Practical Training

All Data Science students are to pass the Scientific and Research Internship (There is no Scientific and Research Internship for the 1st year students 2024-2025 due to Study Plan) .

Preparation Checkpoints 

Timeline: within 2 weeks (any) in the period from 01.07 to 18.10

Students can do the Internship at the Faculty of Computer Science of the Higher School of Economics or in external organizations (should be approved by the supervisor). 

The internship may consist of (but not limited to):

• implementation of a research project on the subject of a future master's thesis;
• preparation of a scientific publication on a topic related to a master's thesis;
• work on other research tasks in coordination with the supervisor or academic director of the programme.

Before the internship (June 23)

• choose a place, topic and the supervisor of an internship. You can ask your coursework supervisor or perspective thesis supervisor to give you an internship assignment.

• together with the supervisor of the internship submit the internship schedule and assignment 
• submit an application in LMS (hard copies of your assignment and schedule should be submitted with the report in October).

If your internship is not held in HSE, please attach a Contract or other document confirming the internship to the Assignment - work contract, work record card, certificate, etc. These documents can be provided after the internship with the report and the review. Please contact the study office for more information.

Not later than 20.10, the students are to submit to the study office the following documents:

• the original internship assignment and plan
• internship report   
• review of the research supervisor  

The criterion for the successful accomplishment of the internship is a positive review of the supervisor. The final evaluation is made by the academic head of the program on the basis of a report and a review. 

Documents Templates

• Internship Assignment (DOCX, 23 Kb)
• Schedule (Plan) of the Internship (DOCX, 16 Kb)
• Internship Report (DOC, 36 Kb)
• Internship Supervisor Review (DOC, 35 Kb)

Provision of Coursework/Master's Thesis hard copy is not required. All documents must be uploaded to the LMS.

Updated lists of Coursework Topics and Master's Thesis Topics.

Topics 2023-24 (XLSX, 33 Кб) (new)

Updated Coursework (Term Paper) and Master's Thesis Programme.

Programme 'DataScience' (DOCX, 30 Кб)

Coursework (term paper)

Coursework (term paper) is a compulsory element of the curriculum. To accomplish the term paper students are to follow the steps listed below:

1. Choose a topic
You can use LMS to see the list of topics and choose your topic. Please don't hesitate to ask for consultations Instructions for LMS
or choose one from the list of suggested topics.

2. Get in touch with the supervisor and discuss the topic.

3. Before November 20, 2024:

• Apply for a topic in LMS or Fill out the yandex-form (in case if your supervisor doesn't work in LMS, for example)
• Submit the application, ask the supervisor to sign it and send it to the study office.

Coursework (Project) application form  (DOC, 56 Кб)

4. If your coursework topic or your academic supervisor was changed please let us know before May 1, 2025 and:

• To make changes, you need to fill out the form (will be sent later) and attach the application via the link (will be sent later).

Application for change coursework topic 

Application for change of academic supervisor (DOC, 51 Кб)

5. Upload your coursework to LMS. The form will be closed June 20, 2025 (Study office check your thesis in our own system. If you have more than 20% of borrowing you supervisor have to check the report write an explanatory note and apply it to Study office)

6. Submit the final text of your coursework with the supervisor's review and borrowing report before June 13, approximately.

Coursework title (DOCX, 18 Кб)

Supervisor's review (DOCX, 18 Кб)

7. Coursework should be uploaded (link will be provided)  by June 20, approximately.

Master's Thesis

1. Deadlines to follow unconditionally:

before April 22 there is a chance to change the topic of Master Thesis, if needed (do everything in your power to use such possibility in case of real emergency only!)

before March 22 there is a chance to change the supervisor of Master Thesis, if needed (do everything in your power to use such possibility in case of real emergency only!) 

To make changes, you need to fill out the form (will be sent later) and attach the application via the link (will be sent later).

Application for change coursework topic 

Application for change of academic supervisor (DOC, 51 Кб)

before May 06 a student must submit the full text of the work (report) to his/her supervisor (in printed or electronic form as agreed with supervisor in person) 
by May 23 a student must upload Master Thesis (report) to LMS  
by June  the full set of Master Thesis documents* must be submitted to the Study Office *The full set of documents includes { (A) + (B) + (C) + (D) as indicated below 
June 2025 (date will be announced later) – Master Thesis Defence

Master Thesis application form  (DOC, 52 Кб)

(A) The text of Master Thesis (steepled hardcopy) with supervisor's signature on the title page

Master's Thesis Title (DOCX, 18 Кб)

(B) The text of Master Thesis

(C) Review form filled in by thesis’ supervisor

Supervisor's review (DOC, 43 Кб)

(D) Annotation – a brief characteristics of student’s Master Thesis

(E) Second reader's review. A student can contact appointed by his/her Supervisor reviewer personally and discuss with him/her the procedure to hand over the work (and all supplementary materials, if any), but whatever the case is, the review form (report) must find itself in the Study Office before June.

Second reader's review (DOC, 26 Кб)

Please, be informed that Study Office doesn’t accept under no circumstances incomplete set of documents!

2. Plagiarism checking of submitted Master Theses

Plagiarism checking of submitted Master Theses is done by representatives of the Study Office using Turnitin system. In case the system reveals more than 20% of borrowing in the work (text), student’s supervisor should re-check the text once again and write explanatory note. The latter is submitted to the Study Office without delays and reminding.

3. The dates for Master thesis defense will be announced later.

4. The guidelines for Master Thesis defense procedure are as follows:

• up to 20 minutes (15 min. for presentation + 5 min. for questions) are set aside for Specialist or Master’s Thesis defense;
• a student should present clearly and accurately, without reading from any pre-prepared written text, key points of his/her Thesis. Computer presentations, graphic material (tables, pictures, diagrams, etc.) or other visual accompanying sources can be used in the presentation to illustrate the work done and the results attained. After the presentation is completed, SCB members usually ask some questions that are related to both Thesis’ topic and respective domain of study (research). A student can advert to the text of his/her Thesis to answer the questions raised. To defend the thesis, a student shall obtain a review from his/her supervisor;
• after the discussion, a student shall present concluding remarks (closing speech) that embrace answers to issues summarized in the external reviewer’s report. Once the closing speech is over, the defense procedure of the Thesis is considered completed;
• SCB shall then make a decision on student’s final grade; such decision takes into account opinions and grades provided by (A) academic supervisor (quality of the work done, the text of the Thesis and its adherence to requirements), (B) external reviewer (quality of the work done, innovativeness of the topic/approaches used, their real-life applicability, as well as reasonability of the conclusions and recommendations, put forward by the Thesis’s author), and (C) SCB members concerning contents of the presented work thesis, defense qualification, quality of visual materials utilized, both completeness and exactness of answers to questions asked, and (A)+ (B) nuances expressed. 

NOTE: The procedure that relates to Master Thesis’ preparation and defense is regulated by the document ‘Regulations for Term Papers and Theses Prepared by Students at the Bachelor’s, Specialist and Master’s level at HSE’

Projects

Project activity (projects) – a separate type of specially organized, independent activity of students within the OP, which is regulated by the Regulations on Project, Research and Practice of Students of the National Research University "Higher School of Economics". 

The project work is aimed at gaining experience of self-organization, to consolidate or develop practical knowledge and skills necessary in further professional activity. Projects are implemented during the whole period of training, in the time specified individually for each project and not tied to the modular system.

Detailed information about projects is available in the Study Process Guide.
 

In accordance with the Study Plan, the 2nd year students of the program in 1-3 modules perform mandatory projects.

The weight of the Project – 5 credits. The base of Projects is formed by the Academic Supervisor of the program. For the Project is evaluated in the session week of module 3. Non-compliance with the Project is considered an academic debt.

Academic indebtedness on projects arises in the following cases:

• if a student refuses to execute a project without objective reasons;
• receiving an unsatisfactory grade for a project included in the student's individual study plan;
• failing to complete a project for the total number of credits recommended in the program's curriculum at the time of state final attestation.

Documentation and reporting materials

The project manager determines the list and type of reporting materials for a particular project. The recommended format for research and application projects is the report/diary of the project.

Report structure

If the project is proactive, the terms of reference (project proposal) developed by the project manager must be agreed with the Academic Supervisor. As a result of project implementation, it is necessary to submit an evaluation sheet to the Study Office.