The Phystech System

The following is a summary of the key principles of the Phystech System, as outlined by Kapitsa in his 1946 letter arguing for the founding of MIPT:

Rigorous selection of gifted and creative young individuals.
Involving leading scientists in student education, in close contact with them in their creative environment.
An individualized approach to encourage the cultivation of students' creative drive, and to avoid overloading them with unnecessary subjects and rote learning common in other schools and necessitated by mass education.
Conducting their education in an atmosphere of research and creative engineering, using the best existing laboratories in the country.
In its implementation, the Phystech System combines highly competitive admissions, extensive fundamental education in mathematics, as well as theoretical and experimental physics in the undergraduate years, and immersion in research work at leading research institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences starting as early as the second or third year.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Institute_of_Physics_and_Technology