ICEF HSE Delegation On a Visit to SWUFE in China’s Chengdu

In mid-October, the delegation of ICEF HSE visited Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) in China’s Chengdu.

The ICEF delegation members: Prof. Sergey Yakovlev, ICEF Director; Prof. Oleg Zamkov, ICEF Deputy Director and Academic Head of BSc Programme; Prof. Maxim Nikitin, ICEF Deputy Director and Academic Head of MSc Programme; Natalia Arkhipova, BSc Double-Degree Programme Academic Coordinator; Anastasia Telitsina, Head of International department; Prof. Vladimir Sokolov, Head of ICEF Laboratory of Financial Economics; and Prof. Tatiana Mayskaya, ICEF Research Seminars Supervisor.

© ICEF

The agenda of the visit included discussing further implementation of the ICEF-RIEM BSc double-degree programme (DDP). The sides have proposed the action plan for the coming year and went on to finalize the contents of curriculum and issues such as extra courses, thesis defense procedure, and student participation in the coming year. The programme will have up to 10 students from ICEF in 2025.

The pioneer students of this newly started DDP embarked on their studies in September 2024. They are due to spend their 2^nd and 3^rd year in SWUFE and complete their 4^th year in ICEF, ultimately graduating with two degrees – the degree in Economics from HSE and the degree in Finance from SWUFE. In this DDP, SWUFE is represented by RIEM (Research Institute of Economics and Management) and HSE by ICEF as actual programme implementors.

МИЭФ

The visit also involved a presentation of the ICEF HSE–RIEM SWUFE BSc double-degree programme to Y2 students of SWUFE. The Chinese students are welcome to start courses at ICEF in September 2025. The presentation aroused great interest among the Chinese students. However, it must be taken into account, that SWUFE students have an extensive choice of double degree programmes co-taught by the University of Birmingham, University of Alberta, and York University, so ICEF may have to compete for them.

Then, our delegation met with some of the students of ICEF who are currently doing courses in RIEM as double-degree or exchange students. They all said their experience of studying at RIEM had been positive, pointing out the remarkable learning environment and quality teaching.

ICEF delegation with some of our students who are currently doing courses at RIEM as double-degree or exchange students.

ICEF

Day 2 of the visit was dedicated to the SWUFE-HSE Joint Workshop: Financial and Economic Challenges in Emerging Economies. Presenting their recent studies were professors Maxim Nikitin, Vladimir Sokolov and Tatiana Mayskaya from the side of ICEF, and professors Dayong Zhang, Tao Peng and Dingyuan Wang from SWUFE. The workshop featured papers from multiple fields of finance and economics, each study arousing a lively discussion of results. Notably, all the presented papers contain originality of thought and are being considered for publication by top peer-reviewed journals. Among the audience were many SWUFE students interested in pursuing careers in academia. For the faculties of ICEF and SWUFE, conferences like this represent a productive venue where they can hear feedback on their studies and create cooperation opportunities.

 

During the tour of SWUFE, which is turning 100 in 2025, our delegates were able to see its classrooms, 6-floor library, co-working areas, University museum, gyms, stadiums, canteens and international dormitories. Since the campus area is huge, many SWUFE students use bicycles to travel between its buildings.

In one of their meetings, the sides have agreed on starting the ICEF–RIEM MSc double-degree programme. Work is already in process to elaborate its design concept and draft the relevant agreement between HSE and SWUFE. This translates into the possibility for our students to study on double-degree programme in RIEM also as MSc students.