Voronezh universities tighten admission rules for some technical majors

Russian universities have started adjusting their lists of entrance exams six months before the Unified State Exam (EGE) begins. This was reported by the newspaper Izvestia.

This is due to a new regulation from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, which will take effect on March 1, 2026. According to the publication, the changes affect 48 fields: physics has become mandatory for 26 technical majors, humanities universities have gained the right to require history for 21 fields, and future teachers must now take a specialized subject instead of social studies.

The editorial staff of Voronezh1.ru found out whether these changes have affected Voronezh universities.

The admissions committee of the Voronezh State Pedagogical University said that the current list of entrance exams has already been published. Importantly, for many programs, the right to choose a third exam remains. For example, to apply for the «Teacher of Mathematics and Physics» program, an applicant must take the Unified State Exam in Russian, advanced mathematics, and one subject of their choice from a wide list including social studies, physics, history, computer science, a foreign language, literature, biology, geography, or chemistry. Thus, there is no mandatory physics for future teachers of physics and mathematics — one can choose a humanities subject as well.

Voronezh State University (VGU) has already adjusted the list of entrance exams for a number of technical majors in 2026. If in 2025, for the programs «Nuclear Physics and Technology», «Electronics and Nanoelectronics», «Photonics and Optoinformatics», and «Nuclear Power Plants: Design, Operation, and Engineering», the third exam could be chosen between physics and computer science, then in 2026 computer science has been excluded from the options. Now the mandatory set for admission is physics, advanced mathematics, and Russian. For the classical «Physics» program, there are no changes: as before, the same set of mandatory exams (physics, advanced mathematics, and Russian) is required.

At Voronezh State Technical University, for most engineering and technical programs, physics has long been either a mandatory subject or one of the key options to choose from. In some cases, applicants can choose between physics, computer science, or chemistry as the third entrance exam, which maintains a certain flexibility for them.