The Russian degree of Kandidat Nauk is also officially recognised by the Government of the French Republic as equivalent to French doctorate. According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011, for purposes of international educational statistics, Kandidat Nauk (Candidate of Sciences) belongs to ISCED level 8, or "doctoral or equivalent," together with PhD, DPhil, DLitt, DSc, LLD, Doctorate, or similar. It is mentioned in the Russian version of ISCED 2011 (par.262) on the UNESCO website as an equivalent to Ph.D. belonging to this level. In the same way as PhD degrees awarded in many English-speaking countries, Kandidat Nauk (Candidate of Sciences) allows its holders to reach the level of the Docent. The second doctorate (or post-doctoral degree) in some post-Soviet states called Doctor of Sciences (, Doktor Nauk) is given as an example of second advanced research qualifications or higher doctorates in ISCED 2011 (par.270) and is similar to Habilitation in Germany, Poland and several other countries. It constitutes a higher qualification compared to Ph.D. as against the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) or Dublin Descriptors. About 88% of Russian students studying at state universities study at the expense of budget funds. The average stipend in Russia () is $430 a year ($35/month). The average tuition fee in graduate school is $2,000 per year. On 19 June 2013, for the first time in the Russian Federation, defenses were held for the Ph.D. degree awarded by universities, instead of the Candidate of Sciences degree awarded by the State Supreme Certification Commission . Renat Yuldashev, the graduate of the Department of Applied Cybernetics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of St. Petersburg State University, was the first to defend his thesis in field of mathematics according to new rules for the Ph.D. SPbSU degree. For the defense procedure in the field of mathematics, it was used the experience of joint Finnish-Russian research and educational program organized in 2007 by the Faculty of Information Technology of the University of Jyväskylä and the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of St. Petersburg State University: co-chairs of the program — N. Kuznetsov, G. Leonov, P. Neittaanmäki, were organizers of the first defenses and co-supervisors of dissertations.