Research & Expertise news at HSE University

of Russians agree that too much importance today is attached to the achievements of science and technology, which is to the detriment of the spiritual side of life.

From November 14 - 24th a series of lectures on 'Diversity and Uniformity in Linguistic Sound Systems' by Ian Maddieson, Adjunct Research Professor at the University of New Mexico, Adjunct Professor Emeritus at the University of California was held at the HSE School of Linguistics. The course was dedicated to the phonetic diversity of languages and included eight lectures. During the series, Professor Maddieson talked to HSE English News Editor, Anna Chernyakhovskaya’s questions about his research into the relations between language and environment.

The 5th annual LCSR conference was organized  from 15th - 21st November at HSE. One of the keynote speakers at the conference on Cultural and Economic Changes under Cross-national Perspective is the Director of the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute at Qatar University, Darwish Al Emadi. Dr. Al Emadi’s talk was on The Challenges of Surveying in Countries with Unorthodox Population Pyramids. He spoke to HSE English News about his long term goal to improve education on a global level and about his cooperation with HSE.

On November 13-14 a meeting of the Executive Committee and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the World Values Survey Association was held at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. The main mission of the meeting was the design of the master questionnaire for the new wave of the World Values Survey to be launched in 2017. World Values Survey scholars are also participating in the LCSR 5th International Annual Research Conference 'Cultural and Economic changes under cross-national perspective' which is currently underway at HSE. Christian Haerpfer, President of the World Values Association, has talked to HSE News Service about the survey and the preparation for its new wave.

A conference at HSE on 11th & 12th November discussed the issue of relations between the state and non-profit organisations. In the column ‘An Academic’s View’ HSE Vice-RectorLev Jakobson considers how to approach this problem as subject matter for academic discussion.

While helping build consumer trust in credit institutions, deposit insurance can prompt bankers to engage in risky and opportunistic behaviour; larger banks tend to be more cautious and do a better job managing troubled assets, according to Natalia Gorelaya, Associate Professor at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences’ Department of Finance.

On 4th - 7th November the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, ASHE took place in Denver, Colorado. Incorporated in 1976 ASHE is the oldest professional association in higher education studies and has more than 2,000 members, mostly Americans.

In 2016, the Higher School of Economics will be the first Russian university to become an associate member of a large project being carried out by the Freie Universität Berlin’s Dahlem Humanities Center. The project, entitled the Thematic Network Principles of Cultural Dynamics, aims to strengthen international cooperation in humanities research. Its objective is to study the factors that affect the cultural processes in the history of humanity’s development.