About the School
About SOFL
HSE School of Foreign Languages is a major research and educational unit of HSE University. It implements undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programmes, as well as professional development programmes. SOFL creates innovative language learning products (such as the Linguatest foreign-language testing system and the Lingua AI neural network) and drives the comprehensive development of the foreign language teaching system at HSE University. The languages taught include English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Arabic, and Russian as a foreign language.
SOFL faculty members comprise approximately 350 experts, including highly sought-after domestic and international practitioners, scientists, and authors of academic and educational publications. Among the faculty are winners of the national Choice of Russian Universities award, the national Rosstandart award, holders of HSE Best Teacher and HSE Best Academic Supervisor titles, and recipients of other national titles and awards.
SOFL educational programmes are modern and forward-looking. They are constantly evolving and being updated to include opportunities for fully English-taught tracks, increase the share of practice-oriented training, and enrich their content in response to current demands and challenges of the labour market.
SOFL students consistently demonstrate high academic performance. This enables them to win prizes at domestic and international research and practice conferences, as well as all-Russian competitions organised by foreign diplomatic missions.
An active dialogue between HSE students and experts from leading educational, research, and business organisations worldwide is fostered to discuss contemporary challenges and issues in linguistics. This takes place at the annual International Research and Practice Conference ‘Languages, Education, Development’ (HSE LED Conference) and on the Colloquium+ online platform.
SOFL students participate annually in the international academic mobility programme. Universities in approximately 30 cities around the world have already hosted over 90 bachelor's and master's students from SOFL.
SOFL international students contribute to the vibrant intercultural environment. They constitute 15% of the overall number of undergraduate students (representing over 20 countries) and 60% of the overall number of graduate students (representing 30 countries).
SOFL students gain valuable practical experience through internships at 39 companies. They undertake internships, execute professionally-oriented projects, tackle real-world case studies in their selected fields, and receive feedback from leading industry experts.
SOFL alumni are known for their highly sought-after qualifications. Their degrees provide them with strong proficiency in two foreign languages selected from the nine taught at the school (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, and Arabic), intercultural communication skills for both international academic and business environments, digital and research competencies, and competitive interdisciplinary knowledge. This comprehensive training allows them to face the future with confidence, often receiving their first job offers before they have even graduated. They go on to build successful careers in different sectors, including science and education, management, marketing and PR, media, analytics, IT, and finance.
Our graduates are highly valued by leading Russian companies such as Yandex, MTS, VK, Rosatom, T-Bank, SberUniversity, Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, Kaspersky Lab, X5 Group, Pier5, and HSE University itself, among others.
