In the sphere of Russian higher education project-based learning is becoming widely recognized as one of the most effective educational approaches aiming at developing significant personal and professional competences. Therefore due to modern national higher educational (HE) standards project-oriented disciplines, courses and technologies are being integrated in formal curriculum of many HE programs regardless their specialization and year of study or name and profile of a selected institution.

Concurrently more and more HE organizations start making efforts to create opportunities for their students to gain precious experience of real projects design and implementation beyond formal curriculum but within the institutions' youth policy development programs.

This paper aims to report a range of ways and organizational formats of how HE institutions in Russia involve students in project-related activities during their free-of-classes time. The results of the study represent the reasons why Russian universities and other HE institutions integrate these activities into their youth policy development programs. The conducted analyses also shows prevalent specialization types of student projects, encouraged for implementation by the number of institutions studied.

The main data source for the study is an internet-based interactive map containing the information on Russian HE institutions best practices in the sphere of youth policy. The map is being updated annually based on the results of the yearly-held Contest among HE institutions of the Russian Federation on best practices concerning implementation of youth policies and educational activities.

Keywords: Project-related student activities, higher educational institutions in Russia, best practices of HE youth policies.