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Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain and the Mental Health Research Centre have proposed a new method of linguistic analysis that enables the distinction between normal and pathological ageing. Using this approach, they showed that patterns in patients’ word choices during verbal fluency tests allow clinicians to more accurately differentiate clinically significant impairments from subjective memory complaints. Incorporating this type of analysis into clinical practice could improve the accuracy of early dementia diagnosis. The results have been published in Applied Neuropsychology: Adult.

Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain used magnetoencephalography to study how the brains of adults and children respond to words during reading. They showed that in children the brain takes longer to process words that are frequently used in everyday speech, while rare words and pseudowords are processed in the same way—slowly and in parts. With age, the system is reorganised: high-frequency words shift to a fast route, whereas new letter combinations are still analysed slowly. The study was published in the journal Psychophysiology.

The Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics studies highly complex processes of interaction between molecules and atoms in solids and liquids, the quantum mechanics of these processes, and ultra-thin two-dimensional materials. HSE physicists, together with colleagues from leading academic institutes, investigate the properties of superconductors and topological materials, phenomena at ultra-low temperatures, as well as problems of turbulence and hydrodynamics.

An instructional seminar of the Open Doors International Olympiad has been held at HSE University. Approximately 100 representatives of 24 Russian universities involved in organising the olympiad took part in the event. The seminar focused on updating the participants’ profile maps, organising the work of methodological teams in a digital environment, and ensuring the quality of the methodological content for the olympiad.

An international team including researchers from the HSE Faculty of Computer Science has presented KoWit-24, an annotated dataset of 2,700 Russian-language Kommersant news headlines containing wordplay. The dataset enables an assessment of how artificial intelligence detects and interprets wordplay. Experiments with five large language models show that even advanced systems still make mistakes, and that interpreting wordplay is more challenging for them than detecting it. The results were presented at the RANLP conference; the paper is available on Arxiv.org, and the dataset and the code for reproducing the experiments are available on GitHub.

By 2030, the global education system will need 44 million new teachers. Schools have already started rehiring retired teachers and issuing licenses for accelerated programmes. Experts from the HSE University Institute of Education have analysed the educational policies of almost 50 countries and published the report ‘World Education Policy—2025.’

More than 3,000 international school students took part in the INTO HSE International Olympiad, whose award ceremonies were held in Tashkent and Bishkek in March 2026. The university’s outreach events also included final examinations, presentations of academic programmes, and on-site selection tests for prospective applicants. In Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, nearly 200 participants received diplomas as winners and prize-winners. The best of them will be eligible to apply for state-funded places at HSE.

Forbes has published its eighth annual ranking of the best Russian higher education institutions. HSE University took first place. Its leadership was secured, among other factors, by strong support from employers and high performance in the Academic Environment metric.

HSE University has become the leading Russian educational institution by the number of first-place positions in national graduate employment rankings. The rankings are compiled separately for each field of study, taking into account the share of graduates who find employment and their salary levels. The university ranked first in areas such as Mathematics and Mechanics (Master’s level), Computers Science and Engineering (Bachelor’s level), Information Security (Bachelor’s level), Asian and African Studies (Master’s level), Economics and Management (Bachelor’s level), among others.

The award ceremony for the winners and runners-up of the first International Software Engineering Olympiad PROD took place in Moscow. It was attended by over 4,000 high school students from all Russian regions and 33 other countries, including Armenia, Brazil, Germany, Georgia, Denmark, Israel, Indonesia, China, Congo, Laos, Liberia, the USA, South Korea, and Japan.