A new permanent column, Key to the Text, prepared by the team of the School of Philological Sciences at the HSE Faculty of Humanities, has launched on the Arzamas media platform. The first instalment focuses on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot: the authors explore the evolution of the meaning of the word ‘idiot’ from antiquity to the nineteenth century and its central role in the writer’s conception of the novel.

How are universities, vocational education systems, and researcher training programmes evolving in response to new challenges? These questions were at the heart of the international forum ‘Reconfiguring Education in a Changing World: Russia–China Dialogues on Higher Education, Skills, and Research Training’, held in China in mid-June. The event was jointly organised by the HSE Institute of Education and the Graduate School of Education of Peking University, which hosted the forum on its campus.

On June 18, 2026, the laureates of the Award for the Best Human-centred HR Management Practices were honoured at the 26th International Forum HREXPO PRO PEOPLE. HSE University received an award for the creation of daycare playrooms for children of HSE staff and students in the ‘Protection of Life and Well-Being’ category.

The 10th Demo Day of the Joint HSE & VK Engineering and Mathematics School was held at the VK Moscow office. Students of the three workshops presented the results of projects in artificial intelligence, information security, and digital platforms. Students worked on the development of recommendation services, methods for identifying celebrities in videos, algorithms for determining the toxicity of memes, and approaches to improving the effectiveness of neural network models.

On June 14, 2026, the first graduating class of the Cognitive Neurobiology educational programme, jointly delivered by HSE University, Skoltech, and the RAS Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, celebrated their graduation at the HSE Cultural Centre. Twenty-two students received their bachelor’s degrees, becoming multidisciplinary specialists in modern molecular biology, neurophysiology, and cognitive sciences.

On June 20, HSE University begins accepting applications for the new Bachelor's Programme in Technology Innovation Management at the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The programme aims to train specialists capable of managing technology projects at every stage, from testing ideas and validating hypotheses to implementing solutions and bringing products to market.

Students of the HSE University Faculty of Computer Science continue their winning streak at various sports programming competitions. They secured three first-place finishes and other accolades at events held in the spring of 2026.

The annual Positive Psychology Day took place at Muzeon Arts Park (Moscow), organised by the University Open to the City project and the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences. More than 500 participants gathered to discuss a question that concerns everyone: how to maintain inner balance when the world around us is changing faster than we can adapt.

Chemists from HSE University have discovered a way to carry out a reductive addition reaction without using an external reducing agent. Instead, the required 'resource' is supplied by the aldehyde itself, one of the reaction participants. This approach helps prevent unwanted side reactions, reduces toxicity, and simplifies the production and synthesis of organic molecules, including those used in the manufacture of medicines. The study has been published in Journal of Catalysis.