OREANDA-NEWS. November 03, 2011. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated a case against the Federal Service for Control over Education and Science (Rosobrnadzor) for violating Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Appendices to the Certificates of State Accreditation of universities have the signs of violations. Instead of the list of accredited programmes of continued professional education, they contain the following statement: “Professional retraining and advance training of executive officers and experts according to the main educational programmes of the university”.

FAS Russia receives petitions from educational organizations, non-commercial organizations of economic entities, that are involved in educational activities in the field of continued professional education, regarding unlawful competitive advantages created for sine educations organizations of higher professional education that offer programmes of continued professional education (CPE).

After the Federal Law “On Introducing Changes to Some Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation due to Improving Controlling and Supervisory Functions and Optimizing State Services in the Field of Education and No.184 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation "On Approving the Regulations on State Accreditation of Educational Institutions and Research Organizations" of 21st March 2011 were adopted, accreditation of programmes of continued professional education, for which federal state requirements have not been set, was stopped.

CPE educational organizations, for which the period of CPE accreditation expired in 2011, are unable to get accreditation for a new period and cannot issue state-recognized educational certificates any more. At the same time, certain universities, which Appendices to the Certificates of State Accreditation contain the statement “Professional retraining and advance training of executive officers and experts according to the main educational programmes of the university”, have a formal right to issue state-recognized documents for CPE programmes, including the programmes, for which federal state requirements are not established.

As a state-recognized document typically has a determining value for consumers of educational services, Rosobrnadzor granted unlawful competitive advantages to the universities accredited for undetermined, not specified range of CPE programmes in comparison with CPE institutions.

Reference:

Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits federal executive bodies, the authorities of the constituent territories of the Russian Federation, locals self-government bodies, other bodies or organizations exercising the functions of the above bodies, to pass acts and (or) exercise actions (omissions) that lead or can lead to preventing, restricting, eliminating competition.