New Year's Greetings from Sergey Kadochnikov

Director of HSE Saint Petersburg Sergey Kadochnikov reflects upon the past year and congratulates colleagues, partners, and students on the upcoming year 2020.

Dear Colleagues and Friends!

I am happy to wish you a Happy New Year full of joy, luck, and prosperity!

As we celebrate the new year, let us remember the past year, which was full of great achievements and changes for HSE University – Saint Petersburg.

Recognition of Prospective Students and Colleagues

In 2019, many talented students joined the HSE University community. According to the admissions campaign, HSE University – St. Petersburg ranked 7th and 6th for the highest exam score averages among students entering state-funded positions and fee-paying places, respectively.

In February, the master’s programme ‘Finance’ obtained the prestigious EPAS accreditation. This is the only programme in Russia that has received this accreditation. By the end of 2019, we also announced a joint business education programme for large and medium-sized business leaders with Yandex, Gazprom Neft, and the Business School of the Polytechnic University of Milan.

Diversification in Education

We have taken one more step towards the diversification of our academic programmes. In 2019, we opened a new faculty – the Saint Petersburg School of Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science, and we accepted students to the programme ‘Applied Mathematics and Information Science’.

We have formed yet another team that is bringing changes to our university – I am talking about our designers, and I am glad that my colleagues are experimenting and showing us how design can be so diverse and exciting.

We have very ambitious plans for 2020: next summer, HSE University – St. Petersburg will begin admissions to the ‘Physics’ undergraduate programme and six new master’s programmes: ‘Theoretical and Mathematical Physics’, Master of International Business, ‘Intellectual Property Law in the Digital Age’, ‘Comparative Russian and Eurasian Politics’, ‘Media Production and Media Analysis’, ‘Russian Literature in Cross-Cultural and Intermedial Perspective’.

Success in Research

2019 brought the launch of several new research centres on campus: International Laboratory of Intangible-driven Economy (headed by Elena A. Shakina), Centre for Comparative Research of Governance and Authority (headed by Irina Busygina), International Laboratory of Social and Cognitive Informatics (headed by Elena Y. Koltsova).

We held many significant events, including the conference, ‘Education and World Cities: New Horizons of University Reputation’, the International Network of Analytical Sociology Conference (INAS), and the Analytics for Management and Economics Conference. And we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Centre for Youth Studies this year!

Business Cooperation

This year has been a time of an active strategic business partnership development. We signed partnership agreements with VTB, Tele2, and Russian-Chinese Business Park. Rostelecom became our corporate partner within the QTEM Consortium of Business Schools.

One of the crucial outcomes of 2019 was our joint work with the HSE University – Saint Petersburg Board of Trustees. This year we have started the implementation of large-scale projects together — in particular, student international exchange programmes. Thanks to our partners' support, 250 students had an opportunity to participate in short-term and long-term international internships. Another project that we could not undertake alone is the mentoring programme for outstanding first-year students. This unique programme opens new doors for both HSE students and their mentors.

This year we had a particularly significant achievement: the Higher School of Economics has signed a cooperation agreement with the city of Saint Petersburg at the SPIEF.

International Activity

We have also achieved impressive results in terms of the internationalization of our university. Full-time international students now make up 11% of the HSE University – Saint Petersburg student body. In addition, about 400 international students participated in our non-degree and academic mobility programmes. Our campus currently enjoys more than 100 partnerships with universities all over the world, and we are actively striving to expand this network even further.

This year was also memorable for other events: we hosted the II International Economics Olympiad and held the International University Startups & Spin-Offs Festival.

‘Golden’ People

Our colleagues represented HSE Univesity - St. Petersburg at Golden HSE Award Ceremony: Natalia Smirnova, Assistant Professor of School of Foreign Languages, won the ‘University Teaching Success’ award, and Natalia Slioussar, visiting lecturer of School of Linguistics, impressed everyone with her achievements in science.

Three students of HSE University – Saint Petersburg were awarded with ‘Silver Nesting’ prize: Nikolay Telyatnikov, 4th-year student of the ‘Economics’ bachelor's programme, Ksenia Fedulova, 4th-year student of the ‘Law’ bachelor's programme, and Anastasia Kuznetsova, 2nd-year student of the master's programme in Modern Social Analysis.

We Never Rest on Our Laurels

Another significant event took place this year: we have repaired a new building located on the Vyborgskaya embankment. Finally, our student programmers have a proper place to study, and I am glad for it.

We have achieved a lot this year. And I believe that even more interesting and inspiring achievements await us in 2020. Thank you for everything we have built together, and for your dreams, which continue to push us forward as we work to turn them into a reality. 

I wish you and your families good health, happiness, and new achievements in the coming year. 

Happy New Year, dear friends!

Sincerely yours,
Sergei M. Kadochnikov