On Campus

Orientation sessions for new international students were held during the last two weeks of August at HSE Moscow. More than 200 exchange students from 80 countries will be spending the autumn semester taking courses in various HSE faculties. During the orientation, they learned about academic matters, administrative and safety issues, took a tour of HSE library, and attended roundtable discussions on life in Moscow and culture shock.

Samrat Sil is a recent graduate of the English-taught Master's programme in Applied and Interdisciplinary History ‘Usable Pasts’ at HSE St. Petersburg. David Datmar, a native of Ghana, decided to join the programme to help him prepare for eventual study at the PhD level, which he plans to undertake soon at the University of Oxford. Both gentlemen were recently awarded certificates of recognition for their role as ambassadors contributing to the university’s internationalization agenda.

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.

The competition to receive increased scholarships for noteworthy academic, research, social, cultural, creative, or athletic achievements will open after June 5, 2017. If you plan to participate in the competition, please add the information about your achievements to your student portfolio via your LMS personal account.

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.