Maria M. Yudkevich

In last days of July the Russian government was discussing a bill to increase the period of graduate study from 3 to 4 years. The project proposes to amend the federal law “On Higher and Postgraduate Professional Education”, in regard to training for a number of technical and natural sciences industries. Proponents justify the proposal by the fact that a number of disciplines (particularly in technical and natural sciences) require mandatory experimental validation of the theoretical results. Also, an additional year of postgraduate studies may increase the likelihood that students will create experimental equipment and/or use it for implementing research findings into industrial practice.

From July 2 – 7, 2016, the 10th Russian Summer School on Institutional Analysis (RSSIA) took place just outside of Moscow. This event traditionally attracts experts in various areas of institutional research, as well as young researchers, for whom the School is a chance to work on projects under the supervision of leading scholars.

In January 2016, six university research centres representing countries in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa came together to form an international consortium whose main objective is to develop a strategy for carrying out comparative higher education research in various regions around the world.

Academic and expert in the field of international higher education, Philip Altbach has been made Honorary Professor in a ceremony at HSE. Altbach began to study education in his youth because he believed it was a key factor to bring about change in society. Is it possible to take educational models which work well in some countries and copy them in others without making any alterations? What good are rankings and what shouldn’t we sacrifice for their sake? What gives HSE its competitive edge? Professor Altbach talked about all these issues in an interview with HSE News.

On December 7, the sixth meeting of the HSE International Advisory Committee opened with leading experts from around the world in the field of science and education coming together to discuss the university’s achievements and the challenges it faces, as well as its objectives for the coming years. Following two days of discussions, the committee members will form recommendations on changes to the primary areas of development.

From September 15 to 18, 2015, a delegation from HSE took part in The Annual EAIE Conference for the second time. This year international experts in higher education gathered in Glasgow.

On September 7-9 The Annual Conference of The Consortium of higher education Researchers / CHER 28th Annual Conference took place in Lisbon, Portugal. This year’s theme was ‘Global Challenges, National Initiatives, and Institutional Responses – The Transformation of Higher Education’. The participants discussed recent transformations in higher education: what global challenges the universities face and how to cope with these challenges.

In the Moscow Region, the ninth Russian Summer School on Institutional Analysis (RSSIA) was held recently, bringing together 26 young researchers from Italy, Montenegro, the Philippines, Macedonia, Great Britain, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia. During the programme, they addressed problems concerning the economics of education, financial institutions, the public sector, and the theory of industrial markets.

On June 26, the HSE Academic Council approved the opening of two new international laboratories. Specifically, the St. Petersburg School of Economics and Management will gain a laboratory for the study of healthcare economics, management, and policy, as well as a laboratory for game theory and decision-making. The labs' academic supervisors will be renowned international scholars.

On May 30, the HSE held a conference dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the International Research Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms (LIA) and the 5th anniversary of the Centre for Institutional Studies (CInSt). Maria Yudkevich, director of the LIA, spoke about how and why the laboratory and centre were established, the research they conduct and what guests experienced at the conference.

HSE is starting a survey of articles and comments made by staff in the foreign press, in blogs and social media. The Office of Public Relations and Online Media will gather the data.

HSE has entered the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2015 in the top 51-100 in Development Studies, and is the only Russian university in this category.

The Higher School of Economics is among the top four universities ranked by the Council on Enhancing the Competitiveness of Russia’s Leading Universities. HSE is the only university participating in the project to have kept its leading position in the ranking. The university’s Vice Rector, Maria Yudkevich, who also presented HSE’s Roadmap at the Council’s meeting in Tomsk, talks about how the university was able to achieve this and describes what HSE has set as its priorities in the next stage of the fight to enter the list of the world’s strongest universities.

In early 2015 Palgrave Macmillan will publish Academic Inbreeding and Mobility in Higher Education based on the results of a joint project by the HSE Centre for Institutional Studies and the Centre for International Higher Education, Boston College. Their conclusions were published in brief in an article on the Times Higher Education website.

Applications continue to be accepted for the Golden HSE, the university’s main prize. We asked those who have either nominated candidates or who have received the award themselves about what it means for them personally and for the university.

On October 16-18, the 5th International Conference of the Russian Association of Higher Education Researchers took place at the Higher School of Economics. The theme of this year's conference was 'Managing Differentiation in Rapidly Changing Higher Education Systems: Challenges and Opportunities.'

Is the number of minutes each participant of the 8^th Russian Summer School on Institutional Analysis had to present their research project.

Between June 28 and July 4, the Russian Summer School on Institutional Analysis (RSSIA 2014) took place near Moscow (RSSIA2014). Aside from the theoretical and practical aspects of institutional economics, also discussed were issues related to the development and presentation of academic research.

For the first time at HSE’s St. Petersburg campus, the annual meeting of HSE’s International Advisory Committee (IAC) took place on May 23-24. As is tradition, the discussion focused mainly on the HSE’s development as an international university.

At a meeting of HSE’s Academic Council on May 30, Evgeny Yasin was reelected as the university’s academic supervisor, and Alexander Shokhin — as HSE’s president.

On March 13, 2014, the HSE Center for Institutional Studies held a seminar to discuss the role of the joint comparative studies being carried out by universities in various countries to measure national systems of higher education. Philip Altbach, Research Professor and Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, USA, took part. Later, in an interview for the HSE News Service, he shared his experiences conducting joint research with Russian universities.

On March 14, 2014, the HSE is running a workshop ‘Biology and Behaviour in a Political Economy’. John Nye, Academic Supervisor at the International Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms, HSE which is organising the workshop, spoke to the HSE English-language News Portal about working at the HSE in this research area.

Starting this year, the HSE is publishing a Russian-language version of ‘International Higher Education’ – a quarterly published by Boston College, USA.

On February 28, 2014, the HSE Academic Council approved the creation of a number of new international laboratories at the university.

On January 31, 2014, at the HSE, the first meeting took place of university representatives participating in the global competitiveness programme 5/100. The group discussed the problems of recruiting lecturers from the international labour market.

On October 23^rd 2012, the latest in a series of regular seminars ‘Topical research and development in education’ took place at the HSE Institute for Educational Studies. Martin Finkelstein, Professor at Seton Hall University (USA), spoke on ‘How the national context influences professors’ academic achievements and careers: a comparative analysis’.

From October 18^th – 20^th the annual Russian Association of Higher Education Researchers conference on ‘ The Birth and Rebirth of Universities’ will take place at the HSE. A seminar for heads of young international universities will take place as part of the conference.

On May 30^th the third annual meeting of the Higher School of Economics International Advisory Committee (IAC) opened at the HSE.

For over a year now John Nye, professor of George Mason University (USA), has been heading the HSE International Laboratory of Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms. During his most recent visit to Moscow, Professor Nye told the HSE reporter about how the laboratory’s work is organized and what staff it needs, as well as about its research and new courses, some of which will be launched in May.

On October 28^th and 29^th the 2nd International Conference of Higher Education Researchers ‘Universities and State’ took place at the Higher School of Economics. The event was organized by the Russian Association for Tertiary Education Research with the support of the HSE.

On September 26^th a meeting between the administration of the Higher School of Economics and international lecturers and researchers took place at the HSE. The aim of the event was to discuss various organizational, legal and academic aspects of their work at the HSE.

In late 2010 – early 2011 international research laboratories which are jointly headed by prominent international researchers and leading experts of the university started their work at the Higher School of Economics. Maria Yudkevich, HSE Vice Rector, told us about the specifics of the research and educational work of the HSE international laboratories.

On May 30^th a meeting of the International Advisory Committee of the HSE Development Programme took place at the HSE. The committee was formed in early 2010 and this was its first full assembly.