Modern world has become highly digitalized. Digital technologies are an integral part of social life of all countries. Digital footprints for modern analytics around the world and in large part from measuring consumerism (by Internet searches) to urban and global services.

People in the modern world actively use social networks and mobile devices to organize their lives, in all their activities, which make up everyday life. Finally, digital media are replacing the old media in the broadest sense. In recent years, the global computer games industry has more finance and more consumers than the global film industry.

Social sciences are responding to these contemporary challenges with the creation of social informatics and computational social science (computational social science), research into the interaction of people with modern technologies and new media, new methods of applied sociology, public opinion research and marketing research.

Sociology and Social Informatics Program prepares professionals capable of responding to these challenges, setting the standard in the field of new digital analytics and programming, and preparing them for professional work in today's digital society as analysts and managers in commercial companies, government agencies and non-governmental organizations, for this, providing up-to-date knowledge about social and economic processes and modern cultural forms, and competence in programming and management based on modern methods of collecting and processing social information.

The professional competencies formulated in the passport are specific to the graduates of this program. Professional competencies are determined on the basis of professional standards corresponding to the professional activities of graduates, as well as on the basis of an analysis of the requirements of the labor market, generalization of foreign experience, consultations with leading employers, associations of employers in the industry in which graduates are in demand. As a result, a graduate of the National Research University Higher School of Economics also develops universal (defined in the part of the IOS) and general professional (defined in the sections of the educational standard in the areas of training) competencies. All universal, general professional and professional competencies acquired by a graduate ensures his ability to carry out professional activities in at least one area or field of professional activity, or solve tasks of professional activity of at least one type established in the educational standard.

A graduate of the undergraduate program must have professional competencies corresponding to the types of professional tasks that the program is focused on:

PC-1 Able to critically perceive, summarize, analyze professional information.

PC -2 Able to independently formulate goals, set specific research objectives in various fields of sociology, social informatics and computational social sciences and solve them using adequate  research methods.

PC -3 Able to prepare a project of scientific or applied research in the field of professional activity, as well as present its results in accordance with relevant standards, best international practices and taking into account the characteristics of the potential audience.

PC -4 Able to organize interaction with specialists in the subject area and in the field of information technology to solve professional problems.

PC -5 Able to plan and implement project work in the field of social data analytics, public opinion research, consumer and user behavior, organization of analytical services.

PC -6 Able to participate in analytical and consulting activities.

PC -7 Able to choose and use adequate methods, tools, software and information support for the collection and analysis of social data.

Bachelor's program in Sociology and Social Informatics provides for the study of the following blocks: general cycle; professional cycle: basic part, basic profile part, variable profile part, elective disciplines; additional profile (Minor); practices, research work; electives (in addition to the educational program); State Final Certification.

The content of the program is based on a balanced combination of current courses in the social sciences and humanities (Sociology, Economics), applied courses (Psychology, Economics, Consumption and Financial Behavior), mastering instrumental methods of programming, collecting and processing social information and project work. The program has a set of disciplines that make up the core of sociological education, including a content component - the study of theories of the middle level and empirical knowledge in certain areas.

The instrumental component of data collection and analysis and social informatics is being significantly strengthened; the volume of instrumental courses corresponds to the latest international standards for education in social sciences.

New methods of collecting and analyzing information, the main content areas of social research remain unchanged. If they change, we follow the changing social situation. For example, in an aging Europe, research of old age and the whole range of problems associated with aging is becoming more and more relevant. Accordingly, Sociology and Social Informatics Program will retain its range of research topics for students, which will be reflected in the topics of term papers and students’ theses:

• youth and teenagers
• culture and cultural industries
• health, diseases and aging
• civil and political processes
• business and economic activities
• city and urban processes
• comparative sociology
• education and science
• ethnicity, migration, nationalism

and other important topics in sociological research.

This degree programme of HSE University is adapted for students with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities. There is a specially designed Physical Education course available for such students (Syllabus of the adapted Physical Education course). Special assistive technology and teaching aids are used for collective and individual learning of students with SEN and disabilities. The specific adaptive features of the programme are listed in each subject's full syllabus and are available to students through the online Learning Management System.

All documents of the degree programme are stored electronically on this website. Curricula, calendar plans, and syllabi are developed and approved electronically in corporate information systems. Their current versions are automatically published on the website of the degree programme. Up-to-date teaching and learning guides, assessment tools, and other relevant documents are stored on the website of the degree programme in accordance with the local regulatory acts of HSE University.

I hereby confirm that the degree programme documents posted on this website are fully up-to-date.

Vice Rector Sergey Yu. Roshchin

Summary of Degree Programme 'Sociology and Social Informatics'