medical education originally developed within universities, but was separated from them in 1918 and remains separate as of 2008. legal education in russia exists both within universities and as standalone law institutes such as the academic law university (russian: академический правовой университет, апу) founded under the auspices of the institute of state and law. in the 1990s many technical institutes and new private schools created their own departments of law; as of 2008, law departments trained around 750 thousands students.