• A
  • A
  • A
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
Regular version of the site
  • HSE University
  • News
  • HSE Institute of Education Now Able to Nominate Projects for Yidan Prize

HSE Institute of Education Now Able to Nominate Projects for Yidan Prize


Photo: yidanprize.org

The HSE Institute of Education has been authorised to nominate projects for the largest annual prize awarded in the field of education, the 2019 Yidan Prize. The size of the prize is nearly four times that of the Nobel Prize, with $3.87 million being awarded in two categories – education research and education development.

The nomination process for the 2019 prize will begin in September and last until March of next year. The two categories are open both to individual teachers and researchers, as well as to teams of up to three people. According to the competition’s evaluation criteria, the projects must be innovative, transformative, sustainable, and future-oriented. Former UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura will chair the jury in both nomination categories.

Now, the HSE Institute of Education is able to nominate an unlimited number of projects for the prize. Several conditions apply, however: a project description must be submitted in English, two expert reviews should be attached to the application, and late projects are not accepted.

‘The nominating organisations are the foundation of the Yidan Prize,’ notes project manager Brian Lee in a letter confirming HSE’s right to nominate projects. ‘We believe that only international cooperation will allow for the best minds in education to be chosen and awarded. And this way, more people will be able to benefit from their ideas.’

The Yidan Prize, which was founded and is currently financed by Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist Chen Yidan, has been given out since 2017. According to Institute of Education Academic Supervisor Isak Froumin, this prize allows education researchers to join a higher scientific league of international prizes for the first time ever. Being nominated is an honour and comes with responsibility. The first recipients of the Yidan Prize were Vicky Colbert from Colombia (for education development) and Carol Dweck from the U.S. (for education research).

Vicky Colbert, as Colombia’s Vice-Minister of Education, came up with the ‘new school’ model as a way of developing education in rural areas experiencing a severe lack of teachers. The model gives children of different ages the opportunity to study in a single group, but as part of different programmes. Older students are able to help younger ones, and an instructor moderates the entire process. Now more than 5 million children in 14 countries study under the model, and the programme is recognised by UNESCO and the World Bank.

Stanford Professor Carol Dweck has studied issues surrounding motivation in education for more than 35 years. She believes that in order for students to realise their full potential, they need to believe their abilities can be developed (and are not an innate gift). They must also focus on the process of acquiring knowledge, and not on the final result. She called this approach the ‘growth mindset.’ Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Successhas been translated into 25 languages.

Winners of the 2018 prize will be announced in September, and the awards ceremony is set to take place in December. According to the competition’s rules, laureates can only spend half of the awarded funds on their own needs, while the rest must be invested in an educational project.

See also:

XIV International Conference on Higher Education Took Place at HSE University

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.

HSE University: Moving Towards 2030 Goals

Okna Rosta, HSE University's bulletin, published a two-part interview with Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov about HSE’s Development Strategy this fall, and The HSE Look is glad to present it to our English-speaking audience as well.

Impact of Education Quality Research on Policy Is Not as Significant as You Might Think

At a seminar held at HSE as part of the Days of the International Academy of Education in Moscow, Professor Gustavo E. Fishman (University of Arizona) likened international comparative studies of education quality to horse racing and discussed how these studies do not have as significant an impact on educational policy as is commonly believed.

Russian Schools Are Changing Rapidly, But Not Always for the Better

According to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) entitled Measuring Innovation in Education 2019: What Has Changed in the Classroom?, Russia ranked among the top three countries where schools are changing most rapidly.