Education

The HSE University–St Petersburg Summer School brought together about 50 students from ten countries. The participants studied political geography, modern Russian culture and language, statistical analysis, and intercultural communications. Read on to find out what opportunities HSE University–St Petersburg offers international students.

On July 3, 2026, the International Preparatory Year programme held its graduation ceremony. This academic year,235 students from 57 countries were enrolled in the programme. Many of the graduates will continue their studies on HSE University bachelor’s and master’s programmes in 29 fields. The HSE News Service talked to the programme supervisors, teachers, and graduates about their impressions and plans.

Every year, the master's programmes at the HSE Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (HSE MIEM) attract a large number of students from Africa and the Middle East. Each of them follows a unique path towards becoming an engineering professional. Ahead of receiving their degrees, several graduates shared their personal stories about how they chose their profession and what they learned during their time at HSE.

On April 19–24 April 2026, Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) hosted the VI International Scientific and Practical Conference ‘Scientific Initiative of International Students and Postgraduates.’ Seven students from the HSE International Preparatory Year took part in the event: four attended in person, and three joined online. The delegation was accompanied by two lecturers—Zoya Maslennikova and Maria Grabovskaya.

Zhou Jinyu, from China, is a fourth-year student of the Bachelor’s programme ‘Data Science and Business Analytics’ at the HSE University Faculty of Computer Science. On March 5, 2026, Zhou Jinyu delivered the report ‘Exploration of Object-Centric Process Mining Using Object-Centric Sequence Diagrams’ as part of the PAIS Lab seminar. In her interview with the HSE News Service, she spoke on her research topic, how object-centric process mining lets data reflect reality, and her overall experience of studying at HSE University.

The HSE News Service spoke to Prof. Maxim Nikitin, Deputy Director of HSE ICEFand Academic Director of the Master’s in Financial Economics, about the college’s international student body and burgeoning partnerships with foreign universities. We also spoke to Minghao Yan, a graduate from China who was awarded the highest marks for the defence of his master’s thesis on gambling behaviour.

Gisel Sarahi Vergara Herrera, second-year student of the Master’s programme ‘Arts and Culture Management,’ became a winner of the StudRussia all-Russian competition for international students. Her project was awarded the first prize in the ‘Creative Spirit’ category. Read on to find out about Gisel’s work and experience of participating in such a large-scale contest for international students.

In mid-October, the HSE School of Foreign Languages held the official opening of the International Educational Online Club for Russian as a Foreign Language and Russian Culture, called GLAGOL’. The project brings together participants from 20 countries—international students and lecturers from 10 HSE faculties, as well as representatives of more than 10 Russian and foreign universities.

On August 26–27, orientation sessions for international students took place at the HSE Cultural Centre. In 2025, a total of 1,260 applicants from abroad were recommended for admission: 644 to bachelor’s programmes and 616 to master’s programmes. Specially for them, the event included tours of the Pokrovka campus and Moscow landmarks.

This year, Chinese, Thai, Korean, and other languages were spoken in the classrooms of HSE University–St Petersburg. Forty students from sixteen countries came to St Petersburg to study political science, the Russian language, history, and economics. The international summer programmes united academic knowledge and vivid cultural exchange.