HSE Student Among Winners of First Stage of City Improvement Competition
On January 30, the winners of the first stage of the City Improvement Competition were announced. One of the winners is Evgeny Shvirkov, a first-year student of the Bachelor’s in Public Administration at HSE University. Evgeny presented a project entitled ‘The Development and Improvement of the Availability of Healthcare as a Factor Improving the Quality of Russian Urban Life’. The competition was organised by VEB.RF and VK, and its academic partner was the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences.
A total of four works were recognised by the organisers. In addition to the HSE student, the list of winners included Petr Chernyavsky from the Volga branch of MPEI (for the project ‘Reconstruction of the Public Garden on Pushkin Street’), Varvara Bucherova from SPbPU (‘Improvement in the Concepts of Sustainable and Smart Urban Development as a Factor in Improving Quality of Life’), and Ekaterina Kochneva from RANEPA (‘The Role of Initiative Budgeting in the Concept of Increasing the Quality of Urban Life’).
In the first stage of the competition, undergraduate and postgraduate students were asked to study data on the quality of life in Russian cities and conduct a brief study in ‘Urban Economy’, ‘Healthcare’ or ‘Urban Improvement’. The works had to include not only analysis of the quality of urban life, but also specific proposals on how to improve it.
Nikolay Pilnik, Associate Professor of the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences and member of the competition expert council
‘The City Improvement Competition is a good chance for students to try their hand at forming specific proposals to improve the quality of urban life. Our interaction with a development institution such as VEB.RF goes far beyond this competition—it also forms part of the project work of our faculty. For us, this is a way to involve students in the work to solve applied problems. For students, this is an opportunity to apply and assess the knowledge and skills they have.’
Evgeny Shvyrkov says that it was not easy to choose a topic for research.
Evgeny Shvyrkov
‘The organisers proposed three different research areas. After considering all of them, I decided to focus on healthcare. No matter how ironic it may sound, it is one of the most painful topics concerning the quality of life in the Russian Federation.’
In his work, he touched upon many problems in this sphere: low transport accessibility of medical institutions, unsatisfactory external and technical conditions of premises, insufficient provision of professional staff, weak promotion of healthy lifestyle among citizens, etc. Evgeny tried to show the importance of developing and improving the accessibility of healthcare to enhance quality of life, as well as to present possible ways of improving the situation in this area. Rosstat statistics and data from scientific publications, as well as the City Life Index developed by VEB.RF Corporation, came in handy for this purpose.
‘Each of these problems requires a comprehensive solution, in some cases with the help of the government. However, non-government projects can also make a significant contribution to improving the situation,’ says the researcher.
Evgeny says that the main benefit of the competition was the new experience he gained. ‘The competition helped me develop my skills at writing research papers, searching for and analysing information. I didn’t have the foggiest idea about healthcare before this research. For me, competitions like this have always been and still are a breath of fresh air; I learn new things and try to improve my skills!’ adds the student.
Applications for the City Improvement Competition are open until April 5. The next two stages focus on society, work, sports and recreation, social environment, inner-city mobility, people's opportunities, and satisfaction with the quality of life. Works are accepted in the areas of Safety, Environment, and Education. The winners of each stage will receive prizes from the partners, and the best of the best will have a chance to land an internship at VEB.RF.