About the School

The School of Politics and Governance (SPG) brings together faculty members of the Faculty of Social Sciences who teach various courses in the fields of Political Science and Public Administration.

In 2017, the Faculty’s Bachelor and Master programmes in Public Administration received accreditation of European Association for Public Administration Accreditation (EAPAA) for full compliance with European educational standards. In 2018, the Faculty’s programmes in Political Science received accreditation from the Central Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (ZEvA).

Faculty members’ teaching is inextricably linked with their research. Faculty members participate in academic and applied projects at HSE institutions, namely the Institute for Public Administration and Governance and the Institute for Applied Political Studies, which are affiliated with the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The integration of coursework and applied research is a hallmark of the School. The SPG’s combination of staff resources and research institutes allows for comprehensive theoretical and applied research and the development of courses and programmes that prepare students for the demands of the labour market.

Due to the dynamic research and publication activity of the School’s faculty members, HSE University has ranked among the top 100 universities in the international QS subject ranking in Politics and International Studies for the past three years. And for the past two years it has ranked first among Russian universities. In 2018, HSE University entered the top 200 in the ARWU ranking in Political Science, again ranking first among Russian universities. In the QS subject ranking in Social Sciences & Management HSE University ranks 75th in the world.

SPG students conduct interdisciplinary research in a range of areas, including public administration quality assessment; state, business, and budget sector organization relations; programme and policy organization; regional and municipal government models; and bureaucratic optimization of bureaucracy.

The School increasingly cooperates with major employers, including federal and regional bodies, state corporations, research organizations, and non-profit organizations. Student projects focus on solving problems in the sphere of national development and are developed with an eye towards the interests of major employers.

The SPG strives to increase the number of publications by its teachers and actively contributes to scholarly discourse in the field with the publication of monographs, articles, textbooks, teaching aids, and analytical and educational materials. The HSE Journal State and Municipal Management Issues is one of Russia’s the leading research publications, and is included in the Scopus database and the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) on the Web of Science platform.

The School of Politics and Governance particularly strives to foster international contacts in order to conduct joint research, create double degree programmes, and organize summer schools and internships for students and teachers.