Registration for the Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project for foreign citizens began on September 1, 2025. During the first half of the registration period, more than 143,000 people from 201 countries registered for the competition, which corresponds to last year's figure at the end of the registration stage. 

According to the Open Doors rules, each registrant can apply to participate in intellectual competitions for talented young people in several tracks and subject areas. As in the previous year, the Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project is held in four tracks: bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and post-doctoral. The master's track is currently the most popular, with more than 40% of all applications submitted for it. 

The 2025 Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project includes competitions in 14 interdisciplinary subject areas. Among those who have registered so far, the most popular subject areas are Business and Management, Computer and Data Science, and Engineering and Technology. The total number of applications (across all tracks) in these subject areas was 37,000, 43,000, and 35,000, respectively. Last year, these subject areas were also the most popular.  

The registration and portfolio completion stage for the Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project participants will end on November 16, after which the participants who have advanced to the next stage will be announced.

Participants who have advanced to the second stage of the competition in the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral tracks will take a proctored online exam for each of their participation profiles. Participants in the pos-tdoctoral track will submit their video presentations to the leaders of the research projects they are interested in during the second stage.

The results of the 2025 Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project will be announced for the bachelor's and master's tracks on December 30, 2025, while participants in the doctoral and post-doctoral tracks will still have to go through the third stage – individual interviews with potential research supervisors and heads of research projects at Russian universities.

The Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project is being implemented as part of the federal project “Russia in the World” of the national project “Youth and Children”, Russia's first project aimed at attracting talented foreign youth to leading Russian universities through a “single window” format. It covers almost all countries of the world and allows Russian higher education to be represented in the open global market, competing for the best applicants. 

About the Olympiad

The Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project has been held since 2017 by member universities of the Global Universities Association. Over the past eight years, approximately 500,000 people from more than 190 countries have participated in the intellectual competitions. About 90% of them live in Asia and Africa. More than 12,000 winners and prize-winners of the Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project have earned the right to study for free at the best Russian universities. 

Regular surveys show that Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project participants consider education and research in Russia to be on par with education in China, Germany, the UK, and the US, which are traditionally attractive to applicants. 

Open Doors is conducted entirely online on the original platform (od.globaluni.ru), in Russian and English, at the participant's choice. 

This year, the competition is being held for bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and post-doctoral tracks in 14 interdisciplinary subject areas. Based on the results of the intellectual competition, participants in the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral tracks can receive winner or runner-up status and choose a program in Russian or English at a Russian university for further study. Winners in the post-doctoral track are offered the opportunity to work on one of the research projects presented by the universities organizing the Open Doors Russian Scholarship Project.

Every year, the Russian Scholarship Project team improves the mechanisms for finding and selecting the most talented and motivated candidates for study at Russian universities. The program profiles reflect the thematic interests of participants in the global market. Teaching materials for different profiles are implemented according to uniform principles.