HSE Tops the Ranking of Universities with the Best Employer Reputation
On October 16, 2025, Forbes Education published its list of the top 20 Russian universities with the best employer reputation in 2025. The ranking was based on a survey of leading Russian employers, who named the higher education institutions whose graduates they consider the most well-prepared and are most inclined to hire. HSE University took first place in the ranking.
HSE’s reputation index scored 98 points, with 64.2% of employers saying they trust the quality of education provided by the university.
The top three also include Lomonosov Moscow State University and Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Among the twenty universities with the best employer reputation are fourteen based in Moscow, three in St Petersburg, and one each in Yekaterinburg, Kazan, and Tomsk.
The survey involved companies featured in Forbes’s list of Russia’s best employers—organisations from various regions representing 43 sectors of the economy. These companies offer competitive salaries and optimal working conditions, demonstrate transparent corporate governance, and adhere to ESG principles.
Employers also highlighted universities that lead in the following fields of study: economics, engineering, marketing and communications, natural sciences, creative industries, and the humanities.
When calculating the ranking, points were awarded in two categories: Overall Reputation and Sectoral Reputation. In the final reputation index, the Overall Reputation score accounted for 70% of the total weight, and Sectoral Reputation for 30%.
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‘It Is a Great Honour for Us to Be Partners’
In late March 2026, an official meeting took place between a delegation from HSE University and delegations from Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU); the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; and the Embassy of Vietnam in the Russian Federation. The participants discussed key areas of cooperation that will help strengthen ties not only between the universities, but also between the two countries.
How the Brain Processes a Word: HSE Researchers Compare Reading Routes in Adults and Children
Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain used magnetoencephalography to study how the brains of adults and children respond to words during reading. They showed that in children the brain takes longer to process words that are frequently used in everyday speech, while rare words and pseudowords are processed in the same way—slowly and in parts. With age, the system is reorganised: high-frequency words shift to a fast route, whereas new letter combinations are still analysed slowly. The study was published in the journal Psychophysiology.
How Neural Networks Detect and Interpret Wordplay: New Insights from HSE Researchers
An international team including researchers from the HSE Faculty of Computer Science has presented KoWit-24, an annotated dataset of 2,700 Russian-language Kommersant news headlines containing wordplay. The dataset enables an assessment of how artificial intelligence detects and interprets wordplay. Experiments with five large language models show that even advanced systems still make mistakes, and that interpreting wordplay is more challenging for them than detecting it. The results were presented at the RANLP conference; the paper is available on Arxiv.org, and the dataset and the code for reproducing the experiments are available on GitHub.
HSE Holds Exams, Quizzes, and Selection Rounds for School Students in Tashkent and Bishkek
More than 3,000 international school students took part in the INTO HSE International Olympiad, whose award ceremonies were held in Tashkent and Bishkek in March 2026. The university’s outreach events also included final examinations, presentations of academic programmes, and on-site selection tests for prospective applicants. In Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, nearly 200 participants received diplomas as winners and prize-winners. The best of them will be eligible to apply for state-funded places at HSE.
BRICS International School Held in Delhi
The results of the BRICS International School: New Generation, which was held in Delhi, proved that young people have become key participants in the global dialogue. The event brought together 200 young leaders from leading universities and expert centres in India. The programme was organised by the BRICS Expert Council–Russia, based at HSE University, together with the Russian House in New Delhi with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
HSE Researchers Experimentally Demonstrate Positive Effects of Urban Parks on the Brain
Scientists at HSE University have investigated the effect of parks on the cognitive and emotional resources of city dwellers. The researchers compared brain electrical activity in 30 participants while they watched videos of walks through parks and along busy highways. The results showed that green urban environments with trees produce a consistent effect across individuals, helping the brain calm down and relax. By contrast, walks along busy streets were found to be distracting. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports.
HSE to Launch Laboratories in Space Research and Nanoelectronics with One of India’s Top Universities
Scientists from the HSE University and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) will carry out joint research in the storage, transmission, and processing of data in space systems. A second major project will be a laboratory for superconducting spintronics—a promising field in modern nanoelectronics.
Scientists Show That Peer Influence Can Be as Effective as Expert Advice
Eating habits can be shaped not only by the authority of medical experts but also through ordinary conversations among friends. Researchers at HSE University have shown that advice from peers to reduce sugar consumption is just as effective as advice from experts. The study's findings have been published in Frontiers in Nutrition.
HSE University to Host Second ‘Genetics and the Heart’ Congress
HSE University, the National Research League of Cardiac Genetics, and the Central State Medical Academy of the Administrative Directorate of the President will hold the Second ‘Genetics and the Heart’ Congress with international participation. The event will take place on February 7–8, 2026, at the HSE University Cultural Centre.
HSE University Develops Tool for Assessing Text Complexity in Low-Resource Languages
Researchers at the HSE Centre for Language and Brain have developed a tool for assessing text complexity in low-resource languages. The first version supports several of Russia’s minority languages, including Adyghe, Bashkir, Buryat, Tatar, Ossetian, and Udmurt. This is the first tool of its kind designed specifically for these languages, taking into account their unique morphological and lexical features.