Corruption in university admissions was the main problem the Unified State Exam was intended to address when it was introduced 25 years ago, according to Anzor Muzaev, head of Rosobrnadzor , in an interview with Vedomosti .
According to him, the lack of transparency in the selection process and the disparate rules by which each university set its own requirements were the main reasons for the creation of a unified knowledge assessment system.
“When citizens criticize the Unified State Exam, they forget why it was created,” the official noted.
He recalled the situation that developed during the Soviet era, described in the film “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears,” in which the heroine was unable to enter a university and therefore chose a different path in life.
As Muzaev explained, in the 1990s, with weak government oversight, applicants from remote regions or villages who had not studied with university tutors had virtually no chance of entering a federal university, let alone a prestigious one.
Applicants were able to apply to a maximum of one or two universities if they were located nearby and their exam schedules overlapped. Students took their final exams in June and three or four entrance exams at each university in July, and the requirements for the same subjects varied, the head of Rosobrnadzor recalled.
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