Rules

General provisions

1. Participation in the Open Doors: Russian Scholarship Project for prospective Master’s students (hereafter — Competition) is open to non-Russian or stateless citizens, as well as to compatriots living abroad, with a Bachelor’s degree or expected to receive one in the competition’s year and who have consented to the use of their personal data.

2. The Competition is conducted in particular subject areas each uniting several Master’s program tracks. Program tracks are blocks of educational programs for Master’s students pooled based on the similarity of the fundamental training they imply. The list of Master’s programs that correspond to a Competition’s subject area is established by the educational organizations themselves (upon the condition that an educational program can correspond to only one of the Competition’s subject fields) and is published on their websites.

3. The Competition’s working languages are English and Russian.

4. Winners and runners-up receive the right to be awarded quotas for tuition-free education in educational programs that correspond to the Competition’s subject areas at Russian higher education institutions. Winners and runners-up are able to choose an educational program in their subject area in either Russian or English, provided it enrolls foreign citizens.

5. The level of applicants’ knowledge of the Russian language is assessed by their respective higher education establishment during the admission process. In event that additional language training is necessary, Competition winners and runners-up are granted a quota to study at the educational establishment’s preparatory department; they are guaranteed a position in one of the establishment’s Russian-language Master’s programs, provided that they confirm their fluency in Russian upon completion of the preparatory course.

6. The Competition is conducted in two rounds, online, with the use of the Competition’s dedicated system. The first (qualification) round is conducted as a portfolio contest; the second (final) round is conducted as a test. Online participation requires that the participant authenticate their identity and ensure that their participation is monitored to ensure their single-handed completion of the Competition’s tasks.

7. No fees are to be collected for participation in the Competition.

8. Official information concerning the Competition’s organization and procedure (documents regulating the Competition’s organization and conduct, training materials for participants, dates of events, the Competition’s results, etc.) is published on the Competition’s website od.globaluni.ru in both Russian and English.

9. The Organizational Committee may clarify any of the participants’ questions concerning the Competition’s organization and procedure. The Organizational Committee’s contact information is available on the od.globaluni.ru/en website in both Russian and English.

Registration procedure

10. In order to partake in the Competition, participants have to sign up using the Competition’s dedicated system. Registration opens on November 15, 2017 and ends on February 16, 2018. In order to gain access to the Competition’s dedicated system, press the PARTICIPATE button on the Competition’s website od.globaluni.ru. A participant can register and gain access to their personal page.

11. Upon registering, participants must consent to processing of their personal data.

12. During registration, participants fill out their first name and surname, city and country of residence, a login (which matches their email address), and a password. After registering, participants are signed up to an automated mailing list informing them of the Competition’s events.

13. A registered participant gains access to the list of requirements and assessment criteria for the portfolios, as well as sample tasks.

Participation in the qualification round

14. The first (qualification) round takes place online from December 1, 2017 till February 16, 2018.

15. During the qualification round, registered participants must use a computer with Internet access to log into the Competition’s dedicated system using a link provided on od.globaluni.ru/en and fill in the portfolio (enter the data in the dedicated fields or upload documents and/or files) on their personal pages in accordance with the requirements for portfolios published on the Competition’s website. A participant may only attempt to complete the qualification round once, at any time during the period specified above.

16. The participants’ portfolios are assessed by the jury for the corresponding subject field. The assessment results are published on the participants’ personal pages. Results of portfolio assessment are not subject to appeal claims.

17. A ranked list of participants in the qualifying round will be formed based on the results of portfolio assessment. No more than 50% of the actual number of participants of a portfolio contest in a particular subject field may get invitations to the final round.

18. The list of participants invited to the final round is to be published on the Competition’s website od.globaluni.ru/en no later than seven business days prior to the start of the final round. Information regarding a participant’s completion/failure to complete the qualification round will also be published on the participants’ personal pages.

Rules for participation in the final round

19. The second (final) round of the competition is conducted from March 5, 2018 till March 15, 2018 in a proctored mode, using procedures to authenticate and monitor the participants’ work, according to the Competition’s schedule.

20. The schedule of the final round in every subject area is to be published on the Competition’s website od.globaluni.ru/en and the participant’s personal page no later than seven days prior to its start. Each subject area is assigned a specific 24-hour period (from 00:00 to 23:59 MSK), which is sectioned into several intervals coinciding with various time zones. Dates of final-round tests for each subject area are not to coincide.

21. The general and technical requirements, procedures, time frame and breakdown by time slots are published in the Final Round section of the Competition’s website.

22. In order to participate in the final round, participants have to provide additional information in their registration form on their personal pages, including: passport details and a photograph or scanned copy of a passport of a size and resolution that allows to clearly identify the participant by their photo. Participants invited to the final round who fail to provide this additional information in due time cannot participate in the final round.

23. No additional confirmation will be sent out to participants after they have provided the necessary additional information. Participants are responsible for checking their information’s accuracy. Information is considered to be accurate if the participant can find their name in the list of participants signed up for the final rounds on the Competition’s website; the lists are updated once every 60 minutes.

24. Upon uploading their additional information to the Final Round section, participants will gain access to the Technical Regulations for the Final Round on the Competition’s website.

25. At the time specified by the schedule, the participants of the final round are to log into the Competition’s dedicated system by following a link on the Competition’s website od.globaluni.ru/en. After entering their login and password, participants are to pass an identification procedure, for which they are to remain still and face the web camera of their computer or laptop for 1-3 minutes while holding up their identification document (a copy of which they’ve uploaded onto their personal page) near their faces.

26. Upon completing the identification procedure, participants may access the list of tasks which includes the number of points awarded for the completion of each task. A time limit is given for each task. Upon the expiry of the time given for the completion of the tasks, the system will automatically block access to the tasks and will only accept the answers already provided by the participant prior to that. A correct answer implies pressing the Confirm button in the system’s interface. Participants are free to choose the order in which they complete the tasks, and to correct their answers within the time given for the completion of the final round. Throughout the whole time of participation in the final round, an uninterrupted recording of the participant’s web camera feed and of the participant’s desktop is conducted in accordance with the recording procedure stated in the Technical Guidelines for the final round.

27. Upon a participant’s confirmation of their completion of the final round’s tasks, the participant receives a notification stating that their answers have been uploaded into the system.

28. In case of a malfunction of the participant’s computer or a malfunction in the Competition’s dedicated system, it is highly recommended that the participant quickly notify the Organizational Committee via email opendoors@corp.ifmo.ru.

29. There are two types of tasks in the Competition’s final round:

• closed tasks, for which the participants are awarded a fixed number of points if they have provided an answer that precisely matches the correct answer;
• open tasks, for which the accuracy of answers is evaluated and graded by the subject field’s respective jury.

30. The amount of points gained for the completion of the tasks, as well as the correct answers, will be available on the participants’ personal pages: for closed tasks — upon the passing of 24 hours after the end of the time period allotted for the Competition’s final round; for open-ended tasks - after all tasks are evaluated and graded by the jury and entered into the Competition’s dedicated system’s interface.

Filing of appeal claims and assessment of results

31. In event that a participant wishes to dispute the results of their evaluation, they have a right to file an appeal claim within 48 hours after the results have been made available on their personal page. An appeal claim can me filed remotely using one’s personal page and will be assessed no later than 7 days after it was made.

32. After the processing of appeal claims and the approval of the results with regard to appeal claims, the participants’ integral estimates are calculated. Both the results of the qualifying and the final rounds are taken into account when calculating the integral estimates. The participants’ integral estimates are published on the Competition’s website od.globaluni.ru/en in the Final Round’s Results section.

33. Winners and runners-up of the Competition are determined based on a ranked list of integral estimates independently for each of the Competition’s subject areas.

34. The Competition’s participants may be named winners and runners-up in event that the amount of points they received amounts to no less than 50% of the maximum possible amount of points. The share of winners and runners-up for each subject area cannot exceed 25% of the actual number of the participants of the final round of the Competition in a particular subject area; the share of winners cannot exceed 5% of the actual number of the participants of the final round of the Competition in a particular subject area.

35. The list of winners and runners-up is published on the Competition’s website od.globaluni.ru/en in the course of two business days after all appeal claims have been processed.

The procedure of getting quotas on education

36. Winners and runners-up receive the right to be awarded quotas for tuition-free education in educational programs that correspond to the Competition’s subject areas at Russian higher education institutions. Winners and runners-up are able to choose an educational program in their subject area in either Russian or English, provided it enrolls foreign citizens.

37. In order to exercise their right to a tuition-free education as foreign or stateless citizens, or compatriots abroad, in Russia on Master’s degree educational programs, winners and runners-up must provide the paperwork necessary to register them as foreign applicants, to the Competition’s Organizational Committee to ensure their inclusion in the Russian Ministry of Education and Science’s informational system russia-edu.ru. It is the responsibility of the Organizational Committee to send the list of documents and the deadlines for providing the paperwork necessary to register in the Russian Ministry of Education and Science’s informational system russia-edu.ru to the Competition’s winners and runners-up. The registration in the informational system of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science russia-edu.ru is conducted by the Organizational Committee.

38. When filling in an application to receive education in Russian Federation financed from the federal budget of the Russian Federation as part of the provided quota, the winner or runner-up is to choose a Master’s program track that corresponds to his/her subject area, as well as provide a ranked list of three higher educational establishments that offer programs in this track. During admission, the winner or runner-up chooses a Master’s program which corresponds to his/her subject field and is present on the list of programs provided by the higher education institution.