Research & Expertise

October at the HSE Institute of Education concluded with the XVI International Conference on Higher Education (ICHE), dedicated to the theme ‘Higher Education: Between Private and Public Good.’ This year’s event brought together over 700 participants from 32 regions of Russia and eight countries, who engaged in a vibrant discussion on the evolving role of higher education in society.

In October, the IOE’s journal published a special edition, ‘Educational Mosaic: Understanding BRICS States’, devoted to the educational systems of the BRICS countries. The articles cover all levels of education, spanning from primary schools to doctoral education. Contributors include fellows from the Institute of Education and researchers from Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

Fellows from the International Laboratory of Research and Design in elearning, along with colleagues from the Department of Theoretical Economics and the College of Education at the UAE University, conducted a study on the factors affecting the effectiveness of collaborative work using AI. The results were published in the journal ‘Innovations in Education and Teaching International’.

On 28 August, Vera Maltseva, Director of the Center for Skills Development and Vocational Education and CERE co-founder, presented research on the evolving landscape of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Russia. This officially kicked off the CERE International Expert Seminar Series.

In September 2025, Elizaveta Korotkikh and Natalia Rosenfeld, who are both fellows of the Centre for Vocational Education and Skills Development and participants of  the Academic Postgraduate Programme for outstanding PhD candidates, completed a research visit to Tongji University in Shanghai and other leading Chinese universities.

This summer, the IOE became a co-founder of the CERE Observatory on Education, the first international expert and research platform aiming to advance the global visibility and impact of education systems in emerging economies. In 2025, the focus is on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in BRICS countries.

In a study published in PLOS One, researchers Alex Desatnik, Maxim Yakubovskiy, Sergei Tarasov, and Peter Fonagy dive into the role of trust in the classroom. They introduce the Epistemic Trust Towards Teacher (ETT) questionnaire, a new tool for measuring how much students trust their teachers—and how that trust shapes learning. Drawing on psychology, pedagogy, and even evolutionary theory, the study makes a strong case: trust isn’t just a nice extra in education, it’s a foundation for meaningful relationships and better outcomes.

In their recent study, Tommaso Agasisti, Tatiana Akuneeva, Aleksei Egorov, Daria Platonova, and Pavel Serebrennikov delve into the intricate relationship between non-academic staff and the technical efficiency of Russian universities from 2012 to 2021. Featured in Applied Economics, their research challenges conventional wisdom about university operations, offering fresh insights into how administrative and support roles impact institutional performance. By employing innovative statistical methods, the authors uncover nuanced dynamics that vary between research-intensive and teaching-intensive universities, reshaping our understanding of higher education management.

In a world where deadlines loom and procrastination tempts, a group of researchers—Kseniya Adamovich, Aleksandra Getman, Anastasia Kapuza, and Adelina Fayzullina—set out to uncover the secrets of how adult learners tackle their assignments. Their study, published in The Language Learning Journal, dives into the habits of over 70,000 English learners on an online platform, revealing surprising truths about time management, task completion, and academic success. What they found challenges conventional wisdom and offers fresh insights into the age-old question: Does slow and steady really win the race?

In their recent study, Alexey Koshel, Yaroslav Kuzminov, Ekaterina Kruchinskaia, and Bogdan Lesiv of HSE University unravel the complex challenge of regulating digital platforms across jurisdictions. Their paper, In Search of the Regulatory Optimum for Digital Platforms: A Comparative Analysis, sets out not only to dissect the legislative frameworks of key global economies but also to propose a more coherent legal language for Russia’s rapidly evolving platform economy.