About 700 employees have already left HSE

One of the founders of the Higher School of Economics, candidate of economic sciences Andrey Yakovlev announced his final departure from the university. The scientist wrote about it on his Facebook. Also, according to him, at the beginning of 2023, about 700 teachers and research staff left HSE out of seven thousand who worked there.

Yakovlev claims that the outflow of academics from the university accelerated in the middle of 2021, when former rector Yaroslav Kuzminov was replaced by the more conservative Nikita Anisimov and his management team. He believes that the beginning of the war in Ukraine and the university’s repressive policy against liberal-minded employees contributed to further mass dismissals of teachers.

Andrey Yakovlev started working at HSE from the moment of its foundation in 1993. For more than 18 years, he was the vice-rector of the university. He held the positions of full professor, chairman of the scientific commission, and director of the Institute of Enterprise and Market Analysis. He called the end of the contract as the formal reason for his dismissal.

• Recently, many famous scientists have left the Higher School of Economics. In August, another one of the founders of the university, Professor Igor Lipsyts, announced his departure. On August 10, he reported that the HSE management had unilaterally canceled his remote work contract. In April, TV presenter Alexander Arkhangelsky left the position of full professor of the Higher School of Economics, he left the academic council of the university. Prior to that, in July of last year, University of Chicago professor, economist Konstantin Sonin was fired from HSE. In 2019, several well-known teachers left the university at once, including political scientist Alexander Kynev.
• At the same time, many scientists note the transition of university policy to ideological rails. In June, political scientist Sergey Karaganov, who holds the post of dean of the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics at HSE, publicly called on the Russian authorities to use nuclear weapons against Western countries. The HSE Ethics Commission found no reason to condemn Karaganov’s statement, and did not find in his article non-compliance with the rules of the university or damage to his reputation.