IOE to Push Frontiers of Cooperation with the World Bank

On August 22, HSE leaders, including the University Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov and Head of IOE Isak Froumin, met with Jaime Saavedra, Director of the World Bank's Education Global Practice.

The meeting focused on issues related to areas of current and future cooperation between HSE University and the World Bank. These dimensions include not only education, but the development of human capital in general. The parties specifically touched on prospects for collaboration in order to better address the ‘grand challenges’ of today.

A central issue discussed was the realization of the Human Capital Index, a global initiative of the World Bank, which is dedicated to the study of factors influencing the development of human capital. The two key dimensions this study focuses on are education and healthcare. Countries can use the findings of this work to identify areas in which investments would ensure an increase in human capital, which means, in a longer term, enhancements in the economy and national wellbeing.

HSE Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov emphasized the critical importance of this work, especially in connection with the so-called problem of failure. In Russia, for example, according to recent estimates, more than a quarter of students do not reach the basic level of functional literacy in at least one discipline. This insufficiency may in turn be one of the determining factors of students’ economic failure in the future.

HSE University and the World Bank are long-standing partners. Head of the HSE Institute of Education, Isak Froumin, noted that the parties have collaborated in organizing the HSE's annual April international academic conference. The bank and the university also organize joint educational events.

‘This year marked a debut of our joint summer school on the role of education in national and regional socio-economic development, which has become a genuine success,’ Professor Froumin commented. ‘We look forward to expanding the scope and extent of our collaboration.’

The meeting resulted in new joint research agreements in the areas of education and socio-economic development in post-socialist countries. HSE University and the World Bank also agreed to organize new international conferences and educational projects, including a summer educational programme.