ABSTRACT
In the process of privatization, the role of government in professional training and qualification changes gradually to a permit control function (licensing, accreditation) recognized as optimal in each specific case. The demographic crisis in contemporary Russia has had a significant impact on the development of higher professional education and training. The legislation envisages that non-governmental universities and other higher education institutions can completely or partially be funded by the budget of a founding individual or organization. Presidents of institutions, on the contrary, are interested in transferring budget funds directly from the state without linking them to specific students through educational, employment, and social programmes for which they would have to report to individual ministries and departments. The state nominal financial obligation is provided to graduates from secondary school according to satisfactory results in the Unified State Examination. Russian employers give priority to personal qualities and to work experience before formal qualifications.
