Announced in 2010 by Dmitry Medvedev, and backed the following year by president Vladimir Putin as a way to raise the standards of Russia’s workforce, the Global Education Programme supports students to study degrees of up to three years at top universities around the world.

The programme has been criticised in the Kremlin for failing to ensure that students would return to Russia upon completion of diplomas

Terms also require students to return to Russia to work a further three years or pay back the scholarship.

However, an internal memo revealed that the programme has been criticised in the Kremlin for failing to ensure that students would return to Russia upon completion of diplomas according to Kommersant daily.

The newspaper also reported criticisms of the decision to invest in managers rather than researchers or engineers.

Last year it was estimated that the programme would fund the studies of 250 students in 2012, 900 in 2013, 1,200 in 2014 and 650 in 2015. The programme has yet to be fully implemented however and the government-affiliated Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) has admitted that delays may mean that students have to defer their studies until next September.

Despite clear backing from the government initially, the current administration appeared to be lukewarm in their support. An unidentified government official told Kommersant that the funds for the programme were redistributed to programs supporting the development of the Russian language abroad.