Almost 19 thousand budget places are available in Nizhny Novgorod colleges.

      On June 25, 2026, 18:36 Society On June 20, the admission campaign for colleges and technical schools started in the Nizhny Novgorod region. According to the forecast of the regional Ministry of Education, over 60% of ninth-grade graduates will continue their education in the system of secondary vocational education. This was reported in the studio of Radio "Komsomolskaya Pravda Nizhny Novgorod" by the Minister of Education of the region, Mikhail Puchkov. According to him, in 2026, more than 17,000 budget places are available to applicants funded by the regional budget. About a thousand more places are financed from the federal budget — these are provided by universities that implement vocational education programs. Thus, the total number of budget places approaches 19,000. In addition, about three thousand commercial places are planned. Moreover, mainly paid programs are concentrated in universities. In regional colleges, on the contrary, in recent years, paid admissions have been reduced while budget admissions have increased. According to the minister, this trend has been maintained for several years. "We are annually increasing the number of budget places at the expense of regional funds," noted the minister. The structure of training reflects the needs of the regional economy. About a third of budget places are allocated to machine engineering and energy — these sectors traditionally employ the largest number of workers. Among the most in-demand fields are also pedagogy and humanities specialties. In third place is transport. Following are medicine and IT, which form a dense group of popular training areas. The minister also focused on the federal project "Professionalism." According to him, 19 educational clusters have been created in the region, and next year their number will increase to 25 — the region will enter the top three leaders in Russia in this indicator. The clusters are formed with the participation of employers who co-finance the modernization of colleges and participate in the development of educational programs. As Mikhail Puchkov emphasized, college graduates are almost fully employed unless they continue their education at a university or go into the army. The share of those who enroll in higher education institutions after vocational education is less than 10%. It was previously reported that nearly 10,000 budget places have been allocated in Nizhny Novgorod universities in 2026. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" has channels on Telegram and MAX. Subscribe to stay updated on major events, exclusive materials, and operational information. Copyright © 1999—2025 NIA "Nizhny Novgorod". When reprinting, a hyperlink to NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" is mandatory. This resource may contain materials 18+