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The story
Founded by Yevgeny Yasin on Nov 20, 1992.1
Prerequisites for establishment
At the beginning of the 1990s, the state of education in the fields of economics and social science was poorly developed in Russian universities. One of the main causes of this state of affairs was the legacy of the communist system, a system that had led to the exile of many intellectuals, the absence of which would later end up limiting advancement in several academic fields of research. The transition from a centrally based economy to a market economy started in the USSR in the 1980s. Consequently, in 1992, Gaidar's government initiated a number of reforms that drastically increased the need for specialists familiar with the contemporary world economy to conduct analysis and run predictions. In 1992, the government enacted a law authorizing the creation of private universities. At that time, in Russia, 33 state universities specialized in sociology and economy. Reforming the existing conservative universities, including the Moscow State University, seemed like an ineffective solution. Thus, the government approved the idea to establish a new university with research priorities in socio-economic sciences.
At the beginning of the 1990s, we understood that the absence of Russian economic school and Russian financial education is a strategic problem for the country <...>. It was almost impossible to create such a system based on existing economic universities, thus, as it also happened to the Institute for the Economy in Transition period, the Higher School of Economics started from scratch.
Establishment and formation
In many ways, HSE University was founded by the efforts of Yaroslav Kuzminov and Yevgeny Yasin. By the beginning of the 1990s, both of them taught economics at the Moscow State University wherein 1989 Kuzminov founded "alternative" (or non-communist) Department of Economics sponsored by the Soros Foundation. In 1991, together with economists Oleg Ananin and Rustem Nureev, Kuzminov and Yasin prepared a grant application for the European Union. The proposed project was drawn up for 100 million euro that aimed to provide "technical assistance in the field of economic education". The proposed project included about 30 projects, including the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy.
HSE University was initially planned as a think tank for officials. It was supposed to promote reforms in Russia, to train economists, analysts, and teachers who would be able to work in the new conditions for the new government.
On 27 November 1992, Gaidar signed the government decree "On creation of the Higher School of Economics" (it was his last decree as the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation). HSE founders noted that they intentionally avoided the term "university" and instead choose "school" referring to the London School of Economics. The European Union and the Government of France immediately sponsored the project. Therefore, HSE University sent its scholars to study in the Netherlands and invited professors from the Sorbonne University and Erasmus Programme.
The missing library was offset by a rapidly created online resource system with training materials. Since the university deliberately avoided state education programs, it focused on translation of advanced foreign textbooks which formed the basis of education programs. University experts consulted with the government on socio-economic reforms, jurisprudence, and political science. For example, at the beginning of the 2000s, Kuzminov and Yasin participated in the creation of the "Strategy 2010" – social and economic development program initiated by German Gref and aimed at forming foundation for government policy.
Education system; rankings
In 2022 it was ranked #568 in Best Global Universities by U.S. News & World Report, and #881 by Center for World University Rankings, and in 2020 it was ranked in the #801-900 group in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the Shanghai Ranking.
In September 1993, HSE University became the first university that introduced the Bologna education system in Russia. Thus, when Russia joined the Bologna Process in 1998, the Higher School of Economics already had certified graduates from the program – the first Master's graduation happened in 1995, while the Bachelor's took place the next year.
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In 1997, HSE University and the London School of Economics (LSE) signed the agreement on establishing The International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF), that was later renamed to "International Institute of Economics and Finance". According to the regulations of the University of London, starting from the second year, students take classes in English. Upon the successful completion of requirements, they receive a double diploma issued by the University of London and the Higher School of Economics.
In 2001, the Ministry of Education initiated the project of the Unified State Exam (USE) which was developed together with the specialists from HSE. The USE is a series of exams that students must pass after graduating from school to apply to a university or professional college. Since 2009, the USE is the only form of graduation examination in schools. HSE was the first university in Russia to accept USE results as a main criteria for students enrolling. Thus, the university was able to set a high threshold and admit the most talented students from all over Russia.
In 2004, the first Academic Foundation was established to support university research and promote academic activities. A year later a group of research laboratories was opened and in 2006 HSE launched the Center for Fundamental Research to coordinate university research including government orders. The first international laboratories affiliated with the university were launched in 2010–2011.
By the beginning of the 2000s, universities in Russia were deprived of full state support and were forced to attract funds and investors on their own. At that time, HSE was already an influential think tank with more than 20% of its income earned by performing custom research. Besides the USE, HSE experts worked on administrative reforms and on "The Digital Russia Program". In August 2008, HSE University became directly subordinated to the Russian government with which it was working closely for the previous five years. Under the instructions of the President, the university initiated the development of the "Strategy 2020" program.
Recent years
Starting from the 2010s, the Ministry of Education initiated the process of university mergers. Consequently, the Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics was included into the administrative structure of HSE University. Additionally in 2011, the HSE Lyceum was founded for high school students. The university would go on to open several more faculties, including: The Faculty of Communication, Media, and Design, Philology, and in 2014 (with support of the Yandex group) – the Faculty of Computer Science. The first admission to the Faculty of Physics took place in 2017. In 2018, the university opened the faculties of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology. In 2015, the Faculty of History was reorganized into the School of Historical Sciences; the School was headed by historian Alexander Kamensky (2015–2023) and since 2023 he has served as its academic supervisor.
In recent years (2019–2020) the heads of various faculties in agreement with each other decided to start the company of renaming their faculties. The corresponding decision was made by the HSE Academic Council as part of the HSE development programs for 2030, aimed at further increasing the university's global competitiveness.
The main reason for doing so is that originally HSE was primarily focused on Economic studies, but with constant rapid development a lot of new branches appeared. Thus, instead of Higher School of Economics Faculty of Management it will be named "Higher School of Business".
In 2010, a bronze bust of Yegor Gaidar was put up by private donations of the faculty in the university building Durasov's Palace.
In 2018, the rector of HSE University, Yaroslav Kuzminov, announced that all lectures will switch to on-line format in 2020s Kuzminov claims that traditional classes are ineffective - they are visited by only 15-17% of students. Instead of them, professeurs will create their own distant courses and interact with the audience in the distant format. The university believes, that this measure will help to increase the engagement of students into the education process.
Despite actively working for the government on various projects, the university had, until recently, positioned itself as a politically independent actor. Consequently, there have been incidents in the history of the university that caused public outcry. For instance, during the anti-government protests of 2009, many university students and lecturers attended rallies. After that, the HSE administration received a request from the Moscow police to expel students and to fire professors that took part in anti-government activities. However, the university refused to take the requested action elaborating on its decision with the phrase: "they [students and professors] are not forbidden from participating in politics".
In March 2011, the university organized debates on the Federal state law № 94 between Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny and rector Kuzminov. Representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development were also present at the event.
In 2018–20, there were several incidents related to the "V Tochku" university talk show. For instance, after the press secretary for the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov gave a talk at the show discussing Navalny and some aspects of contemporary Russian state discourse, the recording of the speech was not published on the website as it usually happened with other talks. However, its full transcription was published on the BBC website. The Department of Media and Communications apologized to students who publicly protested against the case, calling it a manifestation of censorship.
In the recent years, the HSE has tried to distance itself from any political affiliations which was especially evident in the case of Yegor Zhukov, who was sentenced to three years of probation for unauthorized rioting against corruption among Moscow authorities.
Nikita Yuryevich Anisimov, Rector of the university, was suspended by the European University Association (EUA) following support for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Union of Rectors (RUR) in March 2022, for being "diametrically opposed to the European values that they committed to when joining EUA”. In response to the Russian invasion, in March 2022 the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, the Fletcher School at Tufts University, School of Slavonic and East European Studies at UCL, and Australian National University suspended their relationships with the university. In 2022, Ukraine sanctioned the HSE. The university also fired dozens of its professors who protested the invasion.
From Wikipedia’s article on Higher School of Economics, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4