HSE University Life

On December 13, Russia’s first ever Arabic Language Competition took place in Moscow with the support of the Qatar Embassy. Three students – two from HSE and one from MGIMO – won one-year scholarships at Qatar University for next year.

In December 2017 The HSE Look took an interview with Dmitry Dagaev about the changes to the HSE Research Productivity Assessment, and one of the novelties was a shift from a manual check to an automated solution. Early this summer, the HSE community was surprised to learn about its newest colleague: a robot helper named Isaac tasked with recording and scoring the publications by researchers and faculty. Isaac is constantly learning to improve its algorithms and interface, and now that it’s learned English, we are happy to share with The HSE Look readers the exclusive interview with Isaac taken by Okna Rosta, where he talks about his functions and even offers some words of advice.

IT Development Office and the Research Unit have automated the final stage of Research Productivity Assessment (RPA).

HSE is now accepting applications for the competition for increased state academic scholarships for outstanding academic, research, public, cultural, creative or sports achievements. International students on full-tuition Russian government scholarships are eligible to apply.

At the beginning of the new academic year, HSE launched a new mechanism to support student projects called HSEcoin.  The first phase of fundraising through this platform took place from September 13 to November 20. During this time, student projects managed to collect 5,069.14 HSEcoins, which equals more than one million roubles based on 2018 exchange rates.  Below is a summary of the first phase of the HSEcoin campaign.

Valeria Kasamara, Senior Director for Government Relations, has been appointed new Vice Rector for Student and Alumni Relations, taking over the position from Igor Chirikov*. She spoke to the HSE News Service about what is special about the contemporary students, and about her plans for the new position.

HSE Outreach, a student charity project, is collecting presents for orphanages in Elatma and Gavrilov Yam. Another student charity project, Present 4 the Soul, invites everyone who wants to give or get a present to take part in their Christmas project.

On November 30 HSE staff members were awarded honor awards of the university at the meeting of the Academic Council.

December is usually dedicated to preparing for the New Year, which often includes room cleaning. By the way, how long is it since you sorted out your clothing? Are there a lot of things that you haven’t worn for months or even years? Does everything fall on your head when you open your wardrobe?

An advent calendar with gifts is usually seen as a source of entertainment for children, but away with conventions. Everyone loves to receive presents, but HSE loves to give them. Each day between December 1st and 24th, the windows of a virtual calendar will display links to some of HSE’s most interesting courses, lectures, and events set to take place soon, as well as recordings from past events. The result will be 24 presents for absolutely everyone to enjoy.

The Academic Council has confirmed a new draft of the Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at the Higher School of Economics.

The cafeteria is one of the main points of attraction for students in any HSE building. Now HSE students in the humanities and physics, who study at 21/4 Staraya Basmannaya Ulitsa, also have one to visit. The HSE news service visited the renovated cafeteria to learn whether it’s better than the legendary cafeteria on Myasnitskaya (spoiler alert: it seems so) and to ask the brand chef what meals are worth trying.