HSE Enters Second Stage of Project 5-100 a Leader

The Higher School of Economics is among the top four universities ranked by the Council on Enhancing the Competitiveness of Russia’s Leading Universities. HSE is the only university participating in the project to have kept its leading position in the ranking. The university’s Vice Rector, Maria Yudkevich, who also presented HSE’s Roadmap at the Council’s meeting in Tomsk, talks about how the university was able to achieve this and describes what HSE has set as its priorities in the next stage of the fight to enter the list of the world’s strongest universities.

We were able to prove to the Council that we are a strong team with a unified vision of the university's development goals, and we showed them our huge potential for achieving these goals. We received our first accolades from the experts for our weighted plan of changes and our understanding of how we plan to carry it out.

HSE is an important university for Russia, as it is specifically HSE that is a pioneer in applying innovations that later spread to other Russian universities, including other participants of Project 5-100

Andrey Scherbenok 
Professor at Moscow School of Management Skolkovo

The strategic objectives that we outlined in our presentation demonstrated that we understand the risks connected with the fact that HSE is a liberal arts university, while the academic environment is currently focused on the natural sciences. We showed that we have an excellent understanding of how to turn these risks in to a competitive advantage. Our strategic goals in scientific development, for example, are to achieve a leading position within the field of economics in Russia and excel in mathematics and computer science. In addition, four advanced research centres will be created at HSE in education, the mathematical analysis of economic and social processes, supercomputing for socioeconomic models, and economic and social policy. Centres will also be formed in the field of advanced applied research, and work will continue on attracting foreign associated scholars and developing cooperation with leading academic centres in Russia and around the world.

Andrey Scherbenok, a Professor of Practice at Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, served as our reviewer. Not only did he praise the strategy we have proposed, but Dr Scherbenok also drew the Council’s attention to the fact that HSE truly faces organic developmental difficulties since it is a university focused on social and humanitarian disciplines. He added that it is very important to keep in mind that the university understands these limitations and tries to use its unique features as competitive advantage.

The Council’s experts also paid a great deal of attention to our breakthrough ideas in the education sphere, noting that HSE’s aim of becoming a global authority does not distract the university from its main mission — being the best at teaching. We are absolutely certain that our English-language bachelor’s and master’s programmes will be able to compete at the global level in the very near future. And the online courses that HSE instructors teach on international platforms are an example of what has already been done. The courses are developing rapidly and truly integrate the university into the global space.

I’ve had the opportunity to observe the work the university carries out at the international level in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. The university is not only trying to surpass its Russian colleagues in various academic fields — for example, economics, the social sciences, and others — but it is also trying to compete with global leaders

Francisco Marmolejo 
World Bank’s Lead Tertiary Education Specialist and Coordinator of its Network of Higher Education Specialists

Francisco Marmolejo, who is the World Bank’s Lead Tertiary Education Specialist and Coordinator of its Network of Higher Education Specialists, gave a key speech on HSE’s advancement onto the list of the world’s top 100 universities. He noted that HSE had made great progress as a research university.

‘I’ve had the opportunity to observe the work the university carries out at the international level in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. The university is not only trying to surpass its Russian colleagues in various academic fields — for example, economics, the social sciences, and others — but it is also trying to compete with global leaders,’ Mr Marmolejo comments.

We of course have a lot to do to gain recognition and make people aware of our brand. We understand that our victory is nothing more than an impetus for a new start. But it seems that our first successful steps, as well as a confidence in the fact that we know for sure where we are going and how to get there, have convinced the Council.