Rostov State University of Economics started the new 2020/21 academic year in its usual offline format and with traditional classes on-site, returning to the active implementation of supplementary educational initiatives and actions in the frame of its international projects.

Rostov State University of Economics together with the Dutch company Yandex having roots in Russia and actively functioning on the Russian IT market launched the initiative of Yandex.Lyceum. Yandex.Lyceum is an educational program for schoolchildren who consider their future in ICT, future ICT students, including RSUE. In the frame of the program schoolchildren supervised by practitioners and professors study fundamentals of programming.

On October 6, 2020, Yandex.Lyceum was opened in RSUE’s co- working space “Boiling Point” and the first group of learners got acquainted with each other.

Lyceum learners had a serious selection process. At the first selection stage, lecturers of Yandex.Lyceum in Moscow tested them online. At the second selection stage, there was a face-to-face interview with each lyceum learner at RSUE and 16 best programming beginners were enrolled to Yandex.Lyceum by its results. The first-year learners will follow the program “Fundamentals of Programming in Python language (advanced level)”.

Dean of the Faculty of Computer Technologies and Information Security Yevgeniy Tishchenko, Vice-Dean of the Department of Information Systems and Applied Informatics Sergei Shcherbakov, and Associate Professor of this department, a certified instructor of the project Yandex.Lyceum Sergei Glushchenko, forming the working group of the Uxiship project were present at the interview. The new models and methods of studying schoolchildren that will be further tested with practitioners from Yandex company can be used to implement a new master’s program in the frame of the UXiship project.