In November, IOE welcomed a cohort of top-notch law & policy experts from the U.S., Russia, Poland, Belgium, South Africa and Germany for the first international conference, ‘Multi-level Governance in Education: Top-down Governance, Transfer of Authority, and Regional Cooperation.’ A joint initiative between IOE and the ‘EduLaw’ (Erasmus+ Mundus – Curriculum Development) project, the event featured multi-prism debate about how more justified central–local power schemas in education can be devised as an important condition for shaping more effective, equity-centric L&D environments.

IOE doctoral student Irina Dvoretskaya, who has concentrated most of her research on topics of digital transformation in secondary education, has recently completed her PhD internship with the Centre for Research in IT in Education (CRITE) in Dublin, the Republic of Ireland. During her stay at CRITE, Irina was focused on exploring how Irish schools from various socioeconomic settings put to use the potential of modern ICT to make a difference in school-age learning & development.

Igor Chirikov, Academic Supervisor at the IOE Center for Higher Education Sociology, is shortly to commence his term with UC Berkeley (California, the USA) as Academic Director for a major international study, Student Experience in the Research University (SERU).

Tatiana Khavenson, a research fellow at the IOE International Laboratory for Education Policy Analysis, has been acknowledged by Scopus Awards Russia 2018 as the most frequently cited scholar in ‘Education.’

The first meeting of the IOE Visiting Committee, which includes six international experts in education from five countries alongside three Russian experts, was held on October 19–20. The Committee gave independent assessments with respect to multiple areas of the Institute's academic profile, which will serve as important groundwork for refining and reinforcing IOE’s Development Strategy through 2024.

A Cooperation Agreement has recently been signed between HSE and Politecnico di Milano (Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering) to jointly embark on a large-scale study titled, Efficiency, Performance and Impact of Higher Education Institutions (EPI). In accordance with the agreement, the IOE Laboratory for University Development will act as the principal R&D venue for this initiative, while Dr. Tommaso Agasisti, Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano and one of Europe's most renowned experts in education economics, will take up overall project supervision.

HSE Institute of Education and the Center for Strategic Research have come up with an all-round action plan for upgrading Russian education to bolster the country’s technological development and socio-economic growth.

IOE is soon to sign a Memorandum of Cooperation with Educational Testing Service, the world’s largest private organization in educational measurement and testing. During their recent visit to ETS Headquarters in Princeton (New Jersey, USA), IOE experts Elena Kardanova and Tatjana Kanonire met with their ETS colleagues to map out the overall scope of the upcoming cooperation and to negotiate preliminary plans in a number of specific areas.