• A
  • A
  • A
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
Regular version of the site

Within Five Years of the Faculty’s Creation, the HSE Has Become the Leading Russian Institution of Higher Learning in Pure Mathematics

Several experts from the world’s leading universities make up the International Advisory Board at the HSE Faculty of Mathematics. They have inspected various aspects of the Faculty’s activity and summarized their findings in a recent report.


The International Advisory Board at the HSE Faculty of Mathematics was founded in 2011 to provide academic expertise for the Faculty’s development programme. Its responsibilities include evaluation of curriculums, research activity, staff policy, the quality of undergraduate and postgraduate education, as well as the Faculty’s infrastructure. The Board includes six professors: Pierre Deligne(Institute for Advanced Study, USA), Sergey Fomin (University of Michigan, USA), Sergei Lando (HSE, Dean of the Faculty, ex officio), Tetsuji Miwa (Kyoto University, Japan), Andrei Okounkov (Columbia University, USA), and Chairman of the Board Stanislav Smirnov (University of Geneva, Switzerland, and St. Petersburg State University, Russia).



Members of the Board visited the Faculty during the winter of 2013. They met with faculty members, both junior and senior, and with undergraduate as well as postgraduate students. During these meetings, which were conducted in the absence of departmental administration, the students and professors were able to freely express their opinions regarding the current state of affairs in the Department, commenting on its achievements, its goals, and the most pressing needs and problems.

The visiting members of the Board met key members of the departmental leadership team, including the Dean, several Associate Deans, and representatives of the main graduate programs. Several members of the Board also had a meeting with the leadership of the HSE, including the Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov, Academic Supervisor Evgeny Yasin, First Vice-Rector Vadim Radaev, and Vice-Rectors Sergey Roshchin and Maria Yudkevich.

During the visit, several members of the Board gave lectures at the Faculty. These talks attracted large audiences of students and professors.

The International Advisory Board has prepared a report, which summarizes their overall impressions from the visit, provides a general assessment of the current situation within the Faculty, and makes several recommendations for the future.

The Board was impressed by the current state of academic affairs at the Faculty and called the HSE a ‘leading Russian institution of higher learning in pure mathematics’. The Board recognises the Faculty’s undergraduate programme as one of the best ones in the world: ‘It currently attracts the strongest pool of mathematics students in Russia, offering them a challenging and thoughtfully designed curriculum’.

With regard to the Faculty’s research activity, the Board emphasized that both the scientific quality and quantity of the research produced by the members of the faculty is excellent, and the equal of some of the best mathematics departments in Europe. The Faculty is particularly strong in algebraic geometry, representation theory, and mathematical physics. At the same time, there are some research areas which are underrepresented at the Faculty, including applied mathematics, number theory and probability.

The experts evaluated the academic level of undergraduate students as ‘remarkable, on a par with the very best undergraduate programs in mathematics worldwide, such as Ecole Normale Superieure (France), Harvard and MIT (USA), Peking University (China), University of Cambridge (UK), and University of Tokyo (Japan)’, and ‘clearly at the very top among all maths departments in Russia’.

In terms of the Faculty’s graduate programmes, the Board admits that they are ‘still in their infancy, and are yet to achieve comparable status’.

The Board has identified several major problem areas within the Faculty and developed recommendations for their solution.

Speaking about academic personnel, the experts said that, while the process of hiring Assistant and Associate Professors is quite open, Professors are hired through an opaque process that can rely on personal connections. Another problem is the lack of postdoctoral positions.

While there are no issues related to the faculty’s infrastructure quality, the faculty has dramatically outgrown the space it currently occupies: classrooms are frequently filled to capacity, and beyond. Very probably, there will soon be no physical space to accommodate the classes.

In terms of funding, the salary scheme at the Faculty involves large bonuses awarded to those professors who regularly publish in foreign ISI reviewed journals. While this reward system does benefit the Faculty, it may discourage mathematicians from pursuing ambitious long-term projects which could result in gaps in their publication records. This system also undervalues publication in Russian mathematical journals. The Board also recommends attracting more private sponsorship for research and educational pursuits.

Download the report

See also:

‘The Joy of Science Lies in the Euphoria of Learning’

For Elena Nozdrinova, mathematics is her life's work and a realm where she discovers universal order and harmony. In her interview with the HSE Young Scientists project, she speaks about dynamical systems, the Nizhny Novgorod scientific school, and favourite pastimes that help her grow.

HSE Scientists Unveil New Findings Regarding Stability of Communication Systems

Researchers from the International Laboratory of Dynamical Systems and Applications at the HSE Campus in Nizhny Novgorod have discovered that the use of systems with hyperbolic solenoid attractors and repellers can lead to issues in the transmission of communication signals. The findings of this study have been published in Results in Mathematics. The research was financed by a substantial grant from the Russian Government as part of the 'Science and Universities' National Project and a further grant from the Russian Science Foundation.

Monsters of the Deep: HSE Scientists Have Compiled a Catalogue of Rogue Waves

Rogue waves, or killer waves, are abnormally high and deadly waves that can emerge unpredictably in open seas and along shorelines. They pose an imminent deadly threat to everyone from colossal liners and pleasure yachts to seafarers and vacationers. Scientists from the HSE campus in Nizhny Novgorod Efim Pelinovsky and Ekaterina Didenkulova have assembled a catalogue of such phenomena that occurred in the World Ocean from 2011 to 2018, identifying the areas where they are frequently documented and inflict the most substantial damage.

Students of Engineering and Mathematics School Present First Project Results

Students of the Engineering and Mathematics School (EMS) launched by HSE University and VK in October 2022 held a Demo Day to showcase the first results of their product- and research-based IT projects. Work on the projects has been conducted under the supervision of experts from the university and mentors from VK.

‘I Prefer Work to Most Types of Pastime’

Ivan Arzhantsev has headed up the Faculty of Computer Science since it was established in 2014. He has never been a specialist in Computer Science – all his life he’s been engaged in mathematics. On his 50th birthday, he shared with HSE Life how this has helped him to lead the best HSE faculty.

HSE University Students Win Prizes at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students

The 29th International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC 2022) took place in early August in a mixed format in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria) and online. Eight students of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science and the HSE Faculty of Mathematics won prizes at the competition.

‘HSE University Was a Gateway into the Wider World of Science’

Fernanda Florido-Calvo came to HSE University in Nizhny Novgorod from Chile to study mathematics. While on her two-year Master of Science in Mathematics programme, she wrote her master’s thesis and presented it at the All-Russia Contest of Diploma Thesis of Russian Mathematicians 2021, where she won two awards with full marks. Fernanda spoke to the HSE News Service about her passion for mathematics and the paths that lead to HSE University.

HSE University Researchers to Speak at the International Congress of Mathematicians

The speakers of the International Congress of Mathematicians, a key global mathematics event held every four years by the International Mathematical Union, have been announced. The next ICM will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia, in July 2022. Five researchers from the HSE Faculty of Mathematics will present their papers at the congress.

‘A Good Thing about Mathematical Thinking Is That It Knocks Some Sense into Your Brain’

HSE University maintains active cooperation with the Academy of Science institutes, which open joint departments at the university and provide their best experts for teaching and research. HSE News Service talked to Deputy Directors of the RAS Steklov Mathematical Institute (MIRAS) — RAS member Lev Beklemishev andSergey Gorchinskiy — about the development of mathematics in the modern world, career opportunities for graduates in mathematics, and the specifics of researchers’ work with students.

‘HSE Offers the Opportunity to Study Mathematics Alongside Renowned Mathematicians as Part of a Vibrant Research Community’

HSE University’s Faculty of Mathematics is one of the strongest in Russia, consistently ranking high on global university rankings. Its degree programmes attract the best students, not only from Russia, but also from around the world, by offering them a well-rounded mathematical education and a wide range of learning opportunities.  In an interview with HSE News Service, a Master’s student and an HSE alum talk about features of the HSE Master’s Programme in Mathematics.