HSE University Strengthens Its Leading Position in Russian Rating of Entrepreneurial Universities

© HSE University

According to the rating by the Expert Analytical Centre, HSE University has become one of the best entrepreneurial universities in Russia, entering the top three and sharing 1st–3rd place with MIPT and St. Petersburg State University. The final rating included 43 Russian universities. The rating methodology is focused on startups founded by university graduates, the number of graduates to do so, and the volume of investment in such projects.

HSE University has improved its position in the overall ranking of entrepreneurial universities compared to last year (2nd–4th place).

Lomonosov Moscow State University and Bauman Moscow State Technical University also made the top five alongside HSE University, MIPT and St. Petersburg State University.

For several years, HSE University has been among the leaders in the ranking of universities in economic and business education.

This year, 21 universities and one business school were included in the ranking. Graduates of HSE's economic programmes have created 176 startups over the past ten years, attracting USD 449.6 million in investments. According to the indicator for the ‘Attracting investments in startups’ sub-rating, HSE University ranks 3rd ($449.6 million) among Russian universities. NES and HSE University have the largest shares of supported projects in the top ten of the rating (55 and 52% respectively).

Nina Feodosiadi

According to Nina Feodosiadi, Director of the HSE Business Incubator, the incubator provides an opportunity for students to take their first steps in entrepreneurship: ‘Our task is to involve as many students interested in creating startups as possible, and to provide them with the environment, tools and community to implement their ideas. We and our partners implement accelerating, incubating and piloting programmes, as well as an export accelerator and a ‘No-code Academy’. All of this helps students to establish contacts with investors, develop technologies, make their first sales and enter markets.’

Igor Agamirzian

HSE University Vice President Igor Agamirzian believes that the main focus should be on the formation of entrepreneurial culture: ‘In the modern world, the requirements for individual success are very different from what they were in the industrial era. They include digital literacy, soft skills, and communication culture.’

In the current study, the rating is based on four indicators, which last year were grouped into the ‘Scale and success’ group. This year, the authors decided to abandon the indicators of the ‘Demand’ group, since indicators related to online activity are very volatile, seasonal, and do not always reflect the success of startups (especially in the B2B segment). As in previous studies, the number of startups and graduates who founded them, as well as the volume of investments attracted by startups, are the most significant contributors to the rating, making up 30% of the final score. The remaining 10% is assigned to the ‘Share of supported projects’ indicator, which shows the share of startups with non-zero investments. As with last year, due to the large gap in many absolute indicators between a number of universities and those in the sample, all the indicators were not normalized evenly—from the maximum to the minimum, but taking deciles into account.

The threshold for universities to enter the ratings rises continually as the database expands. This year, the final rating included only those universities responsible for the creation of more than 13 startups (last year, the number was 10). In the economic education section, the figure was more than 11 startups (up from 8 last year).