Common Ground – Education and Research

On September 30, Yaroslav Kuzminov, rector of the Higher School of Economics, and representatives of the HSE met with a delegation from Japan’s Tohoku University led by the university’s president, Susumu Satomi. Both sides signed university-wide agreements on cooperation and academic and students exchange between the universities in the fields of linguistics, economics and management and other areas of mutual interest. Tohoku University is the third of seven imperial universities to be founded in Japan (in 1907, after Tokyo University and Kyoto University).

The new agreement will expand the HSE’s international cooperation with Japan, which has strengthened consistently over the past several years. In 2009, the HSE received a group of students in Moscow from Kyoto University and Hitotsubashi University; a reciprocal visit was made by undergraduate and graduate students from the HSE’s Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs to the Japanese universities. In 2014, the faculty and students of the HSE’s School of Asian Studies took part in the 6th annual international conference ‘Japan in Search of a New Global Role.’ Dmitry Davydenko, Assistant Professor of Theory and Comparative Law, was invited by the University of Nagoya to give ​​a presentation at an international symposium on the theory and practice of conflict resolution, including on the topic of ​​legal regulation in the economy.

The signed agreement will establish long-term language courses at Tohoku University for the students of the HSE’s School of Asian Studies who study Japanese. In turn, the HSE will offer instruction to Japanese students who study Russian. A student exchange will take place in the first year: the Japanese university will offer fully-funded places to three Russian students who submit the most impressive and motivated application. Furthermore, cooperation withTohoku University will make it possible to arrange short-term training sessions for instructors and researchers in both Japan and Russia.

HSE Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov explained why it is so important to build and deepen cooperation with Japan right now.

‘First, academic ties are most resilient, and they should be used to counteract that sense of alienation that is gaining momentum in today’s world. Second, the HSE’s cooperation with Japan may have been launched a while ago, but it has yet to reach the level of that seen with the United States or Europe, so it is vital we develop it and invest in it.’

Combining efforts in the fields of education and research with one of Japan’s oldest universities will not only help the HSE expand its educational and research base, but it will generate new approaches when it comes to solving relevant problems using best international practices.

Dr. Susumi Satomi, President of Tohoku University noted that interest in studying Russian is on the rise. 

'Today about 10 percent of our students choose to study Russian as their second foreign language. We view the further development of student exchanges and research cooperation with the HSE as promising and apposite areas of activity. We are at the very start of our journey, and i hope that we will achieve good results.'

HSE News Service