Open Doors: Russian Scholarship Project 2020/2021 for International Master’s & PhD Students

Application Deadline:  December 10, 2020.

Open Doors: Russian Scholarship Project is your chance for early admission to a tuition-free program at one of the leading universities in Russia.

The Russian Federation has organized the Open Doors International Olympiad for the fourth time. This year introduces a doctoral track (analogous to Ph.D.) in addition to the usual master’s track. Depending on the chosen direction, the winners of the Olympiad will be able to enroll for free in the master’s or postgraduate programs of their chosen University. Participants of the doctoral track will be able to choose a future research supervisor and pass an interview with them during the Olympiad.

Participation in the Olympiad and further education at the University are possible in Russian or English.

Foreigners can participate in the Olympiad, as well as compatriots permanently residing abroad. Participants of the master’s track must have a bachelor’s or specialist’s degree or be completing an appropriate level of education in 2021. Participants of the doctoral track will need a specialist’s or a master’s degree.

Both master’s and doctoral tracks include 2 rounds that are held online. The first round is a portfolio competition. Those who have been successfully selected after the evaluation of the portfolios are invited to take part in the second round – the Olympiad itself, which is a series of proctored online tests.

Doctoral track includes one additional round which consists of an interview with potential research advisors at the participant’s choice. If the interview is successful, the participant chooses a research advisor from among those who gave them a pass.

Compared to the previous year’s 11 subject areas, this year there are 14. The new ones are “Clinical Medicine & Public Health”, “Earth Sciences” and “Education”. Some of the other subject areas have been updated and renamed: “Biology”, “Psychology”, “Physics”, “Chemistry” and “Economics” have been changed into “Biology & Biotechnology”, “Neuroscience & Psychology”, “Physical Sciences”, “Chemistry & Materials Science” and “Economics & Econometrics” respectively.

The competition (fully online) is aimed at prospective applicants to master’s and PhD programs and allows winners and runner-ups to study at any Russian university, with tuition fees covered by the state, which implies a 100% discount on tuition + a governmental scholarship at one of leading Russian universities members of 5-100 project, which aims to increase their positions on the global research and education market with 21 Nobel Prize winners lecturers and more than 360,000 students studying in these universities.

Scholarship Award: Winners and runner-ups to study at any Russian university, with tuition fees covered by the state, which implies a 100% discount on tuition + a governmental scholarship.

Nationality: International

Number of Scholarships: 300+

Scholarship can be taken in Russia

Eligibility for the Scholarship

Eligible Countries: International

Entrance Requirements: Participation is open to all holders of Bachelor’s degrees (for the Master’s track) or Master’s degree (for Doctoral Track), except for Russian citizens.

English Language Requirements: Participants can take part in either Russian or English language

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Open Doors 2021 Russian Scholarship Project