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In 2012, many universities started signing incentive contracts with their staff in order to stimulate research and active inclusion in the global academic market. Together with orders issued by Russia’s president in May, this has led to growth in university salaries. But exactly which responsibilities increase pay — teaching, research or administrative work? The answer to this question will help improve the effective contract system to make it profitable both for teachers and universities.

Experts believe that increasing productivity, diversifying the economy, as well as developing human capital and expanding non-resource exports will help boost Russia's economic growth. But the state policy has to be smart. This was discussed at a series of round tables and expert discussions on the topic of productivity at the XXII April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, organised by HSE University and Sberbank.

A meeting room, a presentation hall, a quiet zone for individual study, areas for discussing group projects—the new space will become the main attraction for all those who study at the HSE building on Staraya Basmannaya. HSE News Service attended the coworking opening ceremony and learned whether it is possible to sleep there, where HSE’s psychological hub is located, whether Mikhail Boytsov’s ID card works, and what students think about the new place.

From April 13 to 30, HSE University is hosting the XXII April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, one of the most important annual events in Russian humanities. Profile talked to Lev Jakobson, co-chair of the conference organising committee and vice president of HSE University, about the challenges that researchers face today.

The HSE eLearning Office will participate in the international Coursera Conference. The event, hosted by Coursera, HSE's strategic partner in the global distance learning market, will take place from April 19 to 21. Ekaterina Zinkovskaya of HSE’s eLearning Office talks about the conference and what positions HSE holds in the field of distance education.

Researchers from HSE University and Harvard University have found that the speed of finding an item with a unique combination of features is not affected by the ease with which these items can be grouped by features. Such results are predicted by theories of parallel attention control. The study is published in the Journal of Vision.

One documentary and six animations created by HSE Art and Design School students were shortlisted at this year's St. Anna’s Festival. The annual Young Cinema Forum attracts the attention of aspiring film professionals from all regions of Russia, as well as the CIS, Europe and America. Students of the HSE Art and Design School told the News Service about the ideas behind their works, which were selected by the professional jury, and what it was like to work on them.

The competition for promising young researchers is intensifying around the world, and spending on preparing future generations of highly qualified specialists is on the rise. This is happening against a backdrop of digitalisation, which is creating a new digital inequality. For example, a quarter of the adult population in Russia does not possess any digital skills and does not use the Internet. These and other topics were discussed by participants of a round table held during the XXII April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development organised by HSE University and Sberbank.