SIMFEROPOL, March 18, 22:49 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia has announced plans to create a tenth federal university in Crimea in a year from now on the basis of the Tavrida National University, a leading classical academic university based in the Crimean territory, Natalya Goncharova, the Crimean minister of education, science, youth policy and sport, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

She said that the federal university should be set up as soon as possible. “I think that it will take us a year at least but not everything depends on us,” Goncharova said, adding that a working group comprising Crimean and Russian experts had been created to deal with the issue.

“The creation of the federal university is a complicated task, which is not going to be solved at the level of Crimea’s Ministry of Education or the Crimean authorities. I believe that this question is in the competence of the president of Russia, which has nine federal universities so far,” Goncharova went on to say, adding that a decision to create the tenth federal university deserved high-level attention.

According to the Crimean education minister, the concept provides for the merger of several but not all basic institutions of high learning in Crimea with the Tavrida National University.

“Several universities will continue existing as separate institutions. They include the Medical University, the Engineering and Pedagogical University which was created as a university to restore the Crimean Tatar language and culture, and the Agricultural University, which has a very narrow specialization,” he said.

Goncharova noted that the decision to create a federal university in Crimea was aimed at unification of institutions of high learning and expansion of higher education programmes. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of the Crimean State Council (parliament), Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov and Mayor of Sevastopol Alexei Chalyi on Tuesday signed a Treaty on Crimea’s reunification with Russia under which Crimea is considered to be adopted into Russia as a constituent entity. As a result, two new constituent entities have appeared on the map of Russia - the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol which has a federal status.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Malyshev, the rector of the Russian State University of Cinematography named after Sergei Gerasimov (VGIK), has suggested opening the institution’s subsidiary in Crimea, noting that Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky had approved the initiative.

The University already has subsidiaries in Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia; Irkutsk, the Siberia; Sergiev Posad near Moscow and Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad region.

The University’s rector stressed the need to develop the Yalta film studios and the Yalta film festival.

The Russian State Institute of Cinematograpy was founded in 1919. It was transformed into a university in 2008. Most contemporary Russian filmmakers are graduates of this University, which is one of the world’s leading institutions to train professional film-makers.

Russian filmmakers, operators, script writers, actors and painters who graduate from the Russian State University of Cinematography work in more than 80 countries.