‘The University Needs People Who Believe in It’

On September 15, HSE Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov met with Student Council representatives. More details on what they discussed follows.

The Student Council summarized its interim achievements in 2020, presented its management structure – committee heads, their initiatives and tasks – and talked about the projects they plan to implement.

Education Quality Committee (EQC)

Ekaterina Vasenyova, head of the committee, presented a model of the student council’s interaction with teaching assistants and discussed the projects they implemented on proctoring, as well as online courses and core curriculum disciplines. The committee analysed students’ critical scores on TQA (teaching quality assessment) and used them to prepare recommendations for the study offices.

Each year the EQC monitors the programmes and course syllabi, and verifies their compliance with the Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at HSE University. There is also an ongoing project with minors and MAGOLEGO (elective courses for master’s students) that creates informational materials for first-year bachelor’s and master’s students, which help them make informed choices.

Th rector advised the student council to summarize students’ experiences with their minors and MAGOLEGO courses to evaluate not only their compliance with the regulation, but also the students’ preferences, the courses’ user-friendliness, and the feasibility of the programmes.

The EQC’s upcoming projects are related to antiplagiarism (informing students about problems and creating educational materials), teaching and digital assistants, and the ‘New concept of English language teaching.’

Kuzminov said that with plagiarism, it is important to take a close look at controversial cases. He proposed creating an initiative group that could describe them: ‘This way, we can help ourselves and others,’ he emphasized.

Research Committee

Timofey Berezner, head of the committee, spoke about two key areas of its work. The first is work with students who are already involved in research – as staff members, research assistants hired via the Fair or the Science Republic. The second is aimed at involving other students in research.

The committee will analyse the results of the recent project group competition and make suggestions to improve future competitions. In addition, it has already started working on an aggregator of research departments and laboratories for students, as well as the Academic Writing School. Together with the Centre for Student Academic Development, the Committee is beginning to work on a research mentorship programme.

The committee’s plans include the creation of a guide for student researchers, a research project on students’ problems in laboratories, and a unified record-keeping system for student publications.

Kuzminov said that applied projects must be included in the Research Committee’s work plan, since they will be relevant for most students in future. He also assessed the research mentorship project and emphasized that this creative work will be interesting both for students and teachers. He proposed that a meeting of research mentors be organized.

The rector also talked about working papers. He believes that publishing students’ research as working papers will create a ‘training platform’ and a convenient way for students to start writing, editing, and defending their research papers. He asked the Student Council to articulate its position on this issue.

Structure of the Student Council

Ivan Torubarov, head of the executive office, presented the other Student Council committees­­ – Social, Legal, Information, External Communications, and Dorms – and talked about their various tasks.

Student Council representatives discussed their plans to form a Doctoral Student Council at the next elections in December. They also focused on how leadership roles on the council are allocated. Currently, there is no chair. The representatives believe that a sustainable system is being formed in the chair’s absence, which is able to function independently of people’s transitions inside the council. Today, the chair’s functions are distributed among three individuals: speaker Olga Popova, executive office director Ivan Torubarov, and secretary Kirill Kuvivchak. They spoke about their responsibilities and tasks.

The secretariat also proposed that the issue of disciplinary action be considered, suggesting that consideration of such cases be delegated to local student councils completely or that a disciplinary committee be formed as part of the Student Council, which would focus on such considerations. The secretary requested that the university administration help the Student Council with such changes.

Yaroslav Kuzminov said that he agreed with the idea of creating a disciplinary committee and suggested that it could resolve issues in cases when the opinions of the local student council and the faculty administration differ.

The rector emphasized that questions on the student council structure should be decided inside the council, but he also recommended that the student council maintain more active interaction with the Academic Council by participating in its sessions and inviting their representatives.

The Role of the Student Council in Upcoming Changes

Speaking about the council structure, Rector said that in future, the Student Council will have to deal more with issues concerning accommodation. Starting in 2021, HSE University will be switching to a new model of accommodation at dorms. It will be important to make sure that students’ interests are considered during this transition and to build the management of this process. In addition to traditional accommodation at dorms, a housing model will also be developed at the university, which will also be a concern for the Student Council, which will need a Housing Committee that is separate from the Dorms Committee.

Yaroslav Kuzminov asked the Council to take an active role in the big upcoming changes in the educational process: the transition to project-based learning, educational consulting, and coaching. He asked them to become authoritative ‘educational critics’, whose expert opinion is valuable for the students who create their individual study tracks when educational choices are expanding.

September 16, 2020