News

For the past month, all dissertation defenses at HSE have been conducted online. However, this format is far from new: over the past two years, more than 80% of defenses at HSE University were conducted with at least one committee member attending remotely.

On September 11, Ivan Smirnov, graduate of the HSE Institute of Education doctoral programme, defended his Candidate of Sciences (Education) on ‘Differentiation of students by academic performance in a social network’. His thesis consists of four articles which had been published in academic journals, as well as a description of the study methods, design and main outcomes.

Last year, the Russian Federation gave leading universities the right to award their own academic degrees on a trial basis, and this prompted universities to create models for future implementation. What the new system will bring and what needs to be done in order to render it fully operational was the focus of the board meeting of the Association of Global Universities, held on February 12 at HSE.

A number of research organizations and universities, including HSE, will be able to establish their own academic degrees, under a decree signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.