About the School

The HSE School of Foreign Languages was created in 2013 to coordinate teaching and learning processes within the programmes of studying foreign languages and to conduct general educational and human resource policies.

The main goal of the School of Foreign Languages is to create a single educational platform for learning foreign languages by taking language courses, which are available for the students of different university faculties and branches. Moreover, it is aimed at the improvement of education quality at HSE and the development of students’ academic mobility. The department works with a focus on empowering the research and academic activity of the professors and tutors and is currently working on the development of the extended educational programs in the field of the foreign languages studies.

In 2015 the School of Foreign Languages has launched a new educational programme in Linguistics for Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees - Foreign Languages and Cross-cultural Communication.         

The functioning of School of Foreign Languages

Today learning a foreign language is considered to be a means of effective personal and professional development, as well as successful career building.

At the present time, comparing with other Russian universities, HSE has a number of advantages in the sphere of foreign language teaching, namely:

• passing an exam in foreign language is a prerequisite of being admitted to all HSE faculties;
• studying foreign languages is carried out throughout the period of bachelor, master or doctorate programmes;
• the university provides an opportunity for all students to vary the number of academic hours spent learning foreign languages;
• the conception of language learning has been accepted; such international examination systems as IELTS and BEC HIGHER are used for intermediate independent assessment.

The School of Foreign Languages aims to further optimize foreign languages teaching system at HSE. 

The principal aims of the School are as follows:

• to сreate a unity of educational and language environment within the foreign language courses for students of various faculties and university branches; to improve the quality of language education in the HSE and further develop the academic mobility of students;
• to enhance the role of HSE representatives in professional language communities in Russia and abroad;
• to increase the research and academic activity of professors working for language chairs;
• to develop an effective model of performance assessment and personnel development for professors of language chairs;
• to develop a system of supplementary education for HSE students, employees and outside attendees.

The functions the School performs are:

• to specify the content and structure of courses in foreign language learning;
• to develop a unified transparent system of intermediate and final independent assessment in various sections/modules of foreign language courses within bachelor, master and doctorate programs;
• to define the HR policy, requirements for certification of foreign language professors, and the system of material incentives;
• to determine the main vectors of scientific, didactic and methodological activity in the sphere of language education;
• to choose the directions and forms of professional development of academic staff;
• to define the course of international cooperation.