A year ago Yulia Zhestkova, a graduate of the HSE-NES Joint Programme got into the PhD programme in economics at the University of Chicago immediately after completing her bachelor’s. Below, Yulia tells the HSE News Service how the programme is structured, what the instructors – among whom are Nobel Prize Laureates – are like, and what you have to confess to yourself before going into a PhD programme. 

In 2010, a tourism cluster appeared in the North Caucasus that signified a new and prospective field for the Russian travel industry. Below, Northern Caucasus Resorts CEO Oleg Gorchev talks about why one might want to vacation in Chechnya, what his children think about his job, and what it was like to be part of the first class to graduate from the Higher School of Economics.

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.

On July 15th, 2017, the Moscow Alumni Golf Tournament 2017 took place at the Moscow City Golf Club. The event was supported by the Moscow Alumni Association, and attracted graduates, staff and students of several universities.

Our University is launching the HSE Alumni Academic Fellowship Competition. This project provides support to visits by HSE graduates and alumni to their alma mater to conduct lectures and workshops, participate in meetings of the HSE International Advisory Committee, and oversee research assistants for the purpose of carrying out projects and preparing joint publications.

The graduation ceremony of the Master’s Programme Governance of Science, Technology and Innovation was held on June 30. 42 students graduated this year, including 12 from Europe, Africa and Asia.

The Higher School of Economics was ranked fifth among Russian universities with the highest paid graduates during their first year of employment, according to data from an employment monitoring study by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. On average, graduates who completed a full-time undergraduate programme at HSE make 51,700 rubles per month, which is up from previous years and nearly double the average for the country as a whole.

On June 28, 2017, the second graduation ceremony for the double-degree Master’s programme in Big Data Systems (HSE, Russia) and Information Systems Management (UAS Technikum Wien, Austria) was held at the Austrian Residence. Dr. Emil Brix, Ambassador of Austria in Moscow, gave the opening speech. During the reception, he congratulated graduates on successfully completing the programme and stressed the importance of cooperation between the universities for multicultural and professional communication.