Irina Martusevich

The award ceremony for the winners and runners-up of the first International Software Engineering Olympiad PROD took place in Moscow. It was attended by over 4,000 high school students from all Russian regions and 33 other countries, including Armenia, Brazil, Germany, Georgia, Denmark, Israel, Indonesia, China, Congo, Laos, Liberia, the USA, South Korea, and Japan.

In late January 2026, HSE University hosted a discussion titled ‘Development and Urban Planning: Which Specialists Is the Market Waiting For?’ The event marked the launch of a new Bachelor’s programme in Development and Urban Planning created by the HSE Faculty of Urban and Regional Development in partnership with a consortium of developers, whose key members include MR and A101 Group.

The KIVO Innovations in Education Contest, curated by the Laboratory for Educational Innovation Research at the HSE Institute of Education, is a long-running platform for identifying, supporting and connecting educational innovators. In 2025, the contest once again demonstrated its scale and relevance by attracting a record number of participants and showcasing diverse educational solutions. It reinforced its role as not only a competition, but also a sustainable professional community.

On the eve of the New Year, HSE is once again helping make the dearest wishes of less-fortunate children come true. For several years now, the New Year Tree of Wishes charitable initiative has brought together students, lecturers, and university staff who want to spread a little magic during the winter holidays.

On October 17–19, 2025, the third annual interdisciplinary conference ‘Researching the Deaf Community 2025: on the Periphery of Attention’ took place at GES-2 House of Culture in Moscow. The event was organised with the participation of the HSE International Laboratory for Social Integration Research. HSE University Vice Rector Irina Martusevich addressed attendees at the opening ceremony.

On September 12, 2025, a new Sber classroom was unveiled at HSE’s Pokrovsky Bulvar campus. The venue will host lectures and project seminars, and in their free time, students will be able to use it as a co-working area or as a platform for their own events—from film screenings to intellectual debates.

The St Petersburg International Economic Forum took place on June 18-21, 2025. HSE experts have discussed cooperation between universities, investors, and technology companies in the development of innovations, sharing the best practices in healthcare and drug safety, as well as charity and humanitarian collaboration in the BRICS countries. As a result, several cooperation agreements have been signed during the forum.

On April 16, 2025, the HSE Cultural Centre hosted the opening of the tactile and inclusive exhibition ‘Touch the History of Victory.’ The event is part of the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland, announced by the President of Russia, and commemorates the 80th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945). The exhibition was developed by Vladimir Malyuchkov, a second-year master's student at the HSE Faculty of Creative Industries.

The development and implementation of the project took almost a year. Several planning solutions were proposed and the optimal one was selected quickly. The main tasks to be solved included various scenarios for space utilisation, acoustic comfort, and modern multimedia equipment.

The final stage of the first Russian Olympiad on Industrial Development, PROD, hosted by the Central University, T-Bank, and HSE University, has concluded in Moscow. More than 4,000 students from Russia and 22 other countries, including the UK, Germany, France, Canada, China, Belarus, and Peru, took part.

In the run-up to the New Year, HSE University is participating in the Wish Tree charitable initiative for the third time. The project brings together people eager to do good deeds. Students, professors, and staff can pick a bauble from the tree in the atrium of the Pokrovka campus and fulfil a child’s dream.

A coworking space has been created in HSE Dormitory 8 ‘Trilistnik.’ Students now have access to a unique and comfortable place for exam preparation, networking, and collaborative activities. This is the first branded coworking space in a student dormitory, named Alfa Space.

The Competition of Innovations in Education (KIVO), implemented by HSE University in strategic partnership with Alfa-Bank, announced the first wave of applications. The participants can submit projects developing various innovations in education: methodological and technological developments, art/media projects, training simulators, applications, platforms, devices, board games, events, formats for creating educational materials, organising spaces and interactions, as well as other ideas. The winner of the competition will receive one million roubles, the winners in nominations from the competition partners will receive additional prizes.

Numerous locations of HSE University are buildings of great historical and cultural value, of which Durasov House on Pokrovsky Bulvar is perhaps the most famous. HSE University offers tours of the building for both visitors and students, and for the fourth consecutive year, it is participating in the Days of Historical and Cultural Heritage held in Moscow. In March, HSE University launched a programme of scheduled tours of the building in collaboration with the Museum of Moscow. Research assistants at the Laboratory for Economic Journalism attended the inaugural tour to learn about the university's efforts in preserving its historical heritage and making it accessible to the wider public.

The HSE Cultural Centre recently hosted an awards ceremony for the winners of the PROD Olympiad. This is the first-ever industrial IT-development competition for 9th–11th graders in Russia, organised by HSE University, Tinkoff Bank, and the Central University (Moscow). About 4,000 people from 89 regions of Russia, as well as from Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, China, and Turkmenistan, participated in the qualifying stage, with 43 people emerging as eventual winners.

In order to preserve and promote Moscow’s cultural heritage, HSE University and the Museum of Moscow have signed a cooperation agreement. As part of this partnership, they organise excursions to the Durasov House, an architectural monument of the late XVIII century, which is part of the university building complex on Pokrovsky Bulvar. The first tour will take place on March 30.

This year’s conference topic was ‘Student Experience at a Modern University: from an Enrollee to a Graduate’. Over the three days, researchers from Russia and other countries discussed the individual and institutional factors that determine students' educational experience, the impact of this experience on educational performance, and its influence on labour market success. The conference took place from October 25–27 and featured over 90 presentations.

The regional programme of the VI Heritage Youth Forum, co-organised by HSE University, has opened at Durasov House. The goal of the educational project by the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage is to engage undergraduates, graduate students, and young professionals in work to preserve and integrate cultural monuments into the modern urban space.

Students from the Engineering and Mathematics School, a joint educational programme of HSE University and VK, defended their projects at the VK Moscow office. The students presented technology for generating animated 3D characters, a framework for the PHP language, an open service for creating neural networks and several other innovative IT solutions.

The Master’s Programme ‘Applied Artificial Intelligence Models’ trains professionals with the competencies to create industrial artificial intelligence models capable of solving a wide range of applied tasks. During training, students will study and apply modern methods and means of creating applied models using artificial intelligence technologies.

Irina Martusevich was appointed Vice Rector responsible for HSE University Staff, Elena Odoevskaya was appointed Vice Rector for coordinating HSE digital projects, and Dmitry Zemtsov was also appointed Vice Rector

Sergey Kadochnikov, Director of HSE in St. Petersburg since 2013, has announced his plans to leave his current position. Anna Tyshetskaya, current Vice Rector for Education at Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, will take over as Director of HSE University’s campus in St. Petersburg. Elena Odoevskaya and Irina Martusevich will be appointed HSE Vice Rectors.

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