50 major Russian universities tell Putin that Russia's state accreditation process needs to be overhauled

Fifty of the biggest universities in Russia have endorsed a public appeal to Vladimir Putin recalling for reforms to the federal government’s accreditation process. According to the petition, the state’s college accreditation regulations have grown outdated, and the experts who carry out school inspections are often under-qualified. Academics want to add professional representatives to inspection commissions and force the state to publish the full results of their inspections.

On June 21, Russia’s Federal Education and Science Supervision Agency announced that it has revoked the state accreditation of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, better known as “Shaninka,” after a planned inspection uncovered “multiple violations of education standards.” The school itself says the regulator’s decision has nothing to do with the quality of its instruction.