On May 22, Forbes Education released its updated ranking of the 100 best universities in Russia for 2025. HSE University retained its second-place position, having established itself as the university with the highest employer reputation. Among the top 20 were 12 universities from Moscow, three from St Petersburg, two from Tatarstan, and one each from the Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, and Tomsk regions.

On May 17, the eleventh Oriental Crazy Day, organised by the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, took place at the HSE Cultural Centre. Anyone interested in Asian Studies, culture and languages, as well as admission to HSE University could take part in the event. Students and teachers of the university prepared master classes, quizzes and contests, K-pop dancing and kabuki theatre, Asian songs and poetry for all the participants.

The use of mathematical models helps create new diagnostic tools and train neural networks to assist clinicians. Researchers from HSE University and colleagues from Saratov State Medical University are engaged in this work as part of the Mirror Laboratories project. In this interview, Natalya Stankevich, Senior Research Fellow at the International Laboratory of Dynamical Systems and Applications of the HSE Campus in Nizhny Novgorod, talks about what the collaboration has achieved so far.

HSE University–St Petersburg has launched International Partners' Week, which brings together more than 100 representatives of leading global universities. The grand opening ceremony took place on May 20 in the new HSE building on Vasilievsky Island.

On May 20, HSE University hosted an official delegation from Sichuan University headed by President Wang Jinsong. During the meeting, the universities signed a cooperation agreement. The participants discussed key areas of partnership, including the launch of a double-degree programme, academic mobility, as well as potential cooperation in international relations and mathematics.

The 5th Open Mathematical Olympiad for University Students (OMOUS-2025) took place in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, attracting teams from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Iran, Romania, Poland, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, and India. In total, around 500 students took part in the event.

School and university students from across Russia came to HSE University to take on the roles of representatives of various countries and international organisations. Over the course of several days, they participated in debates, striving to reach mutual understanding with other delegations and to find solutions to global issues.

The expansion of ‘happycracy’ into everyday life unfolds against the backdrop of a diktat of positive thinking, mindfulness, and self-improvement. Yet researchers point to the hidden traps in the pursuit of happiness. Why can being happy sometimes be dangerous? Maria Kucheryavaya, sociologist and visiting lecturer at the HSE School of Communication, reflects on this in her column for IQ Media.

The 25th Yasin (April) International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development brought together leading Russian and Western scientists. Among the guests was Jose Luis Cordeiro, PhD, international fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, Chair of the Millennium Project's Venezuela node, former professor at MIPT and HSE University, and author of The Death of Death.