Sankha Basu, Assistant Professor at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Delhi), taught a course at the Spring School 'Logic, Linguistics and Formal Philosophy' hosted by the International Laboratory for Logic, Linguistics and Formal Philosophy. This was his first visit to a Russian university, and he shared his impressions with the HSE News Service.

Darya Iskusnykh, a third-year student at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies of the HSE Faculty of Humanities, won first place in the Grammar and Composition category at the 18th Russian Olympiad of Persian Language and Literature. The finals of the intellectual competition took place in Moscow at the Institute of Asian and African Studies (IAAS) of Lomonosov Moscow State University with the support of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The 24th Christmas film seminar of the HSE Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology (LSEI), held at the end of December, was devoted to the causes of anxiety and depression among young people. The focus of the discussion was the 2018 film <em>Eighth Grade</em>, whose main character is a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna hosted the Archival Impulse Summer School, co-organised by JINR physicists, historians from the HSE Faculty of Humanities, and staff from the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ARAS). This first archival summer school continued the joint initiative of HSE University and JINR to examine and preserve the unique historical legacy of physicists.

An HSE delegation, led by Rector Nikita Anisimov, visited China for negotiations with the administration of the country’s top universities. The parties agreed to expand bilateral scientific and educational collaboration and signed several documents. In particular, a strategic partnership agreement was established with Peking University, one of the oldest and most prestigious educational institutions in China.

The new centre will operate as part of the Institute of Oriental and Classical Studies (IOCS) at the HSE Faculty of Humanities, and its flagship project will focus on the study of the language and oral folklore of Socotra Island. The centre is a trilateral international partnership between HSE University, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a consortium of leading universities in the UAE. Read on to find out about what South Arabian studies involves and what research HSE scholars do in this field.

Linguatest is available in two versions: academic and business. It can be taken in person at dedicated centres or online in proctored sessions. Registration in now open for the first exam sessions in Moscow in December 2022.

On October 11, HSE University hosted a delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic at the building on Pokrovsky Bulvar. During the meeting, they discussed education and the continuing cooperation between HSE University and Damascus University.

The exam has been developed by the HSE School of Foreign Languages in compliance with all relevant international standards. On May 13, the Independent English Language Examination Centre opened in the HSE University building on Staraya Basmannaya Ulitsa, and the first students took the exam on May 16. In the future, the opportunity to take an independent assessment at the Centre is expected to be available not only to HSE students, but also to students from other universities, schoolteachers, and corporate clients.

University of Hamburg professors Denis Nosnitsin and Magdalena Krzyzanowska delivered a series of online lectures dedicated to the study of Ethiopian manuscripts. The course, which was developed for first-year students of the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, was held as part of the Digital Professors project. In an interview with the HSE news service, the professors talked about their research, teaching approaches, and impressions of lectures.

HSE University now ranks 16th and places among the top 5% of universities in emerging Europe and Central Asia in the QS EECA University Rankings released by the British ranking agency QS.

Lev Manovich, Presidential Professor of computer science at the City University of New York and author of works on digital culture and new media, was one of the first foreign scholars to start remote work with HSE students this academic year. He is leading a project seminar at the Faculty of Humanities for students of the Bachelor’s programme in Cultural Studies.

International experts have recognised Harvard University as the best in the world in terms of reputation. Moscow State University was ranked 37th, while HSE University entered the Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings 2020, within the 151-175 range, taking fifth position among Russian universities, showing a commendable result for such a young institution.

During this summer’s exams, HSE School of Foreign Languages and the Centre for Computational Educational Sciences launched a pilot project for the automated checking of student exams. Ekaterina Kolesnikova, Head of the School of Foreign Languages, Dmitry Abbakumov, Head of the Centre for Computational Educational Sciences, and Daria Kravchenko, Deputy Head of the centre, spoke about the project and its future prospects.

Oksana Osadchaya, a blind sophomore in the undergraduate philology programme, has developed a version of braille for Old Russian texts. Oksana recently defended her thesis on the subject. Together with her academic advisor Alexey Gippius, Oksana met with the HSE News Service to discuss her work, as well as the opportunities that she has opened up for blind researchers who study texts in Old Russian, Old Slavonic, and Old Church Slavonic.

Elizaveta Sysoeva (Doctoral School of History) and Alexander Suvalko (Doctoral School of Philosophy), doctoral students at the HSE Faculty of Humanities, have received grants from the Russian President to study abroad in the academic year 2017/18.

The scientific landscape is changing before our eyes. Different sciences are becoming more and more intertwined with one another, and this sometimes creates quite unexpected combinations, such as the digital humanities. This field is developing rapidly, with conferences and summer schools now being held on the subject. In addition, HSE recently devoted an entire week to the Digital Humanities. But what is this field and why is it so important?

In its 25^th anniversary year, HSE has marked new achievements, entering the Top 50 in the Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings among universities under 30 years old, and in the Top 100 in the global Young University Rankings under 50. HSE has become the first Russian university to enter the top list of THE Young Universities, a global institutional ranking.

Giving a presentation at a research conference, especially in a different city, and all the more so in a different country, is an important event in the life of any philology student. Viktoria Buyanovskaya, third-year HSE philology student, told us about her presentation at the University of Oxford.

From October 7 - November 12, 2016 a school for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students organized by the International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and Its Consequences was held in Germany. The school was dedicated to issues of memorialization and commemorating victims of terror and was led by the Centre’s Director Oleg Budnitskii. The trip was organized with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.