studies of the faculty you are applying to.

The international applicants are supposed to take a test in Russian language or take a course of Russian at MSU Centre of International Studies. If you need to take a course of Russian language, please send all the application documentation to the Centre of International Studies (CIE).

Letter of Invitation

To get the letter of invitation please send (by mail, fax or e-mail) to the department of international studies of the chosen faculty the following documents::
* the application form;
* the photocopy of the first two pages of your passport.

On consideration of your documents you will be sent the letter of invitation. Please find out the details of getting the visa in the Russian Embassy in your country. It takes about 2,5 months to get the letter of invitation, that is why you are recommended to send all the documents not later than 3 months before the beginning of the term.
More info for Applicants.

Address
Lomonosov Moscow State University
GSP-1, Leninskie Gory
Moscow, 119991
Russian Federation
Telephone: (495) 939-10-00
Fax: (495) 939-01-26
E-mail: info@rector.msu.ru

Official website

The question was tongue-in-cheek, but it did reflect the absolute seriousness with which Russia is taking the issue of world rankings as it grapples with pressing questions about its place in the rapidly globalising higher education sector.

I was in Moscow to give a seminar to the Russian Rectors' Union at Moscow State University. Andrey Fursenko, the education and science minister, spoke at the meeting about how global rankings "make us reflect (and) think about what we can do to make our universities better". But he also questioned whether the criteria used were rigorous enough.

Victor Sadovnichiy, rector of Moscow State, went further. After giving me a detailed critique of existing ranking methodologies, he warned against using research that was "not deep enough" in a process that lacked transparency.