Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
Photo: Dmitry Novikov
On May 28, the students of the university-wide elective course “GR in modern Russia: theory and practice” The projects were evaluated by three commissions consisting of professors. Department of Theory and Practice of Interaction between Business and Government HSE University. One of the commissions was headed by the head of the department, HSE President Alexander Shokhin.
This academic year, the Department of Theory and Practice of Business and Government Interaction at the National Research University Higher School of Economics celebrated its 20th anniversary. For over 15 years, its key project has been a university-wide elective course. It is attended not only by HSE students, but also by representatives of other universities, government agencies, commercial organizations, etc.
The department was one of the first at the university to use a project-based approach to teaching. “Students in our elective write their final theses not as classic coursework or diploma theses, but as projects, including group projects, aimed at solving specific problems. This is due to the fact that the faculty of the department are practicing politicians, officials and entrepreneurs,” notes Alexander Shokhin.
The head of the department himself annually supervises the preparation of several projects. In the current academic year, one of them was devoted to youth entrepreneurship; a team of four people worked on it: two HSE Master’s students and two elective students who had already received a higher education.
“Writing the paper under the guidance of Alexander Nikolaevich was exciting, but incredibly inspiring,” says Alena Velikanova, a first-year student in the master’s program.Media management” He was deeply immersed in the topic, guided us, helped to build a clear structure for the research and set the accents. And most importantly, he was sincerely interested not only in the successful defense of the work, but also in its further development. His recommendations went far beyond the scope of the academic assignment and concerned the prospects for the practical application of our developments.”
Alena completed the elective for the second time, and became its listener for the first time in the third year of the bachelor’s program “Journalism” Then her work, carried out under the supervision of Professor Nikolai Tsekhomsky, was devoted to public-private partnership in infrastructure projects of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Thanks to the elective, she deeply mastered economic issues, and this helped her in professional self-realization – she began to work in the Youth Council at the Representative Office of Kamchatka Krai.
“I am an ambitious person, and the elective has become a serious challenge for me for the second year: I prove to myself that I can handle any topic,” admits Alena. “This is a great opportunity to prove myself, to master a new direction in an intensive format under the guidance of real leaders, to adopt their invaluable experience. In the future, I would like to do an internship at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and then work in my specialty – in the field of media management.”
Another team of students, led by Professor Vladimir Salamatov, developed a project entitled “Development of the Northern Sea Route in the Context of Eastern Transport Infrastructure and Integration into International Transport Corridors.” It included Sergey Kharyushin, a second-year student in the bachelor’s program “State and municipal administration“, Alexey Proskurin, HSE graduate, head of the data analytics department of the Moscow Department of Information Technologies, and Elizaveta Metelyova, head of the operational analytics department of the Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation.
“The Northern Sea Route is a unique transport artery that connects Europe and Asia. After the introduction of sanctions, it became the most relevant, many problems associated with its use became more acute, and their solution required the combined efforts of various departments and shippers. The Northern Sea Route expands every year, attracts new participants, and last year it set a historical record for cargo turnover,” explains Elizaveta.
“We have developed a number of recommendations – for example, we proposed creating the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route, an independent institution that will coordinate interdepartmental cooperation between Rosmorrechflot, Rosatom, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russia and other structures on this issue. For online navigation tracking, we proposed creating a digital twin with the involvement of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. The problem of the shortage of icebreaker and Arctic cargo fleet was also highlighted in the work,” adds Alexey.
During the defense, the commission highly appreciated the project, and Professor Kirill Androsov recommended that its materials be submitted to the government commission. According to the authors, the expertise of Vladimir Salamatov, who has been working at the Department of Theory and Practice of Interaction between Business and Government at the National Research University Higher School of Economics since 2015, helped to prepare it at a high level and adequately defend it. In different years, he was Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, General Director of the International Trade Center, and created his own analytical center dealing with issues of international trade.
“I came to this department because it is unique. People who have achieved great results, worked or work in very important positions and, of course, have invaluable experience work here. They all understand that only the state or only business will not be able to solve the issues of our country’s development, that their alliance is needed for this. Both in professorial lectures and in student projects, the topic of interaction between business and government is highlighted every time,” Vladimir Salamatov notes.
According to his assessment, there is a noticeable differentiation among the elective course participants by educational tracks: not only economists and political scientists come here, but even engineers, graduates of the Higher School of Economics and other universities. By and large, anyone can participate in the selection for the elective course. “I am equally interested in working with first-year students and graduates who perceive the material, including through the prism of their experience,” the professor adds.
He recommends that elective students “not stand still, constantly study, test themselves, and if you do this constantly, success will not be long in coming.”
Among the professors of the department who supervised the projects of the students this year was Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Tatyana Ilyushnikova. The topic of one of the projects was devoted to the mechanisms of partnership interaction between the state and large businesses, the state and small businesses, large and small businesses, and another to the landscape of entrepreneurial awards as platforms for interaction between government bodies and businesses and identifying public opinion leaders in the entrepreneurial environment.
“GR is the art of building a dialogue between business and the state based on mutual trust and strategic vision. Our elective course at HSE is a unique platform where future economists, managers and analysts learn to understand real decision-making mechanisms by working with relevant cases from practice. In the modern economy, where the regulatory environment is rapidly changing, such competencies are becoming critically important. Come and we will analyze real cases and explore the field of interaction between business and government in our joint project work,” said Tatyana Ilyushnikova.
“In this elective, you will be able to receive exclusive information from outstanding experts – ministers, deputy ministers, State Duma deputies, famous entrepreneurs, and it will certainly be useful when studying in virtually any educational program. Personally, I learned a lot not only from the professors, but also from my senior comrades with whom I worked on the project,” says HSE student Sergey Kharyushin.
At the end of this academic year, 45 students of the university-wide elective course “GR in Modern Russia: Theory and Practice” defended 27 projects, including 12 group projects. The range of scores was quite large. The maximum score, which only some managed to get, was 9 out of 10. It gives the right to apply for publication in the electronic journal “Business. Society. Power”, 8-point works can also be considered.
After the defense, Alexander Shokhin thanked the audience for their involvement in the elective. Each was given a copy of the magazine “Business and Power in Russia”, published for the 20th anniversary of the department, with autographs of its professors.
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