News

On October 10, the HSE School of Public Administration hosted its monthly discussion series. This month’s event is entitled ‘Stress Test for Public Finances – Policy-Responses to the Financial and Economic Crisis in the OECD’ and was led by Prof. Dr. Uwe Wagschal of the University of Freiburg (Germany). Professor Wagschal's talk focused on the consequences of massive monetary and fiscal stimulus for the public purse and will compare the fiscal packages in 28 OECD-countries aimed at combating an economic downturn following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

HSE students donated blood on the last day of the autumn Donor Marathon, which took place at the blood donation department of City Hospital No 52.

Members of the student organisation Green HSE volunteered to clean up nearly 30 meters of lakeshore around Moscow region’s Lake Relax, as well as 60 square meters of the surrounding forest. The volunteers managed to collect more than 50 120-liter bags of trash.

Is it possible to learn a new language well enough in just two weeks to conduct linguistic research on it? This is an entirely standard practice for linguists, according to Sasha Kozhukhar and Liza Vostokova, both students in the Linguistic Theory and Language Description master’s programme. This past summer, Sasha and Liza went on an expedition to Guatemala to study Kaqchikel, an indigenous Mayan language.

Dance with a robot, become immersed in virtual reality, mount a weather station, learn about smart home technologies and just have a good time. At Nauka 0+ Science Festival, HSE showed that scientific development can be not only useful, but also accessible to everyone.

The human factor, a reluctance to scare investors and the absence of tangible rewards for predicting recessions are some of the reasons why professional forecasters sometimes fail to signal economic downturns. In their study, Sergey Smirnov and Daria Avdeeva found evidence indicating that professional forecasters tend to hold on to optimistic scenarios for too long.

This year’s NAUKA 0+ festival aims to turn science into something anyone can grasp. At the festival, various laboratories and universities open their doors to anyone and everyone with an interest in science and research. What will people learn about HSE at the festival? What new things will they see and discover? Let’s find out!

Last week, HSE’s Doing Business in Russia internship programme held an integration module for students who have completed their 6-month internships at German enterprises based in Russia and students who have just arrived in Russia. Those completing the programme presented group projects on a variety of topics, including project management, intercultural relations, and expat experiences. They also shared their impressions with new participants.