The Russian educational system may be arranged into following major groups: secondary education, professional education, higher education and postgraduate education.

Secondary education in Russia takes either ten (skipping the 4th form) or eleven years to complete, depending on the school. After graduation from the 9th grade, which is compulsory for all Russian citizens, a pupil obtains a Certificate of Incomplete Secondary Education. After that a pupil has to choose one of the following ways to complete his secondary education: to continue education for two more years at the secondary school or to pursue an associate degree at a Community College. The latter variant usually takes three to four years to complete but provides a pupil with educational qualification that is sufficient for most blue-collar jobs.

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Institutions of initial and intermidiate professional education (PTU -proftekhuchilischa, professional leceums, tekhnikums and colleges train qualified workers, middle-level specialists such as techncians and skilled nurses. They confer Diplomas after 2 years' study on the basis of Secondary (complete) general education and after four to four-and-a-half years on the basis of Basic general education.

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After obtaining a Certificate of Complete Secondary Education a student can enter a University or a Community College. At a Community College students with complete secondary education can obtain an Associate Degree in one or two years. A student can choose a program of higher education with a duration of four to six years. There are three different degrees that are conferred by Russian universities: Bachelor's Degree (4 years), Specialist's Degree (5–6 years), and Master's Degree (6 years). Bachelor's and Master's degrees were introduced relatively recently; they did not exist during the Soviet period. Even now they are not offered by many six-year institutions.

Medical Sciences The duration of study in the medical sciences is the following:
• five years in dentistry and pharmacy;
• six years in medicine;
• four years in nursing following completion of vocational education and two-and-a-half years following completion of non-university level higher education.
The medical sciences are the only area in which diplomas of university level HE do not give the right to their holders to exercise their professions independently. In order to be admitted to the medical professions, the holders of university level HE diplomas must undertake further in-depth professional training:
a one-year course programme (called the internatura) or
a two- to three-year course programme (called the ordinatura).

Training in the internatura or the ordinatura takes place on the premises of the best hospitals, clinics, and research medical institutes. Graduates from the internatura or ordinatura are awarded certificates that specify their specialization areas and entitle them to exercise their professions independently.

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After obtaining a Specialist's or Master's Degree, a student may enter a university or a scientific institute to pursue postgraduate education. The first level of postgraduate education is aspirantura that usually results in the Kandidat Nauk degree (Candidate of Sciences). The seeker should pass three exams (in his/her special field, in a foreign language of his/her choice, and in history and philosophy of science), publish at least three scientific articles, write a dissertation and defend it. This degree is roughly equivalent to the Ph.D. in the United States.

After graduation a student may continue postgraduate education. Few (2 to 4) years of study in doctorantura (докторантура) with obtaining important scientific results, publishing them and writing new thesis would result in the Doctor Nauk degree (доктор наук, Doctor of Sciences), but the typical way is working in a university or scientific institute with parallel preparation of a thesis. The average time between obtaining Kandidat and Doctor degrees is roughly 10 years, and most of new Doctors are 40 and more years old. Only 1 of 4 Kandidats reaches this grade.
Kandidat Nauk may keep position of Assistant Professor (Docent) in universities and of Researcher or Senior Researcher in a scientific institutes. Doctor Nauk can hold position of full Professor, Head of Laboratory or equal and higher ones.

Granting of advanced degrees is overseen by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science.

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