HSE University Life

Geography of HSE University provides ample opportunities to experience and learn about nearly half of the country, and without understanding each of the campuses with their unique features there is no way to fully understand the idea of HSE on the whole. Last year The HSE Look began a series of articles focusing in-depth on each campus, starting with HSE St. Petersburg, university’s 2nd largest campus, and we would like to continue the series with devoting the summer issue to HSE Nizhniy Novgorod.

Сommunity, and an actively engaged one at that, is a vital part of university life. From the large-scale events which are part of the institution’s brand to the grass-root initiatives, everything thrives on genuine and shared interest, and in this issue of The HSE Look the editors would like to share several stories which might inspire to join the existing projects or start new ones.

The HSE Academic Council approved a new regulation on Research Productivity Assessment (RPA) at its November session. Dmitry Dagaev, Deputy Vice Rector and Associate Professor of the HSE Department of Higher Mathematics, who is responsible for coordinating evaluations of research activities, talked with The HSE Look about the role of RPA at our university and the changes that will be introduced in 2018.

In the 34th issue of The HSE Look presents St. Petersburg campus in an interview with its Director Sergey Kadochnikov and with DAAD long-term Associate Professor at the School of History, Dietmar Wulff. As per tradition, The HSE Look gives brief introductions of the new tenure-track faculty which joined HSE this September. In this issue the editors are launching a new feature: a column ‘Discovering HSE and Russia’ written by international faculty for their colleagues so as to help them explore the rich cultural and geographical variety offered by Russian cities.

With HSE turning 25 this year, The HSE Look will be telling more about HSE’s outstanding projects, and in its 33rd issue we are focusing on International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF), which is perhaps best known for its successful double degree Bachelor’s programme with the University of London. In addition to the interview with ICEF Director, Sergey Yakovlev, in which he speaks about ICEF history, achievements and future plans, the readers will also learn about ICEF team, its study programmes, research, special opportunities for talented students, as well as about the extracurricular work with students and international cooperation.

Adapting to a new university environment can be a difficult process, especially with such a thing as teaching classes, where not only teacher’s own abilities but also formal requirements and the academic culture of the institution come into play. In previous issues of The HSE Look (October 2015, May 2014, September 2013) we covered different aspects of teaching at HSE, such as the module system, assessment regulations, syllabus design, finding teaching assistants and using electronic Learning Management System.

Each year HSE hires post-doctoral researchers, accepting applications from all over the world, and they join various laboratories and centres. Some of them kindly provided additional information about their research interests and background, and The HSE Look continues the tradition of introducing HSE’s new international faculty and researchers.

In its 30th issue The HSE Look is focusing on the latest developments in research and teaching strategies at HSE. It provides a brief overview of Strategic Academic Unites and introduces the new post-doc researchers and their topics of interest. Concerning the teaching process, The HSE Look presents a new funding opportunity for inviting colleagues to share the best teaching practices, as well as teaching advice from international faculty members who’ve been at HSE for several years.

As with every year, The HSE Look continues its tradition of welcoming newly recruited international faculty. Several of them have kindly provided a short summary about themselves. Everyone can be found on the HSE website should you need to learn more about your colleagues and are interested in discussing potential collaboration.

In April 2016 HSE Academic Council approved the new regulations for awarding performance bonuses to faculty members who are selected by students and alumni as the best teachers of the year. University bulletin 'Okna Rosta' prepared a long-read about the history of the project and the changes in how the best teachers are selected, and The HSE Look is glad to offer the English version to its readers.

In its 28th issue of The HSE Look presents the Faculty of Communications, Media and Design through interviews with its Deputy Deans and Professors. With the end of the academic year comes the time of HSE Best Teacher Award, and The HSE Look shares the new procedures and tips from awardees of previous years with the English-speaking readers. Additionally, the bulletin presents the upcoming short-term visits of guest scholars to HSE and invites international faculty members to give a short public lecture at HSE Day in September.

In its 27th  issue The HSE Look presents the work of the Scientometrics Centre and how research results are measured at HSE. The issue also continues the tradition of interviews with international faculty and visiting scholars: five of them talk about their research and teaching projects in Moscow, Perm and Nizhniy Novgorod, and guests and speakers from the April Conference share their impressions of HSE’s flagship conference.