Research & Expertise

In September 2025, young people in Nepal took to the streets, armed not with party slogans but with online chats. Researchers at HSE analysed a million messages on a Discord server to understand the mechanics of youth protest. Experts discussed why the protesters identified themselves as Generation Z and what lessons can be drawn from this experience.

Economists from HSE University and the Southern Federal University have found that personality traits such as conscientiousness and open-mindedness help schoolchildren improve their academic performance. The study, conducted across seven countries, was the first large-scale international analysis of the impact of character traits on the academic achievement of 10 and 15-year-olds. The findings have been published in the International Journal of Educational Research.

World Deaf Day is traditionally celebrated on the last Sunday of September. This year, the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences joined the celebration and, together with the Moscow branch of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf (VOG Moscow), launched a study of the needs of hearing-impaired Moscow residents in terms of social services and accessible environments.

The HSE Centre for African Studies has marked its fifth anniversary. It was established to support Russian companies and government bodies in their engagement with countries across the continent and, over the years, has proved its effectiveness and uniqueness. A ceremonial event to mark the centre’s anniversary was held at HSE’s Cultural Centre.

Mathematicians at HSE University believe that there is no need to fear losing jobs because of the widespread use of AI, while at the same time they warn against uncritical acceptance of works and projects prepared with its help. AI, however, can be a useful tool in research, creating models and processing large volumes of information.

On September 23, the HSE University–St Petersburg Rope Shop Building hosted the Second Russian–Chinese Forum 'Culture of Education' and the annual meeting of the Russian–Chinese Association of Applied Research Institutes. More than 100 participants from leading non-government Chinese universities and representatives of 15 Russian universities discussed the integration of artificial intelligence in education and industry.

On September 15–16, 2025, the HSE Centre of Classical and Oriental Archaeology at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, Faculty of Humanities, held an international conference marking the fifth anniversary of excavations carried out by HSE archaeologists as part of the Parion Mission of Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, at the agora of Parion.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) pose challenges not only in medicine, but also in education, social policy, and technology. Scientists, doctors, educators, and government representatives have discussed how science and practice can help people with such disorders at the conference ‘Autism. Challenges and Solutions.’ For the first time, the event has been held at HSE University.

The International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre at HSE University presented the scientific report ‘From Fields to Futures: Competition, Financialisation, and Digitalisation in Global Grain Value Chains.’ The document was prepared as part of expert support from the BRICS Working Group on Competition Research in Food Markets. The presentation took place at the academic conference ‘Emerging Challenges of Competition Law and Policy in the BRICS and Beyond’ on September 12, 2025, in Cape Town (South Africa), which the BRICS Centre organised together with the University of Cape Town on the sidelines of the 9^th BRICS International Competition Conference.

Voice assistants have become part of everyday life. They can plan routes, play music and films, and answer questions. But the quality of their speech requires assessment. To address this, students of the Applied Artificial Intelligence Workshop at the HSE University and VK Engineering and Mathematics Schoolhave developed neural networks capable of evaluating speech synthesis.