International Accreditation

In 2020 the BA Programme in Political Science and World Politics was granted international accreditation by the Central Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (ZEvA). The programme was accredited for six years. 

Why international accreditation?

There are many ways to learn about a university before you apply: international rankings, students’ testimonials, or its overall academic reputation. Likewise, accreditations indicate that the quality of education in a programme complies with certain national or international standards. So, they help prospective students understand whether the chosen programme meets these high standards and their longing for high-quality education.

What is ZEvA?

Central Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (ZEvA) is an international agency with the headquarters in Hanover (Germany). It has been working on the global education market since 1995. Its main activities relate to evaluation of teaching and management in higher education. ZEvA is one of the founders of ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), which forms approaches to ensuring the quality of higher education.

How are the programmes assessed?

The ZEvA assessment is based on the ESG (The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area) and other frameworks defining global education standards.

What are the advantages of the BA programme in Political Science and World Politics?

The experts have noticed that the HSE St. Petersburg programmes in political science – including the BA programme and the MA Programme in Comparative Politics of Eurasia – «strike a new path in terms of their strong international profile, their focus on state-of-the-art methods training and their combination of political science and IR perspectives».

Among the advantages of the BA programme and the campus in general the experts have mentioned:

• «excellent qualifications, the international profile and the open, critical mindset of the teaching faculty»;
• «excellent support structures and services that help [students] to pursue their studies successfully»;
• «the innovative design of the Bachelor’s programme, which combines Political Science and IR, professional and scientific training in an unconventional, though very ambitious way»; 
• «progression from the theoretical foundations to more application-oriented elements and its gradual shift from PS methods to concrete regions».

Where can I learn more?

Full report can be found at the official website of the agency.