HSE University Students Will Be Able to Get a Microdegree During Their Major Studies

This academic year, some minors have become Microdegrees—qualifications confirming that a graduate has the required competencies for specific professional tasks. Below, we talk about the advantages of Microdegrees and additional modules that can help obtain them.

What Does a Microdegree Have to Offer?

Natalia Chichik, Director of the Educational Trajectory Centre, said that in addition to their key bachelor’s or master’s degrees, students can improve their professional potential by taking an HSE Microdegree to develop competencies that are valued by major market actors.

A Microdegree certificate demonstrates to employers that the candidate is capable of working in specialised professional fields, including digital technology law consulting, educational innovation production, sports management, and more.

According to Pavel Travkin, who chairs the Committee on the list of additional Microdegree modules, proposed additional Microdegree modules should be related not only to HSE University’s educational capabilities, but to the job market and employers’ demands. ‘That’s why one of the university’s key tasks is to offer Microdegrees that are implemented together with industry partners or those that offer result verification from a relevant employer,’ Pavel said.

Some minors have already become full-scale Microdegrees, while others currently lack additional courses or alternative forms of classes for the university to be able to issue a Microdegree certificate.

How Can Heads of Minors Initiate Microdegrees in Their Disciplines?

To do so, they need to choose minors that can offer students an additional profession; to come up with a list of subjects and/or project works that students can take additionally on a fee-paying basis during their fourth year of studies or after graduation; and suggest the name of the qualification to be assigned upon completion of the minor and included in the HSE Microdegree certificate.

Anton Gorodnichev
Lecturer at Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism

Our Microdegree in Urban Studies is aimed at training urban development consultants. We have worked with key industry experts and companies for many years, which allows us to analyse employers’ demands for competencies and offer educational products that meet market requirements. We believe that such Microdegrees will be useful to many urban professionals.

Managing a city today is impossible without an understanding of how the urban community works. Our programme provides exactly this kind of knowledge. Professionals who work in related fields or deal with cities also need to understand the processes that take place in the contemporary urbanised world. Designers, architects and urban developers working in project and architectural bureaus will gain knowledge about urban management, sociology and economics, which will help them implement their project solutions in the urban context.

In addition to our minor’s core disciplines (such as geography, sociology, urban economics and the history of urban planning), future Microdegree holders will gain applied skills. For example, they will learn spatial data analysis methods, which are necessary for preparing map materials and visualising project solutions in urban development. The curriculum also includes a course on urban transportation systems.

Modern urban development professionals should also understand the legal foundations of urban planning. Such a course is also an applied one.

The training of future consultants ends with a research project in which students must suggest a solution to an urban problem. They will defend their projects before a committee consisting of leading Russian experts in urban development and planning.

Dmitriy Mazaev
Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law

The Faculty of Law offers two minors with Microdegrees: Consultant in Economics and Law, and Consultant on Digital Technology Law.

Lawyers, economists and other professionals employed in the regulation of economic relations and digital technologies frequently face challenges related to the interaction of economics and law, as well as digital technology regulation.

A Consultant in Economics and Law Microdegree will help students to answer a key question: how does law impact the economy and vice versa? It will provide them with competencies required in professions related to economic relations and their legal regulation, in public service and businesses.

A Consultant on Digital Technology Law Microdegree will equip students with relevant competencies in the digitalisation of economics and law, as well as in legal activities for public services and businesses.

The teachers of Microdegrees have extensive experience of academic and professional work in public and commercial bodies. This allows them to share their unique knowledge and the results of their research and expert work.

March 21, 2022