HSE University Life

On December 3, 2014, a delegation consisting of some of the largest Chinese universities from the BRICS Universities League visited HSE St. Petersburg. The group included the Vice President of Zhejiang Normal University, the Deputy Dean of Tsinghua University's Institute of International Relations, and leadership from Fudan University's Centre for BRICS Studies.

On December 5, 2014, the winners of the Cultural Marathon, an intellectual quest for HSE students, were honoured at a ceremony at HSE.

The visit by our Chinese partners is an organic part of the agreement between our universities to work together in academic and research fields. This year a group of Chinese students attended an HSE Nizhny Novgorod summer school and in September our students returned from Sichuan province where they were studying Chinese law-enforcement practices.

Each year, HSE holds a competition for the best teacher. For the first time, this year’s elections for the best teachers will be open to foreign students at HSE on academic exchange programmes. Elena Artyukhova and Svetlana Samsonova speak about how voting will be organized for foreign students.

If you are interested in any mountaineering activity, be it skiing or snowboarding then this is the club for you. Every year Extreme Sports Club organizes trips to the mountains, so that everybody can enjoy skiing and snowboarding. From February 21st to March 1st, 2015, the Club is organizing a trip for HSE students, lecturers and staff, as well as their friends to Gudauri, one of the best ski resorts in Georgia. Registration is open until February 16th, 2015.

On December 5,the Coursera: First Results roundtable will be held. Coursera, an international online educational platform, has been used for 12 HSE courses. This first cycle of courses has come to a close, with more than 340,000 students from around the world having signed up for HSE courses so far. Another 10 courses are currently open for registration.

The Vice-Consul of France in Russia, Jean-Pierre Guillerme, was appointed to his position two months ago. This was Jean-Pierre Guillerme’s first time visiting Nizhny Novgorod with his new title. The main purpose of the visit to HSE’s Nizhny Novgorod campus was to meet with Gennady Ryabov, who is the Honorary Consul of the French Republic in Nizhny Novgorod and Advisor to the Director of HSE Nizhny Novgorod.

‘HSE is a new generation university which offers many opportunities to historians in Russia. I’m very happy to be here and I feel that I’m working with like-minded people.’ Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Historical Research Gayle Lonergan talked about her research interests and why she decided to work with HSE St Petersburg.

On December 1, HSE celebrated another anniversary and, according to tradition, awarded the best teachers, researchers, administrative staff, and students with the Golden HSE prize.

On November 20-23, the National Communication Association (NCA) organized its 100^th conference in Chicago. Sergey Zverev, Oleg Kashirskikh, and Nelli Bachurina, all instructors in HSE’s School of Integrated Communications, presented papers at the conference and took part in a panel discussion as well.

This issue continues the series profiling the new HSE Faculties. This time it brings the Faculty of Economics into the spotlight. The Faculty’s Dean, Oleg Zamulin, explains how the faculty was formed and outlines the current major development priorities. The editors also welcome aboard new international professors, who began their work at the university, and draw readers’ attention to the calls for papers for PhD Seminars planned as part of the XVI April International Academic Conference.

Members of HSE’s Academic Council have determined the list of nominees for the university’s highest award, the Golden HSE. In a secret vote, they selected candidates whose names were put forward by the Higher School of Economics’ structural divisions, university staff, and student organizations.