‘We want our students to be better than we are and more knowledgeable than we are’
Iftekhar Hasan, Professor of Finance and Economics at Fordham University and Managing Editor of the Journal of Financial Stability, recently led a workshop for fourth-year undergraduate students in the HSE’s Faculty of Economics on ‘Banks and Banking Operations’. Professor Hasan's research interests cover financial institutions, corporate finance, capital markets and entrepreneurial finance, among other areas.
For the workshop, students prepared their own presentations on topics such as bank competition, corporate governance and bank performance, which Professor Hasan graded. Following the workshop, he spoke with the HSE news service about the experience and his approach to teaching.
— How long have you been working with the HSE?
— I first started working with the HSE in 2007. Since then, Professor Vasiliy Solodkov, Director of the HSE Banking Institute, and I regularly meet at conferences where we share information.
— What do you enjoy about collaborating with HSE students and evaluating their work?
— The academic exchange, research seminars, student exchange – everything that helps us avoid international barriers that may exist due to certain global situations.
I enjoy the heterogeneity of knowledge, sharing knowledge, and exposure to knowledge – all of this gives a basis for a better understanding of the problems and for making better decisions. I am not the first who has said this, but I consider it my duty to work in this field.
Finally, I love meeting with university students from different countries. These workshops have taken place in Moscow, France, Italy, Finland, Chile and other countries. The more diverse young people’s knowledge is and the more variety there is to their sources of information, the better their education will be and the more benefit they will be able to bring to their countries.
— What was your impression of the work presented by students from the Faculty of Economics?
— The students demonstrated a high level of training and openness to new approaches. I sincerely congratulate them and their instructors on the high quality of the presentations. I advise all of them to keep studying and earn their Ph.D.
— What motto do you follow in your work?
— As professors, we are the intellectual parents of our students, and we want our children to be more successful. We want our students be better than we are and more knowledgeable than we are. This is why we work. I believe that there should be as much ‘foreign teacher – student’ interaction as possible around the world. I regret that I do not have an entire week free to work with students at the HSE.
Our undergraduates were very serious in preparing their presentations, which affected the quality. Working with international experts in seminars like this gives students the opportunity not only to listen to foreign professors, but also to ask questions and engage in debate.
HSE News Service
See also:
‘Client-Oriented Approach to Our International Applicants’
HSE Rector Nikita Anisimov joined the university in July 2021. In an exclusive interview to RBC he spoke about the important events that have happened at HSE University since then, whether it was necessary to quit the Bologna system, and how to attract international students to Russian universities. Here, HSE News Service publishes some of the highlights of this interview.
Five Questions for the Rector
Forbes Russia Education talked to HSE University’s new Rector, Nikita Anisimov, about the key difficulties and challenges facing the university, areas of future development, the unique culture of Russian universities and whether a change of administration impacts it, whether universities should change in response to the times, the importance of internationalization and its use to students. HSE News Service offers a translation of the interview.
‘There Will Be No Mass Closures’—HSE Rector Kuzminov on Future Trends in Education
In a TASS interview, Rector Kuzminov discusses digitalization, society, and what the next 10 years hold for HSE
Objectivity and Beyond
What role has objectivity played in the history of science and what role does it play today? How are innovations in science possible? What is the interrelation between research practices, epistemic virtues, and the scientific self? Alex Pleshkov and Jan Surman discuss these and many other questions with Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, the authors of Objectivity, one of the most important books of the 21st century in the field of the history of knowledge.
A New Educational Model, Streamlined Schedule, and Distance Learning
In an interview with HSE News Service, HSE Vice Rector Sergey Roshchin discussed HSE University’s transition to distance learning, what changes students can expect in the next academic year, and why digital skills are important even for students in the humanities.
Advancing Medieval Studies in Halle
Mikhail Boytsov, Professor in the HSE’s Faculty of History, recently held the Christan Wolff professorship at the Martin Luther University in Halle and Wittenberg. He spoke with the HSE news service about his experience working in Germany and his plans for future research.
Yaroslav Kuzminov: ‘In the next generation, Russia will produce a constellation of widely cited researchers in sociology, economics, and political science’
HSE Rector Yaroslav Kusminov gave a special interview to Dmitry Grishankov, CEO of Expert RA Rating Agency.
Highest Ranked European Computer Scientist Joins HSE as Academic Supervisor of International Laboratory of Process-Aware Information Systems
HSE’s International Laboratory of Process-Aware Information Systems (PAIS lab) was established in January 2013 and is supervised by Professor Wil van der Aalst. In fact, Professor Van der Aalst is the highest ranked European computer scientist (according to Google Scholar). On April 15, 2013 he is giving a lecture in the PAIS lab seminar series. We used this opportunity to ask him some questions.
Vasiliy Solodkov
Director, HSE Banking Institute