Projects, Machine Learning, and Online Lectures

On February 11, Dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, Sergey Pekarski, held a meeting with students on the changes in teaching of economic sciences at HSE. HSE Life tells you how the faculty will switch to a project-based approach and what disciplines will appear in the near future.

Project approach

In common with the rest of the university, the Faculty of Economic Sciences will switch to a new educational standard. For the next academic year, students will be able to choose between research and project seminars.

‘Some students are keen on fundamental knowledge, and research seminars in the second and fourth year of studies, during which articles and research activity are discussed, contribute to this, ’ explains Sergey Pekarski. Some students need a different approach, as they tend to focus on practice-oriented topics.

 ‘We want to build a structure that helps students to determine what they need. We will offer a range of seminars, some of which will be more fundamental and research oriented, while others will be related to applied tasks, what we call ‘project seminars’.’

This approach will not only help students to choose the appropriate track, but to focus more on one topic. ‘When a student has a project on one topic, a research seminar on another one, and a term paper on a third, this results in a dilution of efforts and a less tangible result in each field,’ explains the Dean.

Now those students who have chosen a fundamental track will not have to deal with an applied project, and those students who are more interested in project work will be able to prepare a practice-oriented study as a term paper. In addition, starting this year, students will be able to defend term papers as a team project.

The projects that students can participate in will be announced in April and May.

Changes in the curriculum

The faculty administration is also discussing how much time in the curriculum should be given over to self-study. ‘Most colleagues are likely to agree that the amount of self-study activity should be quite large, because in the modern world, a lecturer as a knowledge transmitter is meaningless, with education having other goals,’ adds Pekarski.

The Dean noted that the tendency to reduce the academic load should become an integral part of the faculty development, the only question is how to do it. One of the options is switching to mixed learning and using different online courses. Sergey Pekarski emphasized that they plan only on a partial use of online education in order to reduce classroom load and make education more effective.

 ‘I assume that among students the idea of HSE’s switching to mixed online learning will find as many positive and negative responses as among teachers. I would like to understand what risks students see in switching to the mixed approach,’ he added.

The development of competencies related to data science

Economics students will learn more about the digital economy. ‘We have held talks with the Faculty of Computer Science, and next year our students will study the ‘Machine learning’ course,’ says Sergey Pekarski. He added that there will probably be a competitive selection process for the course.

The Dean also said that next year there will be a course with examples of using machine learning methods in economics. The curriculum will also feature two new disciplines: ‘Digital platform economics’ and ‘Digital elements in the HR management economy’.

The administration of the Faculty of Economic Sciences is keen to get student feedback about these changes. If you have any questions or ideas, you can send them to the faculty student council or come to the Dean's meeting with students.

February 12, 2020