Prerequisites for establishment At the beginning of the 1990s, the state of education in the fields of economics and social science was poorly developed in Russian universities. One of the main causes of this state of affairs was the legacy of the
communist system, a system that had led to the
exile of many intellectuals, the absence of which would later end up limiting advancement in several academic fields of research. The transition from a
centrally based economy to a
market economy started in the USSR in the 1980s. Consequently, in 1992,
Gaidar's government initiated a number of that drastically increased the need for specialists familiar with the contemporary
world economy to conduct analysis and run predictions. In 1992, the government enacted a law authorizing the creation of private universities. At that time, in Russia, 33 state universities specialized in sociology and economy. Reforming the existing conservative universities, including the
Moscow State University, seemed like an ineffective solution. Thus, the government approved the idea to establish a new university with research priorities in socio-economic sciences.
Establishment and formation In many ways, HSE University was founded by the efforts of Yaroslav Kuzminov and Yevgeny Yasin. By the beginning of the 1990s, both of them taught economics at the Moscow State University wherein 1989 Kuzminov founded "alternative" (or non-communist) Department of Economics sponsored by the
Soros Foundation. In 1991, together with economists Oleg Ananin and
Rustem Nureev, Kuzminov and Yasin prepared a grant application for the
European Union. The proposed project was drawn up for 100 million euro that aimed to provide "technical assistance in the field of economic education". The proposed project included about 30 projects, including the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy. On 27 November 1992, Gaidar signed the government decree "On creation of the Higher School of Economics" (it was his last decree as the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation). In September 1993, HSE University became the first university that introduced the
Bologna education system in Russia. Thus, when Russia joined the Bologna Process in 1998, the Higher School of Economics already had certified graduates from the program – the first Master's graduation happened in 1995, while the Bachelor's took place the next year. In 1997, HSE University and the London School of Economics (LSE) signed the agreement on establishing The
International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF), that was later renamed to "International Institute of Economics and Finance". According to the regulations of the University of London, starting from the second year, students take classes in English. Upon the successful completion of requirements, they receive a double diploma issued by the University of London and the Higher School of Economics. In 2001, the Ministry of Education initiated the project of the
Unified State Exam (USE) which was developed together with the specialists from HSE. The USE is a series of exams that students must pass after graduating from school to apply to a university or professional college. Since 2009, the USE is the only form of graduation examination in schools. The university would go on to open several more faculties, including: The Faculty of Communication, Media, and Design, Philology, and in 2014 (with support of the
Yandex group) – the Faculty of Computer Science. In 2018, the university opened the faculties of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology. In 2015, the Faculty of History was reorganized into the School of Historical Sciences; the School was headed by historian
Alexander Kamensky (2015–2023) and since 2023 he has served as its academic supervisor. In recent years (2019–2020) the heads of various faculties in agreement with each other decided to start the company of renaming their faculties. The corresponding decision was made by the HSE Academic Council as part of the HSE development programs for 2030, aimed at further increasing the university's global competitiveness. Kuzminov claims that traditional classes are ineffective - they are visited by only 15-17% of students. Instead of them, professeurs will create their own distant courses and interact with the audience in the distant format. The university believes, that this measure will help to increase the engagement of students into the education process. Despite actively working for the government on various projects, the university had, until recently, positioned itself as a politically independent actor. Consequently, there have been incidents in the history of the university that caused public outcry. For instance, during the
anti-government protests of 2009, many university students and lecturers attended rallies. After that, the HSE administration received a request from the Moscow police to expel students and to fire professors that took part in anti-government activities. However, the university refused to take the requested action elaborating on its decision with the phrase: "they [students and professors] are not forbidden from participating in politics". Nikita Yuryevich Anisimov,
Rector of the university, was suspended by the
European University Association (EUA) following support for the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Union of Rectors (RUR) in March 2022, for being "diametrically opposed to the European values that they committed to when joining EUA”. In response to the Russian invasion, in March 2022 the
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, the
Fletcher School at
Tufts University,
School of Slavonic and East European Studies at
UCL, and
Australian National University suspended their relationships with the university. In 2022, Ukraine sanctioned the HSE. The university also fired dozens of its professors who protested the invasion. == Campuses ==