St. Petersburg State University Cancels Creative Exams for Journalists

Starting in 2026, applicants to the journalism faculty at SPbU will have to take a third subject on the Unified State Exam instead of a creative competition. They have just over four months left to prepare.

Feb 1, 2026

St. Petersburg State University has changed the admission requirements for the «Journalism» and «International Journalism» programs for applicants in 2026.

According to the published rules, applicants must now submit Unified State Exam (USE) results in three subjects:

Russian language
Literature
One subject of choice: social studies, geography, history, English, German, or French language.

Previously, admission required only Russian language and literature in the USE format, with the third test being an internal creative exam at the university, consisting of an essay and theoretical tickets. Now, school graduates have just over four months to prepare for this new subject for them.

Competition for both programs is traditionally high. Last year, the minimum passing score for a state-funded place in the «Journalism» program was 290, and for «International Journalism» it was 289. This year, a total of 45 state-funded places have been allocated for these programs.

Meanwhile, other St. Petersburg universities, such as KIT, SPbGUP, and the branch of RANEPA, have retained the previous format of entrance exams for journalism in 2026. Applicants to these institutions still need to take the USE in Russian language and literature, as well as pass a creative exam directly at the university.

Earlier, it was reported that there is a general trend among universities to expand the list of mandatory USE subjects for admission. In particular, the number of technical specialties requiring physics and humanities requiring history has increased.