The HSE St Petersburg Buddy Club has officially become a section of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). The buddy club is a student organization and its main aim is helping international students adapt to their new lifestyle in Saint Petersburg and to their studies at the Higher School of Economics. Club members meet international students when they arrive, take them to the students' new home, explain how to use the underground, help buy a sim card, open a bank account and assist with other important tasks which students may find difficult to handle not knowing the Russian language. Additionally, the club also organizes educational and entertaining activities, trips to theatres, cultural events, Russian film evenings, etc.
In May 2017, representatives of the International Students’ Association Council were elected to the HSE Student Council for the first time. They will serve until February 2018 when a new election will take place. The International Student Association Council (or International Student Council for short) currently consists of five students from CIS and Baltic countries, and three students from other countries.
A competition to come up with an HSE design for the bank cards that are used to transfer state scholarships to students has been held. 1, 897 students took part in the final vote to determine the card design.
Alexander Bespalov, a first-year student in the HSE and University of London Parallel Degree Programme in International Relations, was born in Israel to parents who had emigrated from Russia. He recently sat down with the HSE News Service to talk about why he chose to come to Russia for study, the challenges he has overcome, and what he is looking to achieve during his time at HSE.
The 27th Open Camping Weekend organized by the HSE Extreme Sports Club was held on May 26-28. About 350 HSE students, staff members and graduates took part in this event.
Winners of Iron Egg, the biggest student award, have received their prizes. This year, 33 student associations competed in 11 nominations in the contest finals.
Every year, the HSE family welcomes representatives of new countries and becomes more interesting and diverse. On June 4, 2017, international students will talk to visitors about their home countries and introduce them to their cultures at The Whole World at HSE festival. To give you a quick pre-festival snapshot of how international HSE is, we’ve brought together ten facts about the university international life for you.
Each year HSE holds the Student Project Contest, which allows projects deemed important for the development of the university at least and all of society at most to receive financial, organisational, or any other type of support to help them succeed.
The first official fun-run organized by HSE as part of events to mark the 25th anniversary of its founding has taken place in Gorky Park. It drew 290 participants.
From May 29 to June 18 students can vote for HSE’s best teachers of the academic year. This year there is no need to come to the university to vote. Students can submit their scores online via LMS.
