‘Our Students Will Be Happy to Visit HSE Campuses in Moscow, St Petersburg, and Other Cities’
On September 26, 2024, the HSE Administration held a meeting with a delegation from Azerbaijan at the HSE historic building in Pokrovsky Boulevard—the Durasov House. Representatives from higher educational institutions discussed potential areas of cooperation. An agreement was also signed between HSE University and Baku State University.
Before the meeting officially began, guests were given a tour of the Pokrovka campus building and the Durasov House. The HSE Rector, Nikita Anisimov, welcomed his guests and provided a detailed overview of the university. He highlighted the multidisciplinary nature of HSE, emphasising that, in addition to economic departments, the university also has faculties for mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, computer science, and creative industries, as well as engineering programmes. He noted that HSE is the university of choice for talented applicants not only from Russia but also from other countries around the world. Nikita Anisimov expressed confidence that cooperation with Azerbaijani universities would help create quality academic exchange programmes and student mobility.
Other members of HSE's leadership supported the rector’s words, including Vice Rector, Head of the BRICS Expert Council–Russia, Victoria Panova, Vice Rector and Head of the Laboratory for Labour Market Studies of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, Sergey Roshchin, Dean of the Faculty of Physics, Mikhail Trunin, Deputy Director of the HSE Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM HSE), Veronika Prokhorova, and Director of the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS) at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, Vasily Kashin.
Adalat Jalal Muradov, Rector of the Azerbaijan State University of Economics, welcomed the HSE counterparts and thanked them for the warm reception. He introduced his university: ‘We have over 20,000 students. We offer educational programmes in several languages, including 10 double-degree programmes.’
He also noted that the Azerbaijan State University of Economics sees a demand for education in Russian and the creation of new joint programmes, including those online, which could increase the attractiveness of their educational offerings.
‘We could consider creating a joint faculty if you are interested. I am ready to transfer all authority to HSE University within this faculty. Our students will be happy to come to Moscow, St Petersburg, and other cities,’ Adalat Jalal Muradov stated confidently.
Elchin Safarali oghlu Babayev, Rector of Baku State University, pointed out that HSE is known not only for the quality of its education and research but also for its infrastructure. ‘We are interested in cooperation; we need to move forward and expand the horizons of interaction. We are interested in your scholars and professors teaching at our university,’ he said.
At the same time, the Rector of Baku State University emphasised that HSE’s full Russian name ‘Higher School of Economics’ does not fully reflect the variety of educational programmes and levels of education available at the university. ‘The university could be called the Higher School of All Sciences,’ stated Elchin Safarali oghlu Babayev.
Yashar Adil Omarov, Rector of Azerbaijan Technological University, expressed a desire to create double-degree programmes with Russian universities, including HSE. ‘We have a faculty of economics and management, where we could establish cooperation. We also have programmes in design and IT,’ he noted.
The Azerbaijani delegation expressed interest not only in launching double-degree programmes but also in joint publications.
At the end of the official part of the meeting, HSE and Baku State University signed a cooperation agreement.