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HSE has been offering courses in Asian Studies for 10 years now with numerous departments and programmes producing research in the field and offering in-depth courses. In December 2019, the HSE Academic Council approved the opening of a Joint Department with the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOS RAS). How will the IOS RAS transfer its vast experience and resource to its new home at HSE? And what traditions in the study and teaching of Asian studies already exist at HSE?

Unlike many other countries, Russian children’s educational path is decided from an early age. Starting with the first grade, parents try to send their children to schools where they can remain until they graduate after either the 9th or 11th grades. Moreover, many families do not use the opportunity available to them to transfer their children to a better school partway through their education. The result is that inter-school mobility remains low and a child’s educational path is often hard-wired early on, HSE University sociologists in St. Petersburg found.

The master’s programme in Governance of Science, Technology, and Innovation offered by HSE ISSEK aims to equip students with skills that are in short supply in the private and public sectors. Courses and internship work give students a global perspective on science, technology, and innovation in addition to showing them how to be effective managers and conduct evidence-based assessment. Students also have the option of pursuing a double degree with a partner university in Europe and Asia. Francisco Jose Contreras Alarcon (Chile) and Ilaria Billo (Italy) share their experiences working towards double degrees in the programme.

HSE University, represented by the Center for Studies of Civil Society and the Nonprofit Sector, and the United Nations Volunteer Programme (UNV) signed a partnership agreement, under which they will regularly exchange information, carry out joint research, as well as organize conferences and other events.

On February 21, 2020, those who wish to compete in the worldwide Total Dictation can start taking prep classes offered by HSE at its complex located on Staraya Basmannaya. The classes will give students a chance to bone up on their Russian, or, as the writer Ivan Turgenev once called it, the ‘great and mighty’ Russian language.

An international team of researchers carried out an experiment at HSE University demonstrating that knowledge of several languages can improve the performance of the human brain. In their study, they registered a correlation between participants’ cognitive control and their proficiency in a second language.

For the first time HSE University has placed among the top twenty universities in countries with emerging economies in the THE Emerging Economies Rankings. Ranking 18^th, HSE now places among the top three Russian universities on the list. Earlier this year, HSE University was the third highest ranking Russian university in the THE World University Rankings.

Students who wish to compete in the Statistical Learning Theory Olympiad held jointly by HSE University and Skoltech may apply until March 16. Winners of the Olympiad automatically gain admittance to the joint HSE-Skoltech Master’s Programme in Statistical Learning Theory. HSE News Service spoke with last year’s winners about their experience competing in the Olympiad and now studying in the joint programme.