HSE University Life

On January 18 at VDNKH, the winter weather failed to stop people from coming out to celebrate the Epiphany with a plunge into icy waters. While traditionally considered a religious event to celebrate the baptism of Jesus, nowadays it has become a famous tradition when people all over Russia go out and immerse themselves in icy waters.

Adapting to a new university environment can be a difficult process, especially with such a thing as teaching classes, where not only teacher’s own abilities but also formal requirements and the academic culture of the institution come into play. In previous issues of The HSE Look (October 2015, May 2014, September 2013) we covered different aspects of teaching at HSE, such as the module system, assessment regulations, syllabus design, finding teaching assistants and using electronic Learning Management System.

This is the second time the HSE Extreme Sports Club has organized a trip to Krasnaya Polyana in the month of February. This time, the trip will take place on February 5-12, 2017. Everyone who likes mountains and wants to spend a week in great company is welcome to take part. This year, the participants will be staying close to the ski lifts, which means that they will be the first to ski on fresh snow slopes.

In late 2016, the legendary international lawyer and legal scholar Martti Koskenniemi held a series of lectures and seminars at the Faculty of Law of HSE. Press-Centre of the Faculty of Law was fortunate to join Prof. Koskenniemi's talks and discuss before the New Year his diplomatic and academic career.

Each year HSE hires post-doctoral researchers, accepting applications from all over the world, and they join various laboratories and centres. Some of them kindly provided additional information about their research interests and background, and The HSE Look continues the tradition of introducing HSE’s new international faculty and researchers.

The results of the competition organized by HSE Fund for Educational Innovation have been announced.

On December 14-16, 2016, the members of the Mathematics Faculty’s International Advisory Board visited the faculty and met with students, faculty, and staff.

HSE has been implementing LMS (Learning Management System) — an electronic system of education process support – for several years. A new service, called ‘Student Electronic Portfolio’ (StEP), which is based on LMS and gathers information about students’ achievements in various fields has been developed by the Administrative Staff Development Programme project group. 

The candidates for this year's Golden HSE Awards have been selected. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on December 20 but the list of short-listed nominees has already been published on the awards website.
This year the award will be given in 10 categories.

In its 30th issue The HSE Look is focusing on the latest developments in research and teaching strategies at HSE. It provides a brief overview of Strategic Academic Unites and introduces the new post-doc researchers and their topics of interest. Concerning the teaching process, The HSE Look presents a new funding opportunity for inviting colleagues to share the best teaching practices, as well as teaching advice from international faculty members who’ve been at HSE for several years.

On December 2, 2016 a traditional Culture Day was held at HSE St. Petersburg. Students from 21 countries took part in this colorful and enjoyable celebration. International students organized competitions and performances and cooked traditional food in order to showcase their home countries’ unique cultures. The organizers say over 500 people attended the event.

Till December 21, 2016 HSE students will have an opportunity to assess the quality of their teachers’ work.