Education news at HSE University

This year’s International Economics Olympiad for high school students started on September 7 with an opening ceremony that celebrated the biggest and most diverse group of students yet to compete in the Olympiad, now in its third year. 29 teams from 29 countries will compete this time. The event, which is being held online due to the pandemic, will last until September 13.

The Russian Postdoc Programme has once again attracted talented researchers from all over Russia to work on research projects at HSE University. The programme aims to provide emerging Russian scholars and scientists with the opportunity to conduct research at HSE. In the new academic year, 54 Russian postdoctoral fellows will join the University.

This year, HSE University has maintained its position in the 251-300 range in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The University ranks among the top 3 Russian universities along with Moscow State University (which ranks 174^th) and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (which ranks in the 201-250 range). In the THE’s global ranking of the best universities for research, HSE ranks 199^th.

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.

HSE University continues to climb the Moscow international university ranking, The Three University Missions (MosIUR), this year taking 120th place. The ranking became the most representative in the world this year – for the first time, the number of ranked universities reached 1,500.

The HSE International Summer University completed its 2020 session on August 20. Due to the pandemic, the programme was held online for the first time. Students from all over the world met on Zoom to study Russian language as well as take a variety of subject specific courses and participate in informal activities.

Classes will begin on-campus on September 1 (for some graduate programmes on October 1), and wearing masks in university buildings and dormitories will be mandatory for all students and teachers. HSE University will arrange online learning with mandatory support from professors for newly enrolled international students who are currently unable to travel to Russia.

While many students readily embraced online learning, there were also many students who found it more difficult to complete their coursework due to technical difficulties. First-year students had the hardest time adapting to the new format, and low-income students also encountered many challenges. These are some of the findings of a survey conducted as part of a joint project between the Institute of Education, the Centre for Institutional Research, and the Institute of Distance Education of Tomsk State University.