Is it university or an entrance courtyard? Why no one wants to study at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University

Almost anyone who wants to study at the once prestigious Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty (Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University) with a degree in Mechanics will be able to do this without unnecessary hassle: the passing score there has dropped by 22% compared to the previous goal and is now 270 out of 410 possible (the sum of the USE points plus an entrance test and individual achievements - a gold medal and a GTO badge (Ready for Labor and Defense)", - writes Snob.

This year, everyone who wanted it, including the applicant who took the 953rd place in the ranking of those wishing to go there, was enrolled in the budgetary department (there are 105 places).

Six winners of the Fields Prize (the equivalent of the Nobel in mathematics) graduated from this faculty, and every sixth out of more than 20 thousand of its graduates became either a candidate or a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences. Its graduates became laureates of the most prestigious awards even in the crisis of the 1990s. Today, all this is already history, and one of the formerly best faculties of the country is catastrophically losing to competitors in the struggle for the best applicants.

It is also curious that this crisis broke out precisely under Viktor Sadovnich, who has been heading the Moscow State University for many years, while being a graduate of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics! All this time, the rector has been fighting against student democracy, dissent, and ardently supports Putin. And school teachers, meanwhile, advise their talented students to go after school not to Moscow State University, but to MIPT.

Network analyst Andrey Nalgin is confident that the degradation of Moscow State University and its best faculties is a natural result of the state monopoly on education, which has re-established itself in Russia, which is unable to withstand market competition in this area.

Nalgin believes that the problem lies in the persecution of university freedoms, a sharp reduction in contacts with foreign scientists (mainly Western ones), the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, to which the Moscow State University Sadovnichy is especially susceptible. Well, the state did not stand aside, cutting education spending in favor of unnecessary military spending, persecuting both students and teachers for political reasons, initiating proceedings against "spies" in the academic environment, encouraging stagnation and nepotism (by the way, Sadovnichy's son - Professor of Mechanics and Mathematics). Who then wants to go to Moscow State University?

Most likely, all these processes will only accelerate, so much so that in 10 years, applicants will only have to flee to study abroad. And this, if they still release...