OREANDA-NEWS. This year, the average USE score of applicants has grown significantly in half of the country's higher educational institutions, despite the peculiarities of this year's admissions campaign, which was held remotely due to the pandemic.

Valery Falkov, who is the head of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, said at a briefing on Thursday that, according to preliminary analysis, in more than 50% of the country's universities, the average score of applicants on the USE has increased significantly.

According to him, this year applicants are still in demand for specialties in the field of information technology - moreover, the number of budget places has been increased in this area, and applicants have shown good average USE results. In the second place were specialties related to health care and medical sciences, and in third place - in pedagogy and education.

The applicants showed interest not only in leading universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in regional universities, the ministry said. The head of the Ministry of Education and Science added that this was largely due to the fact that this year regional universities received additional budget places.