Results of the Academic Year 2013/2014

At a meeting of the HSE's Academic Council on November 28, Vice Rector Sergei Roshchin presented a report on the University's educational and methodological activities for 2013/2014.

What happened in the past academic year 

In Spring 2014, HSE successfully completed the government accreditation process. A new educational BA model was developed and introduced. All second year students sat external exams in the English language.

For the first time, HSE held an International Summer University, study courses prepared by HSE lecturers were offered via the Coursera platform, and a cross-campus mobility campaign was launched enabling students to study some of their options on other HSE campuses.

HSE in numbers

As of October 2014, 25,000 students are enrolled in HSE, and 2,900 teachers work with them, helped by over 1,200 teaching assistants. They are all involved in implementing over 200 educational programmes, including BAs, specialist degrees, and MAs. 10% of all disciplines within the educational programmes offered are taught in English, although most of these are optional.

How students study

The average BA success rating across all campuses is over 7 on a 10-point scale, with those who participate in Olympiads generally scoring higher than those who passed the general entrance exam. But HSE courses are not easy, the proportion of drop-outs from BA and MA courses in the 2013-2014 academic year stood at 11%, with a significantly higher proportion coming from among those students on fee-paying BA courses than those in state-funded places.

The 2013-2014 academic year saw the first two modules of the internal University mobility programme draw over 100 student participants.  About 650 HSE students were involved in international mobility programmes, 96 of them studying for dual diplomas and another 250 (three times more than two years ago) on courses that expect significant time spent abroad at the partner university.

All the second years (about 3,300 people) last year had to sit external examinations on English language proficiency (IELTS). About 71%-72% were graded 'excellent' and 'very good' by the HSE scale, with Moscow home to double the number of those who scored 'excellent' than St. Petersburg.

In Summer 2014, over 2,500 students graduated from HSE with BA degrees, over 800 with specialist's degrees, and over 1,600 with MAs. 11.5% of graduates were awarded honorary 'red' diplomas.

Lecturers

Almost half of all HSE lecturers are aged under 40, with the largest single group falling within the 30-39 age bracket (28% of all tutors). As for teaching load, then on average there are eight students per lecturer.

Future goals

The goals to be achieved in this current academic year include preparing new educational standards for BAs, developing the 'minors' system for BAs across all campuses, incorporating projects into courses, creating new approaches to teaching the English language, widening the number of disciplines and MA programmes offered in English, and creating new public online courses.

Particular attention will be paid to external evaluations of quality and international accreditation of HSE courses, and to attracting international students.  HSE summer school proved a successful experiment, making it possible to expand it with a 'third semester' – for summer school students who want to go on to enroll in HSE, offering them the opportunity to include their summer school attendance in their studies.