International Students Can Apply for Fee-paying Slots at HSE until August
April 1st, 2017 was the deadline for international students claiming state-financed slots on master’s programmes funded by scholarships from the Russian Government. The application period for undergraduate programmes lasts until May 2, and for fee-paying slots in undergraduate and master’s programmes – until mid-August. Some of the prospective students will have the opportunity to get a tuition fee discount.
The number of Russian government scholarships for international students allocated for the university is the same as last year, said Tatiana Chetvernina, HSE Director of International Admissions.
As of today, 1,354 students have applied for undergraduate, and 1,771 for master’s programmes. The most popular undergraduate programmes have been Economics, Management, Jurisprudence, and International Relations. English-taught programmes take the lead among the master’s courses, with Political Analysis and Public Policy, Finance, Financial Economics, and Big Data Systems having attracted the most applicants. The most applications for undergraduate programmes come from the CIS countries (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Moldova), and the number of applicants from Mongolia has grown compared to last year. Students from Ghana, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria have all submitted the most applications for master’s programmes.
On March 30, the International Admissions Committee held its first meeting. About 100 students were recommended for undergraduate studies sponsored by Russian Government scholarships, including the winners of the International Olympiad Competitions, who were announced in the winter. About 100 students have been recommended for master’s studies – those who successfully passed portfolio competitions and selection by programme representatives. The lists of selected applicants have already been published in the News section of the page for international students (in Russian).
Until June 1, the lists of recommended students will continue to be added to. In the forthcoming days, they will include those who achieved high results at HSE-organized intellectual competitions (such as the International Olympiad Competitions and Olympiad for Students and University Graduates).
This year’s innovation is an opportunity to pass exams for undergraduate programmes online, with the use of HSE information resources, and Examus, an exam supervision service. The first long-distance exams took place March 21 – 31 for citizens of Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic states, as well as those in Central and Eastern Europe. Citizens of Kazakhstan will be the next to have the chance to sit online exams, which will take place April 11 – 21.
To enter each of the undergraduate programmes, prospective students have to pass two tests in subjects related to the programme's area of studies. International students take written tests in history, mathematics, Russian and English languages. Admissions to Russian-taught programmes in Journalism, Media Communications and Desin include a creative competition in addition to the tests. The list of all programmes available, information about the entrance tests, and the minimum grades are published here (in Russian).
Those who pass the entrance exams to undergraduate programmes can be recommended for fee-paying slots until June 1. Those whose level is considered insufficient, can retake the exams for fee-paying slots in August, or follow the same track as Russian citizens (pass the Unified State Examination for undergraduate studies, and take the traditional entrance exams to enter a master’s programme). In addition to that, a regulation on discounts for foreigners applying for fee-paying places will be issued shortly, and the discounts for various types of prospective students will be announced.
Those who fail to enter HSE this year will have an opportunity to enroll in Preparatory Year programme to learn or improve their Russian, or to get subject-specific knowledge necessary for studying on HSE Russian-taught undergraduate programmes. Representatives of Rossotrudnichestvo carry out enrolment in various countries for 150 state-financed places in programme. Fee-paying enrolment is also available for international prospective students recommended by HSE for the preparatory department. Last year, the number of fee-paying students doubled, totalling about 100 people.