Results of International Partners' Week in Arts and Humanities
The St Petersburg School of Arts and Humanities presented the Centre for Russian Language and Culture and held negotiations with universities in Japan, Egypt, Turkey, and Brazil. The School of Art and Design agreed to create joint installations with the Turkish university, international exchanges and fashion shows with international partners. Deans and staff of the schools summed up the results of the International Partners' Week.
The International Partners' Week at HSE University-St Petersburg became a successful platform for the cooperation development of the School of Arts and Humanities with leading global universities. As a result of the event, they have managed to reach agreements with partners from five countries and launch new educational projects.
Adrian Selin, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities
The main results are connected to the work of our new unit—the Centre for Russian Language and Culture which prepares international applicants for admission and studies at HSE University-St Petersburg. The Centre had meetings with four of our key partners.
Sophia University from Japan expressed their interest in the online programmes on the Russian language—more than 200 students are learning Russian at this university. Alexandria University from Egypt and Boğaziçi University from Turkey are interested in experience exchange with the professors of Russian as a second language. We consider the cooperation with the Chinese company 'Sinobodo' to be very prospective—they are preparing an official request for a special programme for Chinese applicants and even discussing an opportunity to create a point of presence for HSE University-St Petersburg in China. In fact, we see the Centre to be the driver for developing other directions of cooperation in the most unexpected spheres. During the meetings, we discussed the ideas of joint research in the sphere of maritime archaeology, applied language technologies and language teaching.
The colleagues from Brazil, India and Switzerland also expressed their interest in the work of the Centre for Russian Language and Culture. We hope that these new contacts will also contribute to the development of the Centre and St Petersburg campus in general.
As for science, we see excellent prospects for the development of the current joint project on the anthropology of bureaucracy in Russia and Brazil as well as new directions—environmental history and anthropology, diplomatic history, and anthropology of the gift.
With Alexandria University, we also negotiated guest lectures on teaching the French language and literature, courses of the Arabic language in the framework of the continuing education programmes and interdisciplinary projects on cultural studies. We are especially interested in the opportunities for research and academic cooperation with the Library of Alexandria.
Together with Boğaziçi University, we are planning to hold methodological seminars on teaching German, joint cultural projects and a summer school with the elements of teaching Russian as a second language. We have established preliminary contacts with a chance to connect with the departments of English philology, the French language and humanities departments in general.
The experience of participation in IPW-2025 shows high potential for the development of Russian language programmes and international partnerships.
Professors and students of the St Petersburg School of Art and Design carried out extensive work in the framework of the International Partners' Week. The outcomes were new international projects, agreements to create joint installations and plans for academic exchanges.
Mitya Kharshak, head of HSE University-St Petersburg School of Art and Design
For the School of Art and Design, the International Partners' Week was a time of productive collaboration and the triumph of creative industries. Exhibitions, an awarding ceremony, lectures and a fashion show on the final day—all these things helped our international colleagues to get an idea of us as a modern institution with a unique practise-oriented approach, and we had a chance to look at ourselves from the outside and see a wide range of our opportunities.
We agreed with our colleague from Sabancı University (Turkey), professor Selçuk Artut, a world-famous media artist, to create a light multimedia visual installation in the water tower of the Rope Shop building for the next IPW. In the last academic module, professor Selçuk delivered classes for our students on 'Creative Code', he was our digital professor. We agreed to repeat this experience as well.
The communication with the colleagues from the Ecole Intuit Lab Paris (France) also went in a very warm way, they are interested in developing the cooperation.
I would like to highlight the amazing experience of organising an international joint contest with the Indonesian university—ITS. In the framework of IPW-2025, we awarded the winners of this project. We also reached a preliminary agreement on the topic of the next contest: an update and modern interpretation of folk crafts.
Already in June, two of our colleagues, Darina Polikarpova and Ivan Kulikov, will go to Puebla, Mexico, to deliver courses for Mexican students during the Global Summer School. The topics of their lectures are 'Design and Visual Innovations' and 'Film Analysis'.
After the International Partners' Week, we decided that the next academic trip to India would focus on fashion and cooperation with Indian universities in the sphere of fashion design. For the next IPW, we are also planning to implement a joint project with our Indian colleagues in the sphere of fashion design and devote a defile to this joint initiative.
Leonid Alekseev, main curator of the track 'Fashion Design' at HSE University-St Petersburg School of Art and Design
The main goal of our track at the International Partners' Week was the presentation of our graduates' collections. It was a difficult and vibrant event which allowed us to bring the students' engagement to a new level and attracted the attention of influencers and media. Another task was to promote our track among the international design programmes. We got positive feedback. Now, we'll be looking for partners to hold joint events and contests.
Polina Shishkina, deputy head of HSE University-St Petersburg School of Art and Design
The International Partners' Week allowed HSE University-St Petersburg School of Art and Design to present its educational programmes and tracks to international partners. HSE University-St Petersburg School of Art and Design launches an English-taught master's programme 'Design' and sees a lot of prospects for cooperation with global academic partners. We would like to create joint educational programmes, develop academic mobility, and hold joint workshops and summer schools, involving international students.