Once out of secondary school, two thirds of young people leave their home villages and small towns never to come back. Russia's 'backwoods' are increasingly depopulated and rapidly ageing, notes Ilya Kashnitsky in his paper 'A Cohort Study of Intraregional Migration of Russian Youth' presented at the HSE's XV April Conference

The living standards of Russian schoolteachers vary significantly across regions due to varied economic, social, environmental, and cultural circumstances. Having examined teacher salariesin the first nine months of 2013, Leading Research Fellow at the HSE Center for Applied Economic Research Pavel Derkachev has made certain recommendations

An aggressive low-achiever can be the most popular kid even in a class that’s highly motivated simply because teenagers admire his rugged machismo, while top-of-the-class pupils tend to be popular when their classmates study hard too. Daniil Alexandrov, Head of the Research Laboratory for Sociology in Education and Science at HSE St Petersburg and his colleagues, Chief Research Fellow Valeriya Ivanyushina and Junior Research Fellow Vera Titkova found this and more in their research

Russian students may be materially and physically dependent on their parents, but unlike their american peers, it doesn’t stop them feeling they are socially independent beings. HSE student Ekaterina Novikova presented her research, «Social independence as a consequence of economic independence; a comparison between Russian and American students»

Socializing with A-grade classmates can improve students’ academic performance. However, students tend to socialise with A-graders only to get help, while they prefer to make friends with those whose academic performance is similar to their own. C-graders are often the most popular among students themselves. This article by Diliara Valeeva, Oleg Poldin, and Maria Yudkevich was first published in the HSE's Journal of Educational Studies

Concerned about discipline and uniformity, teachers at Russian universities tend to squeeze out students perceived as not fitting in with the academic culture, suggests a study by Ivan Gruzdev, Elena Gorbunova, and Isak Frumin

The reform of pedagogical education in Russia should include training teachers in various subjects simultaneously, creating career opportunities, and an algorithm for ‘mobilizing’ the best recent graduates. Anatoly Kasprzhak has studied the experience of teacher training modernization in France, Germany, USA, Great Britain, Finland, Singapore, and Japan

A number of fairly strong independent economic think tanks have emerged in Russia, but their further development depends on whether they can maintain their independence and provide good analysis while responding to the new challenges posed by changes in demand for their services.These are the findings of a collaborative ARETT-HSE study

Russians are well ahead of many other countries in terms of literacy and numeracy, but lag behind in computer skills, according to the OECD Survey of Adult Skills presented at the HSE on October 8, 2013

The self-sufficient and closed academic environment in Russia is an obstacle to the appearance of world-class universities, argues Maria Yudkevich in her article presented at the 4th International Conference ‘University Traditions: a Resource or a Burden?’

University rankings are clearly evolving from serving as a means of evaluating institutions of higher education to being a tool that impacts university management. Larisa Taradina spoke about university rankings at the 4th International Conference ‘University Traditions: A Resource or a Burden’

A child’s attitude towards school is formed by his parents and classmates. And, according to a new study published in Voprosy Obrazovaniya (Education Issues) magazine, the type of school doesn’t have a significant influence on his or her view