Russian Government Scholarships for Vietnamese and Lao Students

How the quota scholarship works

Each year the Russian government sets aside 15,000 tuition-free university places for foreign nationals from more than 180 countries, distributed through Rossotrudnichestvo , Russia's federal agency for international cooperation. This is a government-to-government quota system, not an open scholarship you apply for directly with a Russian university. Instead, your home country's Rossotrudnichestvo representative office, usually operating as a Russian Center of Science and Culture, manages local selection before forwarding successful applicants into the national placement system.

For Vietnamese applicants, this office is the Russian Center of Science and Culture in Hanoi. It has continued to run an annual selection process for the Vietnam-Russia bilateral education quota, separate from students who apply and pay their own way at a Russian university outside the quota system.

Application timeline

The national portal for the scholarship, education-in-russia.com , opens registration in the autumn for the following academic year's intake, with a general portal deadline that has recently fallen around late February. For Vietnam's 2025 intake, the Russian Center of Science and Culture in Hanoi opened registration on October 7, 2024 and closed it on January 15, 2025, ahead of the general portal cutoff. Because country-level deadlines run earlier than the platform's overall closing date and shift year to year, confirm the current window directly with the Russian Center of Science and Culture in your country as soon as the new academic year's call is announced, rather than assuming the previous year's dates apply.

On the portal itself, applicants can list up to 6 university and program preferences in order of priority. Required documents typically include a passport copy, school diploma and transcripts translated into Russian, notarized and apostilled, a medical certificate, a negative HIV test result issued within 3 months of application, and a personal statement.

Eligibility by degree level

• Bachelor's: completed upper secondary education equivalent to Russia's 11-year school system

• Master's: completed bachelor's degree in a relevant field

• PhD: completed master's degree with a research proposal or area of interest

Selection combines academic record with the outcome of an interview or additional screening run by the local Rossotrudnichestvo office, which varies in format by country and year.

What the scholarship covers

Quota scholars study tuition-free at Russian public universities and receive a monthly stipend intended to cover basic living costs. The scholarship does not typically cover international flights, medical insurance premiums, visa fees or a Russian-language preparatory year, so budget for these separately. Students placed into a Russian-medium program without existing language ability are usually required to complete a preparatory language year first, which can extend the total time to degree by a year.

Applying for Lao students

Laos also participates in the Rossotrudnichestvo bilateral quota system, with selection run through Russia's representative office in Vientiane. Because the exact number of places set aside for Laos each year is not published on a fixed public schedule, Lao applicants should contact the Russian Embassy in Vientiane directly after the start of the academic year to confirm the current cycle's quota, deadline and required documents, following the same general portal and document process described above.

Before you apply

Verify your target university and program are active participants in the current year's quota list, since not every Russian university takes quota students in every field. Contact the Russian Embassy or the Russian Center of Science and Culture in your country early, ideally right after the new academic year begins, since country deadlines can close weeks or months before the portal's overall cutoff date.

Choosing a program and university

The education-in-russia.com system lets you rank universities and programs in order of preference, but it does not guarantee placement into your first choice. Popular universities in Moscow and Saint Petersburg tend to draw more applications than regional universities offering similar programs, so ranking a mix of high-demand and less competitive institutions can improve your odds of a placement that matches your intended field. Engineering, medicine and the natural sciences remain the fields most Vietnamese and Lao quota students pursue in Russia, reflecting long-standing academic cooperation between Russia and both countries dating back to the Soviet era.

Before ranking a program, check whether it is taught in Russian or offers an English-medium track, since most Russian public universities still teach the majority of their programs in Russian. Quota scholars without existing Russian ability should expect a preparatory language year as a near-standard part of the process rather than an optional extra, and should factor that additional year into their overall study timeline and any plans that depend on a fixed graduation date.

Staying informed on current terms

Visa, insurance and travel requirements for studying in Russia can change with little notice, and are set separately from the scholarship's academic terms. Confirm current visa procedures with the Russian Embassy in your country and cross-check any student visa requirements your own government publishes for travel to Russia before finalizing travel plans, since these rules sit outside Rossotrudnichestvo's scholarship administration and can change independently of the academic quota process.