HSE and Communication University of Zhejiang Strengthen Partnership in Creative Education
On July 7, 2025, HSE University hosted a delegation from China at the historic Durasov House. The delegation, led by Wei Guotan, Chair of the University Council of Communication University of Zhejiang (CUZ), was welcomed by HSE Vice Rector Dmitry Zemtsov, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Creative Industries Tatiana Rivchun, and representatives of the HSE Institute for Creative Industries Development and the HSE Art and Design School—the initiators of the partnership with their Chinese colleagues.
The visit focused on the further development of collaboration between the two universities. They already have experience of cooperation through academic and practical seminars on building global careers in the creative industries, as well as expert involvement in the HSE Creative Open competitions.
At the opening of the meeting, Dmitry Zemtsov highlighted the importance of developing international partnerships for HSE University, which ranks among the world’s top 100 universities in several subject areas according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject. The vice rector emphasised the value of cooperation in implementing initiatives to support young professionals, including international competitions. He also noted the significant contribution that CUZ—with its extensive expertise in contemporary media, communications, and design—could make to the work of the HSE Art and Design School and the Institute for Creative Industries Development.
‘HSE University offers double degree undergraduate and master’s programmes in partnership with world-class universities. We look forward to building on our existing ties through new joint projects, competitions, and postgraduate educational programmes,’ said Dmitry Zemtsov.
In his response, Wei Guotan stressed the importance of collaboration with HSE University for CUZ, one of China’s leading universities in the field of communications. Founded in 1978 through a joint initiative by the Zhejiang provincial government and the National Radio and Television Administration, CUZ has two campuses in Hangzhou and Tongxiang. The university has partnerships with over 150 international institutions, and many of its students continue their studies abroad.
‘We are interested in academic exchange for both students and faculty, as well as in developing joint educational programmes, and we would be glad to welcome representatives of HSE University to our institution,’ Mr Wei said in his speech.
Tatiana Rivchun, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Creative Industries and Director of the Institute for Creative Industries Development, confirmed a shared readiness to cooperate across a wide range of fields within the creative industries. These are well represented at both CUZ and HSE University, not only in design and creative industries management, but also in areas especially relevant to the Chinese side—journalism, television and radio broadcasting, cinema, music, and more.
‘A key feature of contemporary education in the creative industries is its project-oriented nature,’ Tatiana Rivchun emphasised. ‘At HSE, this approach is supported by our digital platform, which our Chinese colleagues have already encountered through their participation in the HSE Creative Open competition jury.’ The platform—hse.space—offers digital portfolios and related services that have extended beyond the faculty, the university, and even the country.
‘Our Creative City platform, which showcases projects tied to specific locations—cities and places on the map—helps our institute and school to compile a database of best practices aimed at enhancing urban appeal and engaging with local heritage. We are pleased that it already features projects from a variety of countries, and we look forward to increasing the number of Chinese and joint projects represented,’ Tatiana Rivchun added.
The parties exchanged gifts. HSE University presented images and an original print—a stylised view of Moscow—from the HSE Cities Collection illustration series by Alexandra Yeremina, student of the Art and Design School. The collection features all of HSE’s campuses. In return, Wei Guotan presented an original print in the style of traditional Chinese woodcut.
First, the Chinese delegation had a guided tour of Durasov House, where the guests learned about the historical, architectural, and cultural significance of the heritage site. They then explored HSE’s educational environment further at the Art and Design School and the Institute for Creative Industries Development on 12 Malaya Pionerskaya Street. There, the delegation visited lecture rooms and computer labs, explored studios, the Design Lab, shop, and gallery—all spaces that illustrate the transition from education to professional, commercial, and creative application in modern creative education. At the close of the visit, the Chinese colleagues reiterated their interest in continuing joint work through the portfolio platform and competition framework, and in discussing shared educational programmes and academic exchanges.
See also:
Researchers Discover How Spelling Errors Slow Down Reading in Russian
Psycholinguists from the Centre for Language and Brain at HSE University–St Petersburg have shown that words that are frequently misspelled are processed more slowly by readers, even when presented with the correct spelling. The researchers confirmed this effect for the first time using Russian-language materials and found that response speed is most strongly linked to how confidently individuals can distinguish the correct spelling of a word from an incorrect one. The study has been published in The Mental Lexicon.
Scientists Discover Why Europium 'Misbehaves'
Europium is a rare-earth metal responsible for the pure red glow in displays and other luminescent materials. For a long time, however, it refused to emit light when surrounded by certain organic molecules known as acylpyrazolone ligands. Chemists have now uncovered the reason: in europium complexes with these ligands, a 'black window' appears—a charge-transfer state in which the energy absorbed by the ligand is dissipated as heat rather than emitted as light. Understanding this mechanism opens the way to designing more efficient red-emitting materials for displays, fluorescent thermometers, and chemical sensors. The results have been published in Dalton Transactions.
HSE Economists Reveal How the Wage Gap Emerges Among Vocational School Graduates
HSE researchers examined the careers of 600,000 graduates of Russian secondary vocational education programmes and found that at the start of their careers, the gender wage gap reaches 23%, doubling after three years. This disparity is largely due to male and female students choosing different occupations when enrolling in vocational schools. These were the findings made by Sergey Roshchin, Natalya Yemelina, and Ksenia Rozhkova from of the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences. The article has been published in Educational Studies.
HSE Researchers Make Aldehydes Perform Dual Function
Chemists from HSE University have discovered a way to carry out a reductive addition reaction without using an external reducing agent. Instead, the required 'resource' is supplied by the aldehyde itself, one of the reaction participants. This approach helps prevent unwanted side reactions, reduces toxicity, and simplifies the production and synthesis of organic molecules, including those used in the manufacture of medicines. The study has been published in Journal of Catalysis.
Education in a Changing World: Russian–Chinese Dialogue in Beijing
How are universities, vocational education systems, and researcher training programmes evolving in response to new challenges? These questions were at the heart of the international forum ‘Reconfiguring Education in a Changing World: Russia–China Dialogues on Higher Education, Skills, and Research Training’, held in China in mid-June. The event was jointly organised by the HSE Institute of Education and the Graduate School of Education of Peking University, which hosted the forum on its campus.
Tabular Data Anonymisation Solution for Safe Use in AI Systems Developed at HSE University
The AI and Digital Science Institute at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science has developed a tabular data anonymisation service designed to prepare corporate datasets for use in analytics and AI applications. The solution can identify personal data in structured datasets, apply consistent and reproducible anonymisation rules, and generate the artifacts required for quality control, auditing, and subsequent use of data in secure environments.
HSE University and Unicamp Develop Partnership Projects
At the end of May, HSE University in Moscow received a delegation from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp, Brazil), which has held a strong, long-standing partnership with HSE. The meeting in Moscow took place as part of the International Partner Week, which was held from May 19 to 22 by HSE University–St Petersburg. The event was attended by Unicamp representatives: Rafael Dias, Director of International Affairs, and Milena Serafim, Associate Director of the Faculty of Applied Sciences.
HSE in Minsk: Developing Cooperation with Belarus
On May 26–29, 2026, an HSE University team visited Minsk, the capital of Belarus. The purpose of the trip was to meet and hold talks with Belarusian universities and scientific organisations—HSE University's current and prospective partners.
HSE Scientists Develop Method to Compress Large Language Models Without Losing Quality
Researchers from the AI and Digital Science Institute at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science have developed a new compression method for large language models such as GPT and LLaMA that reduces their size by 25–36% without additional training or significant loss of accuracy. This is the first approach to use mathematical transformations—specifically, rotations of model weights—to make models more amenable to compression with structured matrices. The study results have been published in ACL Findings 2025. The code is available on GitHub.
Machine Learning Models Can Help Reduce Volatility and Boost Stock Market Returns
The use of machine learning models makes it possible to achieve greater accuracy in predicting risks in the Russian stock market compared to classical econometric approaches. The predictive power of these models increases by 23%, while the average investor’s return can reach up to 13% per annum. These conclusions were drawn by Nikita Lysenok from the Department of Financial Market Infrastructure at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences. The paper has been published in Fundamental and Applied Mathematics.