22 Years of HSE: A Retrospective

 

As we celebrate this year’s anniversary of HSE, we will not recall everything that has happened with the university since it was founded; its milestones have been recounted numerous times already. We will instead tell you about the most important things that have happened this year.

Start of the year. In the spring of 2014, the Faculty of Computer Science was created together with Yandex. In the new academic year, the faculty was nicknamed the ‘Faculty of Olympiads’ given that it is has the largest proportion of HSE Olympiad winners.

Reform of the year. At the beginning of the year, the Higher School of Economics began undergoing structural changes involving the creation of ‘big’ faculties that combined teaching and research departments in related areas. Such ‘big’ HSE faculties include the Faculty of Computer Science, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Faculty of Management, Faculty of Communications, Media and Design, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Mathematics, Faculty of Law, and the Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM).

 

Report of the year. In April 2014, the XV April International Academic Conference took place in Moscow. A major conference held by the university, some 1,800 researchers were in attendance, and foreign participants accounted for 20% of the presentations. The share of researchers from HSE in the conference programme was slightly less than 45%, while that of Russian researchers not affiliated with HSE exceeded 35%.

Equation of the year. HSE has strengthened its position in the world of mathematics. The International Laboratory of Representation Theory and Mathematical Physics was established in the Faculty of Mathematics, headed by its Academic Supervisor, Andrey Okounkov, winner of the Fields Medal. The laboratory’s research focuses on a variety of issues at the interface between the theory of integrable systems and representation theory of quantum and infinite-dimensional groups and algebras.

 

Hero of the year. Evgeny Yasin, noted Academic Supervisor at HSE, celebrated his 80th birthday on May 7, 2014. In his congratulatory message, HSE Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov said: ‘Your university – no, the entire intellectual community of free-thinking people in Russia – is 21 years old, which is perhaps the most important accomplishment in your life. Or maybe not! After all, you are so young in both spirit and intellect that you may well have another project ahead…You have the good fortune of a positive person. You have gathered and excelled where many others have fiddled away and seen emptiness. You have found the strength to change, to accept what is new where others have become closed off and stiffened. Nothing has been wasted; you have thoroughly sought out true value in the debris of daily work. And today, we are richer because we are part of your family, and we are able to make use of what you have done.’

Click of the year. This year, HSE became a partner of the Coursera online educational platform. HSE teachers have already prepared 22 courses for it, with enrolment of more than 300,000 people.

 

International of the year. This year, HSE held its first Summer University for foreign students. For six weeks 42 students from 11 countries studied topics offered in the following subject blocks: Society and History, Political Science and International Relations, Economics, and Culture. Foreign students took anywhere between two and 12 credits that were then granted by their home universities. Likewise, similar summer sessions are organized in foreign universities.

Goal of the year. In collaboration with FIFA’s International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), the Higher School of Economics launched the Sport Management Programme. The programme is designed for practicing sport managers, university graduates who would like to apply their management skills to sport, and public officials at various levels who are responsible for sport. The best final group projects that are presented and defended during the programme will be able to take part in the CIES worldwide competition. The winners of the contest will present their work in Switzerland at a meeting with the leadership of FIFA.

 

Celebration of the year. There were only two events in this ‘category.’ The first was HSE Day, which was held this year for the third time. On September 10, the Higher School of Economics turned Gorky Park into a university campus where people could find out about modern university life, learn and have fun. Eight hours of conversation, music, lectures, workshops, sports and intellectual games on 30 sites brought 50,000 visitors to the event.

On November 3-4, HSE took part in the citywide Night of the Arts event. For several hours, Myasnitskaya Street became a pedestrian zone and turned into a single art space with a theatre, cinema, museum, concert hall, painting school, as well as a dance and poetry studio.

Building of the year. There were two ‘winners’ in this category, as before. In February, the long-awaited opening of the building at 11 Myasnitskaya took place. Eleven divisions of the university are located there.

In November, a new MIEM building equipped with the most modern research equipment was opened in Strogino. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called it ‘one of the best university buildings not only in our city, but also in Russia.’

 

Addition of the year. This year, the HSE Lyceum took in almost seven times as many students as in the previous year. The Lyceum was established in 2013 for students in grades 10-11. The school first accepted 58 people for the 10th grade, but in 2014, 400 10th graders were accepted. Starting this year, students choose one of six areas of study: social and economic, humanities, mathematics and computer science, law, Asian studies, and design. Lyceum students set up their own individual educational plans and determine to what degree they will study a subject – basic or in-depth (in-depth study is mandatory in key subject areas).

Surprise of the year. In the July edition of the Webometrics world university ranking, HSE was among the top 10 most open universities, moving from 72nd place to 8th. In November, the HSE website received the Internet Media Awards prize in the category of ‘Best Corporate Media.’ This award was established by the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) together with Russian radio station Echo of Moscow (Ekho Moskvy), and this was the first year it was given out.