Applications for ‘Study Tour Experience’ Now Open

HSE ‘Study Tour Experience’ is a unique project for international applicants who want to experience what it's like to be an HSE master’s student. The international training internship by the HSE International Admissions Office has been functioning since 2020 in two formats (offline and online) and in two languages—Russian and English. In the autumn semester of the 2024/25 academic year, the internship will take place November 11–23. The application deadline is October 13.

The project is intended for international students in their senior years of bachelor's studies and for graduates who want to learn more about studying at HSE University and get acquainted with the university's master's programmes. Participants of the free internship will be immersed in student life: they will attend lectures and seminars, see how a practice-oriented approach to learning works and what activities HSE students take part in. The project will help them decide which master's programme to choose at HSE University and how to prepare for admissions.

The list of available areas is expanding from year to year. Current tracks include ‘Business and Management’, ‘Finance and Economics’, ‘Social and Political Sciences’, ‘Data Science’, ‘Law’, and others. In the 2023/24 academic year, together with the Faculty of Creative Industries, a new ‘Media’ direction was launched. According to statistics and feedback from the participants, this area aroused great interest.

International participants are selected according to their motivation letters and CVs. Each participant receives a personalised internship certificate, which they can attach to their portfolio or CV. Making new acquaintances and gaining invaluable communication experience with HSE experts comes as a great bonus.

‘Every year we receive thousands of applications from all over the world, from those who have already made their decision to study at HSE University. We offer those who are unsure of what programme to choose, to personally experience what it’s like to study at one of the best universities in Russia. For four years now, international applicants who are thinking about applying to master's programmes can become HSE students for two weeks thanks to the international Study Tour Experience internship,’ said Alexander Deev, Director of International Talent Development.

The internship lasts for two weeks, during which international students can attend classes of the master's programmes of all HSE campuses. In addition to classes, the participants will take part in a Welcome Day, during which they’ll learn about the HSE infrastructure and meet the representatives of the HSE Admissions Office.

The international internship has been held for several years and allows students to immerse in the student atmosphere, and most importantly, to assess the quality of education and communication between students and teachers at the university,’ said Luiza Rakhimova, Manager of the International Admissions Office.

This year, for the first time, a pre-registration option, which allowed the organisers to assess the interest of international students, was launched. More than 100 participants applied in advance. To date, over 300 applications from more than 20 countries around the world have been submitted, and the process is still ongoing. The full-time on-site format of the programme is in particular demand.

In the autumn of 2023, more than 50 degree programmes from all HSE campuses took part in the training internship.

‘Last year we joined the Study Tour Experience project, and international applicants had the unique opportunity to become students of the Digital Humanities Master's Programme at HSE University in Perm for one week. Digital Humanities is a promising and actively developing worldwide scientific field at the intersection of information technology and the humanities. The participants met the programme teachers, discussed why specialists in humanities need programming and how to analyse data during the course ‘Data Analysis in Python.’ said Iliana Ismakayeva, Academic Supervisor of the ‘Digital Humanities’ Master's programme of HSE University in Perm.

‘We presented several courses of the English-language master's programme ‘Politics. Economics. Philosophy’ as part of the Study Tour Experience, which is annually held for prospective applicants at HSE University. Thanks to the hybrid training format, applicants were able to join lectures and seminars on the courses in ‘Educational Policy and Innovation Policy’, ‘Foundations of Public Policy’, ‘Comparative Social Policy’, ‘Policy Analysis in Theory and Practice’. Participants had the opportunity to dive deep into the learning process and work at the seminars. This experience helps them understand how and what kind of material is studied, to evaluate the work of teachers and the level of students,’ added Mikhail Mironyuk, Academic Supervisor of the ‘Politics. Economics. Philosophy’ Master's Programme, and Artem Uldanov, programme Co-head.

‘When I saw the email offering the possibility to complete a two-week internship at the master’s programme in law, I realised that this was a great opportunity to learn about the teaching process at HSE University. The internship gave me positive impressions and became a useful experience. Over the two weeks, I met teachers of various disciplines, joined seminar groups, learnt about the education process, saw classrooms and most importantly, determined the master's programme I want to apply to,’ shared Alexander Dyatko, participant in the Study Tour Experience in law.