1.5
is how much more time parents who are highly skilled professionals spend communicating with their children than those who are living on welfare.

'I Teach People How to Become the Best Versions of Themselves They Can Be'
What is the connection between the cockroaches in our homes and the ones in our head? According to the work of HSE alumna Alisa Simonenko, the founder of the Reforma project, the connection is direct. Simonenko first created a pest extermination company before realising how she could help people find the source of their personal happiness. Alisa tells Success Builder how she uses science to give people peace of mind, why her project Reforma is not like the company Secta, and how to eat whatever you want without gaining weight. HSE Day, which is one of the university’s biggest events that took place on September 9 this year, featured the Reforma Higher School of Fitness.

International Students Find their Bearings in Moscow
This autumn, about 500 international students from more than 50 countries (1 and a half times more than last year), are starting courses at HSE. They will be studying on bachelor’s and master’s programmes, at the Pre-University Training Faculty and as part of international student exchanges. To help them get off to a good start, HSE organised an orientation session on how to study and live in Moscow.
Articles by HSE Professors Published in ‘Word and Image in Russian History’ Collection
Academic Studies Press issued the ‘Word and Image in Russian History: Essays in Honor of Gary Marker’. The articles ‘Businesswomen in Eighteenth-Century Russian Provinicial Towns’ by Alexander Kamenskii and ‘Catherine’s Liberation of the Greeks: High-Minded Discourse and Everyday Realities’ by Elena Smilyanskayawere also included in the collection.

The Institute that Helps Russia and Britain to Understand Each Other
On 15th September theInternational College of Economics and Finance ICEF held its Graduation ceremony at the British Ambassador’s residence in Moscow for the 15th year in a row. At the ceremony, students were awarded their diplomas for the Double Degree programmes run jointly by ICEF and the London School of Economics.
'I Have Been Happy from the First Moment'
Takashi Takebe is a Research Fellow at the International Laboratory of Representation Theory and Mathematical Physics and Professor at the Faculty of Mathematics. He has been at HSE since 2009. He is a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Tokyo. He spoke to HSE News in English service about the unpredictability of life for international academics in Moscow, about teaching mathematics to Russians, the problems of language and cycling tours.
HSE Improves its Standing in QS University and Facutly Ratings
For the first time the University is listed among the top Arts & Humanities institutions, taking 289th place globally and 3rd place within Russia. HSE was also ranked 2nd place within Russia in the sectoral ranking Social Sciences & Management, rising from 232nd place globally in 2014 to 161st place globally this year.
Fears about School Exams Exaggerated
Parents of school students in Moscow tend to believe that test assignments in two major final exams—the Basic State Exam (BSE) and the Unified State Exam (USE)—are too complex and teachers fail to properly prepare students for the finals; this negative attitude, which appears to be a widely-held stereotype not necessarily supported by evidence, is formed long before the exams come round. However, according to a study by Alina Pishnyak and Natalia Khalina, once the exams are over, families no longer consider them so hard to pass.