Irina Karelina: HSE Today is a Partnership-Oriented University
In 2022, HSE University became an expert centre for universities across the Luhansk People’s Republic in analytical, methodical, and legal fields. This will facilitate the seamless introduction of the republic’s universities into the Russian academic environment. Irina Karelina, Vice President of HSE University, talked to the HSE News Service about why HSE University decided to enter this project and how it complies with the university’s development strategy.
— Why should it be HSE University that is involved in adapting the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) universities to the reality of the Russian educational system?
— The project was initiated by HSE Rector Nikita Anisimov. On one hand, as a government-founded university, HSE is one of the most diversified expertise centres in the country. On the other hand, HSE University is a young institution, but one that has already achieved success in academia, and often initiates new projects in national education. We believe that our university is capable of taking on such a big responsibilities.
On October 19th, 2022, HSE University signed a cooperation agreement with the LPR Government. The idea is that we should help our new partners to integrate into the Russian Federation educational system as effectively and seamlessly as possible.
In fact, our collaboration had started even earlier, in August, from project sessions, where we discussed university management cases with our colleagues, and introduced the LPR universities’ teams to the specifics of the Russian educational system, along with the project opportunities offered by HSE University free of charge.
— What are these opportunities?
— HSE University has a special status in the national educational system. The university is not afraid to try new things, to create new practices and share its competencies with other universities. These include academic programme management, postdoc programmes, and mirror laboratories, as well as study and digital assistant programmes. We have a programme to support publications by authors from different regions in HSE’s academic journals. There is also an extensive programme of internships for staff from regional universities. These and many other activities are part of our ‘University Partnership’ programme, which aims to increase the quality of administration, education, and research at universities generally.
HSE today is a university geared towards varied academic partnerships, and we undoubtedly have many of them: over a thousand active ones
Our partners are academic centres—we have over 28 joint departments with the Russian Academy of Sciences—and educational institutions at many different levels. We have joint online courses, CPD programmes, and other activities in partnership with one in every seven Russian universities. Our network of partner secondary schools includes over 450 schools, while the HSE Distributed Lyceum includes over 30 schools in Moscow.
— Will partner universities be involved in work in Luhansk?
— We are truly hopeful that we will be supported by our university community, and primarily, by those who are part of the Association of Global Universities, where I have been executive director for eight years, and which is chaired by HSE Academic Supervisor Yaroslav Kuzminov. The association was founded in 2014 and includes 21 universities, which possess a unique set of practices and experience.
Our partner universities—Tomsk State University, Adyghe State University—have participated in our project sessions with management teams from LPR universities. We hope that more universities from different regions of Russia will join us and share their administrative solutions and effective practices with our new partners. I believe the next step will be discussing opportunities for cooperation with administrations of other new Russian regions.
— How easy or hard will it be to adapt the new territories’ educational systems to the Russian standards?
— We have already studied the specifics of the LPR educational systems, both at higher and secondary levels. There are some interesting cases that are unconventional for our universities. For example, two years ago, the LPR system of higher education underwent a major transformation: now, each university is responsible for a certain area of studies, and there are almost no similar programmes in other universities. Our colleagues already partly follow the Russian federal educational standards, but there are legal issues that have to be resolved. Solving complicated tasks, and looking for joint solutions in unconventional cases is our profession, including my personal profession as an expert in strategic university development.
— Are the activities of the Association of Global Universities an example of successful inter-university cooperation?
— I believe so. We have external confirmation of this: at different times, colleagues from other countries, including Germany, USA, and Armenia, have visited us to get consultations and learn from our experiences. Our universities have learned to cooperate effectively and get synergetic results: for example, as part of the international Open Doors Olympiad for prospective master’s and doctoral students, policy-making projects, and the Global University Laboratory.
Despite the pandemic and the changing political situation, the Open Doors Olympiad garners high interest among international students in master’s and doctoral studies at leading Russian universities
We have already completed the first stage of the Olympiad, when the participants register, complete their portfolios and pass initial tests. Over 56,000 participants from 196 countries registered and completed 78,000 portfolios, which is similar to the same number from previous years. Over 21,000 applicants completed over 28,000 portfolios for doctoral programmes at Russian universities.
Another project evolved during the pandemic, when universities across the country had only a couple of weeks to switch to online learning and do their best to maintain the quality of their teaching. What did our universities do? We opened a hotline under the Ministry of Education and Science Crisis Centre, and carried out over 50 open workshops, where all universities of the country were able to share and discuss various practices of not only transitioning to online teaching, but any other aspects that were concerning them. As a result, we now have a database of over 500 administrative practices, which are available to all Russian universities on the Association website.
This experience has been useful not only to colleagues from Russian higher education institutions: universities from friendly countries have also been actively using it
Today we are discussing a new format for the Global University Laboratory and working on legislative initiatives in establishing the legal status of academic consortia. We have a lot of plans, which we can only implement if we work together.
The Association’s member universities are deeply integrated in the national economy, are looking for responses to the new challenges, and, as acknowledged global universities that represent the Russian higher education on the global market, carry a special level of responsibility.