This year’s conference was entitled ‘The (Non)Homogeneous Landscape of Higher Education: Institutions, Trajectories, and Effects.’ It brought together more than 600 participants. Over the three days, around 100 papers were presented on topics including the economics and stratification of higher education, student wellbeing, the diversity of academic career paths, big data and analytics for measuring heterogeneity, and other related areas.

On October 28, 2026, HSE University in Moscow hosted the Second Indonesian Language Congress, entitled ‘The Indonesian Language on the Global Stage: Challenges, Opportunities, and Prospects’. The event brought together representatives of the diplomatic community, educational and research organisations from Russia and Indonesia, as well as teachers, researchers, and students.

On October 23–24, HSE University hosted the landmark fifth Fall into ML 2026 Conference. During the foresight session titled ‘A Humanoid in Your Kitchen: When Will It Happen and What Can Prevent It?’ researchers explored why humanoid robot assistants have not yet become part of our everyday lives, what needs to change for this to happen, and who will be held responsible when such assistants make mistakes.

Syed Amir Ali Shah, from Pakistan, enrolled in the Master’s in Information Security and Artificial Intelligence Technologies to study in a modern, international environment with ample opportunities to develop outside the classroom. In his time at HSE University, Syed Amir Ali has gained deeper insight into the relationship between information security and AI, presented his research to the university community, and volunteered at a wide range of university events. Read on to find out more in this interview.

Researchers from HSE MIEM and Skoltech have developed a new approach to decoding codes used for data transmission. Their hybrid method significantly reduces computational costs and can be implemented using electronic components. The paper has been published in IEEE Transactions on Communications.

On October 12, 2026, a delegation from the China National Academy of Educational Sciences (CNAES), led by its President, Li Yongzhi, visited HSE University. At a meeting with HSE President Nikita Anisimov, the two sides reviewed the results of their long-standing partnership and discussed prospects for joint research.

On October 16, 2026, HSE ICEF hosted the 8th International Conference on Applied Economics. The programme was organised around three themes— ‘Environment, Resources and Policy,’ ‘Migration, Labour, and Communication,’ and ‘Consumption, Behaviour, and Climate—offering an opportunity to see how similar economic mechanisms operate in China, Pakistan, the United States, and Russia.

On October 23, 2026, HSE University hosted the second Russian–Chinese academic seminar on changing life trajectories and the sequencing of key events in the transition to adulthood in Russia and China. The event was organised by the HSE Institute for Social Policy and the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, in cooperation with the Institute of Population Research at Peking University (China).

The HSE Faculty of Computer Science will complete the development of the third phase of the SmartMLOps system by the end of the year. This enterprise platform simplifies and accelerates the deployment of AI models in production environments. Hadi Saleh, Head of the Unit for Applied Technological Solutions at the AI and Digital Science Institute of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, explains what makes the new system unique and what challenges it will be able to address.