Education news at HSE University

Today’s publication of four international subject area rankings in the life sciences, physical sciences, psychology, and medical and health sciences by the Times Higher Education (THE) marks the end of this year’s rankings cycle, which includes the four major world rankings—THE, QS, ARWU, and U.S. News & World Report.

This fall, Madhavi Karunarathne came to HSE University from Sri Lanka, where she earned her bachelor’s in finance at the University of Colombo. She is now beginning her studies in the Master’s Programme ‘Strategic Corporate Finance’. The new master’s student came through Russia’s Open Doors Scholarship Project for international prospective master’s students, which allows scholarship recipients to study at one of 21 participating Russian universities tuition-free. Madhavi spoke with HSE News Service about why she chose HSE, what it was like to participate in the Open Doors Scholarship competition, and how she is liking her studies.

For 12 days, students and teachers of the HSE School of Asian Studies travelled across the Republic of Bashkortostan. The trip was organized as part of the Rediscover Russia project. HSE News Service spoke with participants of the trip about their immersion in  Russian Islamic culture.

Over the last several years, hackathons have gone from being competitions for geeks to a must-have line on the resume of almost any job seeker. HSE University students are participating in these kinds of competitions more and more often, and they sometimes even organize their own. Alexander Popovkin, head of HSE’s Hacking Club, spoke with HSE News Service about the benefits and drawbacks of hackathons.

HSE Lyceum senior Dmity Shcheglov was the first Lyceum student to participate in the international Chinese studies competition, which was held in Zhengzhou from October 17 to November 3. He placed among the top ten finalists from Europe.

HSE took 94^th place in the THE ranking in Business & Economics, outperforming all the other Russian universities in this subject. In addition, the university entered the ranking in Law for the first time (151+ cohort), becoming the only Russian university represented there.

Students of the HSE and University of London Parallel Degree Programme in International Relations earned some of the highest scores worldwide on the exams that the University of London administers at its foreign partner universities.

Of the original 300 students enrolled in doctoral programmes set to graduate this year, only 126 reached the final stage of the process—the dissertation defence. While congratulating the recent class of graduates, HSE Vice Rector Vyacheslav Bashev noted that such a large attrition rate testifies to the seriousness of those who have made it to graduation. ‘Though many of you work, you continue to invest in yourselves intellectually,’ he said.