History

The idea for the creation of the Higher School of Economics was first born at the turn of the 1990s, when it became clear that the current system of economics education did not sufficiently address the new political and economic realities in Russia. A team of economics lecturers from Moscow State University (MSU), consisting of Evgeny Yasin, Yaroslav Kuzminov, Revold Entov, Oleg Ananyin, and Rustem Nureev, made several attempts to introduce “normal” economics to existing university curricula. They soon realized, however, the necessity to build a new economics school that from its very inception would be based on the principles of global economic science. At this new institution, students would learn to analyze and forecast real processes, work with statistics and economic models, and join the international community of professional economists.

The first attempt involved creating a department of economic theory at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1989-90) and the MSU faculties of physics and history (1990-91). Students took courses taught by young lecturers who were recent graduates of the economics faculty and traditional political economy courses. Many of those who would later form the core of HSE passed through these departments. They developed a methodology for teaching economic theory in a transition economy country. This initiative was supported by a one-year grant from the Soros Foundation in 1989.

 In 1991, Evgeny Yasin and Yaroslav Kuzminov, with active support from Leonid Abalkin and Yegor Gaidar, started to develop the concept for a new state university. Initially, the institution was supposed to be part of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Department of Economics. At the same time, however, the European Commission offered a grant to support the creation of an institution that would provide economics education that met global standards.

By order of the Russian government, on November 27, 1992, the Higher School of Economics was officially established. Initially, it offered only master’s degrees.

The early days included an intensive ‘teaching of teachers’. Revold Entov taught a course on key problems in economic theory to a team of teachers, mostly from RAS institutes and MSU. Grigory Kantorovich refreshed their knowledge of mathematics. Since 1993, HSE lecturers have regularly attended trainings at leading European universities.

From its very first days, HSE sought to provide a combination of tough training with lively discussion and innovative solutions to the most pressing problems in the Russian economy. Leading economists from the government, including Evgeny Yasin, Alexander Shokhin, Sergey Vasiliev, Yakov Urinson, Vladimir Kossov, Evgeny Gavrilenkov, and Mikhail Kopeikin, became professors at HSE.

In 1995, HSE was awarded university status and, in addition to economics, began to teach sociology, management, and law. Efficient teaching teams started to form around new professors such as Ovsey Shkaratan, Leonid Ionin, and Sergey Filonovich.

At the same time, a system of research centres at HSE was created. They focused on applied research commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Development, the Central Bank of Russia, and the Ministry of Education and Science, as well as private corporations and banks.

By this time, HSE’s principles had been fully established: to respond to the requirements of world economics and social sciences; to encourage interdisciplinary interaction (economists study law and vice versa); to foster direct links between teaching and reform practices as well as applied research results; to share learnings and experience with the Russian academic community, including in the regions.

Political activity is prohibited at HSE. Teachers are free to make their own conclusions; they may defend socialist, Keynesian, or liberal principles, as long as their arguments are based on a relevant theoretical analysis of factors.

In 1996, HSE opened its first regional campus in Nizhny Novgorod. In the following year, HSE campuses opened in St. Petersburg and Perm.

In 1997, HSE became one of the first Russian universities to successfully introduce a ‘double degree programme’ (several years before the Bologna process started). Together with one of the global leaders in economics education, London School of Economics (LSE), HSE established the International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF). The creation of ICEF’s internationally recognized undergraduate and graduate programmes was possible due to the financial support from major banks, companies, and financial institutions, such as VTB24, Vneshtorgbank, and Sberbank. From the first year of study, ICEF courses are taught in English, and graduates earn two degrees at the same time.

In 2000, HSE launched its own Publishing House, which specializes in publishing academic, teaching and reference literature in the university’s main areas of activity, including economics, management, sociology, political science, psychology, and law. Since its founding, there have been more than 1500 publications, 100 of which are translated works. The HSE Textbooks series, introduced in 2003, includes more than 50 titles with more than 170,000 copies printed.

In that same year, the first April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development was held at HSE. Since then, it has become a major annual academic event in Russia. In addition to Russian and international researchers, the event attracts top executives from the Russian Government and Presidential Administration, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as major Russian and international companies.

In 2001, the main university prize, Golden HSE, was awarded for the first time. Since then, the number and categories of nominations have changed, but prizes continue to recognize HSE’s top teachers, researchers, and graduates, as well as others who have greatly contributed to the university’s development. Winners are determined by a vote from HSE’s Board of Tenured Professors and receive a golden crow statue.

In 2003, HSE became a member of the European University Association (EUA) and joined the Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) programme of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The university actively participates in EUA and IMHE projects, which aim to enhance the quality of university programmes, research, and governance. In 2004, HSE carried out an Internationalization Quality Review and began work on research management as part of the Quality Culture Network.

In 2004, HSE students established their own award, in homage to the eternal question ‘what came first, the chicken or the egg?’ From sports to charity, top student projects and achievements in different fields are awarded an Iron Egg.

In 2008, the university adopted a long-term Development Strategy up to 2020. The goal is to make HSE an internationally-recognized cutting-edge research, educational, analytic, consulting and project centre in social sciences and economics. It seeks to make major contributions to Russia’s innovative development and global competitive ability. A Supervisory Council was also established to conduct public expertise and control the process and efficiency of the strategy’s implementation. The Council consisted of representatives from the government, expert communities, corporations, business associations, media, and the public.

In 2009, HSE became Russia’s only national research university specializing in social sciences and the humanities. The following year, it became an autonomous educational institution and was renamed National Research University - Higher School of Economics (HSE). The HSE International Advisory Committee was formed and headed by Eric Maskin, Nobel Prize winner in economics.

In late 2010 and early 2011, HSE opened its first international research laboratories. They are jointly headed by renowned international scholars and leading HSE researchers. The laboratories became part of the university strategy to create and develop its research, teaching, and staff potential.

By an order of the Russian government, in 2011, HSE acquired the Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM), the Management Training Centre, and the GASIS Academy of Continuing Professional Education (GASIS).

In 2011, the concept for the socio-economic development of Russia up to 2020 started to be developed. Strategy 2020 was commissioned by the Russian government and prepared by over one thousand experts. Their work was coordinated by HSE and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, which became the key platforms for expert discussions, workshops, and debates. Twenty-one expert groups were organized in various areas of social and economic policy. The main work was carried out in 2011 and the following year the strategy was revised by experts. At the same time, surveys were carried out to discover the attitudes of different segments of society to the strategy proposals.

In 2012, the HSE Supervisory Council was established as an autonomous institution. It was initially headed by Alexander Zhukov, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, and German Gref, CEO of Sberbank, became Deputy Chairman. In 2016, the list of the Supervisory Council members was updated, and the council is currently led by Sergey Kirienko, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia.

For the first time, in 2012, HSE entered the top 500-550 category of the QS World University Rankings, which assess universities in terms of research, reputation among employers, teaching, and internationalization.

In 2013, HSE became one of 15 universities to win the competition to participate in the 5-100 Project. The goal of the project is to develop modern, world-renowned universities in Russia by 2020. This includes creating effective management structures, increasing international academic reputation, and becoming global trend-setters in higher education.

That same year, HSE began to work with Coursera, one of the world’s largest online education platforms. Over the course of a year, a total of 350,000 people from 190 countries, including Russia, India, China, Great Britain, USA, Brazil, Germany, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, enrolled in HSE courses.

In September 2013, the HSE Lyceum opened as part of the university. It is the first secondary school in Moscow that teaches according to new education principles, promoting ‘cooperation and mutual respect, regardless of age and status’. Students are given freedom of choice, are taught to take risks and not be afraid of making mistakes, to make their own decisions, and to be responsible for the outcomes. Lyceum students determine their own educational trajectories: they create their own study plans, choosing the subjects they want to study. There are required subjects, such as Russian language and mathematics, but students can choose the level of study (basic or advanced).

In March 2014, together with Yandex, HSE established a new Faculty of Computer Science. It brought together the School of Software Engineering, the School of Applied Mathematics and Information Science, and the Joint Department with Yandex.

In that same year, major internal reforms began at HSE with the creation of ‘big faculties’, which are responsible for implementing educational programmes. The main reasons for the reform were the need to optimize management, to transfer resources and responsibilities from the central budget to big departments, as well as to overcome ‘departmentization’ (when certain subjects had little or no interaction with those in other departments). As a result, by the beginning of 2015, 11 big faculties had been formed at the Moscow campus from 28 faculties and schools.