MOSCOW, 25 January 2023. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey on how Russians perceive the holiday of January 25^th and how education shapes the graduates’ future careers.

Studying is always useful

Russians call January 25th St Tatiana's Day or Tatiana Day (37%); the share of Russians who use this name has decreased by 6 p.p. compared to 2018. This is followed by Students’ Day or Russian Students’ Day (23%; 18% in 2018). Every second respondent could not answer what holiday is celebrated on January 25th. (54%); the percentage of those who are unaware has increased by 6 p.p. compared to 2018.

Russians are nearly equally divided in their opinions on the statement that “the importance of higher education is often exaggerated, and nowadays anyone can achieve a successful career and succeed in life without it”. Forty-five percent of respondents agree with this statement; 51% disagree with it. In 2023, the number of Russians who point out the importance of higher education and its impact on future careers has increased (+16 p.p. compared to 2020). This is an all-time high.

Young respondents tend to belittle the importance of higher education: the share of those who consider that today people can have a successful career even without it is the highest in this group (60% among the 18-24-year-olds; 52% among the 25-34year-olds). Respondent’s educational level also shapes the views on future careers. Most of those who consider that anyone can have a successful career without higher education come from the group of those who have incomplete secondary education (63%), secondary education (50%), and secondary special education (51%).

Those who tend to have opposite views and consider that higher education is key to building a successful career are basically Russians with incomplete higher and higher education degrees (59%).

According to Russians, higher education is likely to secure a high-paying job in the future (47%). Other opinions are less common: 17% point out secondary special education (college, vocational school); the same percentage of respondents could not give a definite answer as to what degree opens the gateway to well-paying jobs. Twelve percent of Russians have a strong opinion that neither higher nor secondary special education can guarantee a good job in the future.

Most of Russians who agree that higher education guarantees a high-paying job in the future are respondents with incomplete higher and higher education degrees (52%); least of them have incomplete secondary education level (23%).

Most of those who do not think that secondary special or higher education can guarantee future successful careers have incomplete secondary education diplomas (41%).

VCIOM-Sputnik Russian nationwide telephone survey was conducted 22 January, 2023. A total of 1,600 Russians aged 18 and over took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interviews, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted according to social and demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, January 22, 2023:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7948; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0174; response rate (RR)*** = 0.0575. Calculations are based on the corporate standard: https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/ * CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents. ** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not. ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.