Research & Expertise news at HSE University

How does one go about studying happiness, joy, and optimism? What makes life good? What qualities help people to cope with the negative effects of the pandemic? Dmitry Leontiev, Professor of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Head of the International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation, discusses these questions and more.

The new issue of HERB magazine focuses on understanding what it has been like for universities during the pandemic. Article authors described the risks faced by students and teachers, the introduction of new learning formats, and remotely implemented projects. They also shared their initial thoughts on the development of the university environment in the post-pandemic period. 

The governments of big cities in the Asian and Pacific regions implemented more effective policies during the COVID pandemic than cities in Europe and America. This is the conclusion of a study prepared by HSE University. Singapore did it better than the others, Moscow took second place, while the Top-5 also includes Shanghai, Seoul and Beijing. The researchers say that the key factor in Moscow’s success factor was how quickly economic activity resumed in the city, which was, among other things, supported by large-scale inflows from the city budget.

The Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) quality assessment and journal selection working group based on Web of Science has completed its updates to the RSCI list. The group particularly considered journals that submitted 219 initiative applications last year. The updated list includes 87 new journals, with 2 journals having been excluded.

Very little attention has been paid to the impostor syndrome phenomenon in Russian scientific literature. Moreover, until now, no Russian-language methodology has been tested to measure the severity of impostor syndrome. This situation has been rectified by scientists from HSE University and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).

Abhijit Banerjee, one of the 2019 Nobel Prize winners in economics, spoke at a seminar at HSE University and explained why people trust economic forecasts less than a weather forecast and what can be done to bring this trust back.

On May 20, Valeria Kasamara, HSE Vice Rector, took part in a round table on the role of career development centres at Russian universities and students’ career trajectories. This event was part of the international conference on Education and World Cities that HSE University held in Saint Petersburg from May 19—21. The round table was attended by government officials from Saint Petersburg, employees of career development centres at leading Russian universities, and representatives of different industries.

Experts from the Institute of Education of HSE University examined the effectiveness of five courses of one of the largest Russian online education services, Yandex.Practicum. The study showed that 71.1% of graduates found employment, and more than half of them became employed within two months after graduation.