Russia is pushing ahead with plans to axe thousands of science jobs in the country¡¯s universities.

Plans to fire 8,300 scientific workers based in higher education institutions were announced by Russia¡¯s government last year, but were then put on hold amid signs of a possible economic recovery.

However, after this hoped-for growth failed to materialise, the cuts will now go ahead, according to reports.

The savings will also see 40 per cent of state-funded student places in Russian universities scrapped, and the proportion of the country¡¯s budget spent on education fall from 2.75 per cent in 2015 to 2.45 per cent in 2020.

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Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian prime minister, said that it was to ¡°optimise spending allocated for higher education by redistributing funds to the most important areas and by reducing inefficiency¡±.

But he said that the cuts should not have an impact on programmes that are judged to be ¡°socially significant¡± and, as such, many leading institutions will be spared.

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These will see their funding increase by 17 billion rubles (?218 million). As a result, other institutions, including the Russian Academy of Sciences, will be particularly badly affected.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com