Students in the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences Switch to Project-based Learning
In the new academic year, first-year students in the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences will have the opportunity to work alongside senior students on joint projects that are both practice and research-oriented.
What is project-based learning?
Project-based learning is a concept that involves acquiring knowledge and skills while working on a project. This format helps to develop an unusual approach to finding solutions, form one’s own view of a problem, and develop analytical and critical thinking skills.
At the same time, project-based learning involves interaction between students from different years during work on a specific task or joint research on a particular topic. Thus, first-year students have the opportunity to become familiar with the learning process and adapt to a new team. The work will be organized in the framework of project seminars. At the end of the academic year, first-year students of the bachelor's programmes in Economics and Economics and Statistics will present term papers on a chosen topic. They can also complete a group term paper, which will help them learn how to work effectively in a team.
Project-based learning will be compulsory for students in the following master’s programmes: Agrarian Economics, Statistical Analysis in Economics, Applied Economics, Statistical Modelling and Actuarial Science, Strategic Corporate Finance, Financial Markets and Institutions, and the Economics: Research Programme.
Are applied projects possible?
A practice-oriented project will allow all students, starting from the first year, to try their hand at solving a particular business problem. This format is new for both teachers and students. Some of the projects are applied, and potential employers and project customers may be co-leaders of such seminars.
The Ministry of Finance, the SKOLKOVO Business school, the Russian Venture Capital Association, the Moscow Exchange, Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank, Sovcombank, Sberbank, Deloitte and others have already worked as project co-heads. Participants in these seminars will face interesting challenges: learn how to model risks for insurance companies, develop investment strategies in financial markets, evaluate the effectiveness of public investment in innovation, and analyse the country's comparative advantages in world trade. Students who work with real business projects have more opportunities to start building a successful career.
What about good old term papers?
The good news for those who prefer the traditional approach and for students with high research potential is that term papers will remain. Moreover, work on term papers will be even more effective within the framework of research projects. By combining projects under a particular topic, students will have the opportunity to develop a topic that interests them and work on the ground for their future research; many projects are designed to be long-term.
First-year students will have an opportunity to work with well-known representatives of economic science who are project managers. Especially successful students will work on publications in peer-reviewed publications, give presentations at student conferences, and secure offers for internships in research institutes. Thus, the approach to organizing research-oriented classes at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences will become more structured.
Projects will focus on the following areas of work: issues of interaction between fiscal and monetary policy, modelling and forecasting economic crises, assessment of socio-economic policy tools, study of decision-making models, study of anomalies in stock markets, and many others.
More information on research projects can be found here.
The Faculty of Economic Sciences (formerly the Faculty of Economics) is a leading HSE leading faculty that was established in 1992. It is currently the largest educational and research division at the Higher School of Economics. The faculty combines organizational and financial capabilities of key educational and research centres, the intellectual capital and professionalism of the best research teams in economics, and partnerships that have developed over many years with the world's leading universities as well as both Russian and multinational corporations that are market-leading employers.
By Valeria Kodzaeva
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