[25][26] Members of various university councils include Russian politician Sergey Kiriyenko,[18] Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin,[27] the founder of "Sberbank" Herman Gref, the president of Renova Group Viktor Vekselberg, Russian billionaire technology entrepreneur Arkady Volozh, chairman of the management board of Otkritie FC Bank Mikhail Mikhailovich Zadornov, a major shareholder of the Russian gas company Novatek Leonid Mikhelson, philanthropist Vadim Moshkovich, as well as the businessman and political activist Mikhail Prokhorov.

Consequently, in 1992, Gaidar's government initiated a number of reforms [ru] that drastically increased the need for specialists familiar with the contemporary world economy to conduct analysis and run predictions.

[32] In 1991, together with economists Oleg Ananin and Rustem Nureev, Kuzminov and Yasin prepared a grant application for the European Union.

The proposed project was drawn up for 100 million euro that aimed to provide "technical assistance in the field of economic education".

For example, at the beginning of the 2000s, Kuzminov and Yasin participated in the creation of the "Strategy 2010 [ru]" – social and economic development program initiated by German Gref and aimed at forming foundation for government policy.

Upon the successful completion of requirements, they receive a double diploma issued by the University of London and the Higher School of Economics.

[54] The main reason for doing so is that originally HSE was primarily focused on Economic studies, but with constant rapid development a lot of new branches appeared.

[54] In 2010, a bronze bust of Yegor Gaidar was put up by private donations of the faculty in the university building Durasov's Palace [ru].

[citation needed] Despite actively working for the government on various projects, the university had, until recently, positioned itself as a politically independent actor.

After that, the HSE administration received a request from the Moscow police to expel students and to fire professors that took part in anti-government activities.

However, the university refused to take the requested action elaborating on its decision with the phrase: "they [students and professors] are not forbidden from participating in politics".

[57] In March 2011, the university organized debates on the Federal state law № 94 [ru] between Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny and rector Kuzminov.

[80] The main sources of financing are state funds, private education services, fundamental and applied research, grants, donations, and others support.

[20][34][81] Applied research commissioned by government agencies, private companies or international organizations constitute up to 40% of the university's income.

For instance, for the Russian Academic Excellence Project alone, the state granted 950 million rubles (as of January 2020, this amounts to approximately 13,874,037 euro).

[95][96] At the same time, the university launched the program "Data culture" aimed at the gradual implementation of digital literacy courses in all departmental units.

Starting from 1997, most of the exams have taken place in written form,[49][99] while all the major student works are checked with plagiarism detection software.

[49][103] Correspondingly, every student has an individual GPA-based ranking that illustrates not only the academic performance, but also affects the size of the scholarship, gives a discount on tuition fees and the opportunity to participate in foreign internships, learn additional languages at the university and much more.

Among academic supervisors was Nobel Laureate in Economics Eric Maskin (Laboratory of Decision Choice and Analysis),[113] receiver of the Fields Medal Andrei Okounkov[114] and other professors from foreign universities.

[123][124][125][126] In 2013, the HSE campus in Moscow launched the public project "University opened to the city" aimed at conducting a series of lectures, exhibitions, master classes, festivals, and educational activities for citizens.

[132] Meanwhile, journalist Vladimir Solovyov spoke about HSE: "They are absolutely openly inciting things here, de facto preparing such a Maidan underground and are that very fifth column.

"[134] In March 2011, a debate took place at HSE between Alexei Navalny and Yaroslav Kuzminov about the "public procurement law" 94-FZ in the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development.

[135] In 2013, on the Moscow campus of the Higher School of Economics, searches were carried out at the department of the presidential adviser on human rights, Mikhail Fedotov, who participated in the examination of the second criminal case of YUKOS.

[34] At the beginning of 2014, the government delayed the consideration of Yaroslav Kuzminov’s candidacy for the position of rector, but in the end the contract was extended for another five years.

[144] Some of those fired filed a lawsuit demanding 550,000 rubles as compensation for moral damage, but the Basmanny Court of Moscow refused.

[147][148][149] Despite a letter to management from former colleagues at the Faculty of Computer Science,[150][151] Vellikok was not reinstated in her position, and the termination of the contract was not seen as "neither political persecution nor a violation of the employee's labor rights.

"[152][153] At the beginning of 2020, the HSE administration reprimanded Professor Oleg Matveychev for a post on Facebook, considering it unacceptable and containing motives of hostility and hatred.

"[159][160] Initially, HSE applied for grants to invite foreign scholars who, especially at the beginning of the university's history, had more expertise than local specialists.

Thus, HSE University introduced the "effective contract" – a financial system to encourage professors to consider the Higher School of Economics as a primary workplace.

[170] Vladimir Kiriyenko is a business executive and media manager who is the CEO of VK, a popular Russian social networking service.