Increased State Academic Scholarship: What Сhanges Can We Expect?

Applications for the Increased State Academic Scholarship open in May.  The main changes to the scholarships to be awarded this summer concern those for social achievements. Those studying at HSE on Russian government scholarships (quotas) are eligible to apply.

General Information

The HSE Academic Council has approved the amendments to the regulations on scholarships and other forms of financial support for HSE students. What are these changes related to?

Shortcomings to both the scholarship administration and participation of student organisations in the process were identified last winter.  

New rules, developed in cooperation with the student community and assessed by experts from the Laboratory for Anti-Corruption Policy, have been developed in order to ensure equal and consistent verification.

Main Changes to the Increased State Academic Scholarship for social achievements:

1. Three independent tracks to be introduced

Students can apply to one or several tracks and present their social achievements over the past year. If a student’s application is successful in more than one track, he or she will be awarded the scholarship for the largest possible amount, corresponding to his/her win.

1) Volunteer /Organizational Track

HSE students who take part in organizing HSE events or contribute as volunteers are invited to apply for this track. All events held in cooperation with HSE and organized by HSE students and student organizations are considered HSE events.

2) Project/Event  Management Track

Representatives of student organizations, student projects and student councils can apply for this track based on the projects/activities that they supervise. Projects and activities are assessed according to criteria similar to the Student Project Contest.

3) Student Media Track

This track is open to students who create content for HSE student media bodies. The list of student media bodies has been approved by the Student Initiative Support Centre and the publications are assessed by a special committee involving representatives of the HSE Faculty of Communications, Media and Design.

The division of the competition into three tracks will ensure that all applicants are subject to equal conditions. For example, the social value of volunteering will no longer be compared to the creation of content by a student media body.

2. New assessment criteria to be introduced

One of the main challenges in the development of the new rules was the development of clear, simple procedures and criteria to ensure consistency of scoring.

Volunteer /Organizational Track

Ambiguities regarding the grading of events, number of participants and the scoring scale have been eliminated with the introduction of the new regulations. Now, only the student’s personal participation in a particular project or event counts towards the assessment of achievement.

Achievement is assessed according to the formula below:

where

N is the total score for volunteer and/or organizational activity of the applicant at the event (project);

is the basic score for volunteer and/or organizational activities at the event (project) according to the Table;

n is the number of events (projects) the applicant participated in.

Number of basic points for volunteer and/or organizational activities at the event (project))

Student’s participation per day	up to 3 hours	from 3 to 6 hours	over 6 hours
Points	1	1,5	2

 

Project/Event Management Track

To participate in this ISAS track, the student is required to upload presentations of projects or events which he/she supervised, in LMS.

The presentation should include:

• Aims and objectives of the event (project);
• Target audience of the event (project);
• Social significance of the event (project);
• Relevance of the event (project) for HSE;
• Terms of the event (project) implementation;
• Outcomes of the event (project) and the problems that were solved as a result of the event (project);
• Information about the event (project) team, including the responsibilities and personal contribution of each supervisor of the event (project);
• Links to photo and video materials (if any) as proof of implementation of the event (project).

Assessment criteria:

• Relevance of the problem to be solved (from 0 to 10 points);
• Relevance for HSE (from 0 to 10 points);
• Assessment of event (project) complexity (from 0 to 10 points);
• Quality of event (project) implementation (from 0 to 10 points);
• Assessment of event (project) effectiveness in terms of solving the identified problem (from 0 to 10 points).

Achievement is assessed according to the formula below:

 

where

N is the total score of the applicant for supervising a socially relevant event (project);

 is the expert assessment of the applicant’s supervising activity at a socially relevant event (project);

n is the number of socially relevant events (projects) supervised by the applicant

Student Media Track

Student participation in creating content for student media is assessed in this track. The track involves different responsibilities (editor, proofreader, author, etc.), as well as content differentiation, depending on the audience range and coverage. The criteria were developed with the participation of HSE’s largest media body. 

Achievement is assessed according to the formula below:

where

N is the total score for student systematic activity in the student media ( student media organizations);

is the basic score for the preparation of one unit of information content according to Table 2;

is the correction factor for the format of information content according to Table 3;

is the basic score for the preparation of one unit of video content according to Table 4;

is the correction factor for the number of views of the video content according to Table 5;

n is the amount of information content prepared by the student;

m is the amount of video materials prepared by the student.

Table 2

Basic points for the preparation of information content

Applicant’s responsibility	Author	Editor	Visual Designer	Proofreader
Points	1	0,5	0,4	0,1

Table 3

 Correction factor for the format of information content

Type of information content	Correction factor
Text of more than 1800 words	2
Text of 500-1800 words that can be published on the website or on social networks	1
Publication on a social network of 100-500 words posted as independent material	0,25

Table 4

Basic points for the preparation of video content

Applicant’s responsibility	Cameraman	Editor	Producer	Correspondent
Points	0,5	0,5	1	0,5

Table 5

Correction factor for the number of views of the video content

Number of views	Correction factor
over 10 000 views	2
from 1 500 to 10 000 views	1
from 500 to 1 500 views	0,25
under 500 views	0

3. Student achievements to be assessed by expert and student committees

Project/Event Management and Student Media Tracks will be assessed by experts in these fields as outlined below:

Student achievements in the Student Media Track will be assessed by the experts of HSE Faculty of Communications, Media and Design.

Student achievements in the Project/Event Management Track will be assessed by an expert group assigned by HSE Scholarship Committee. HSE employees and HSE students will be equally represented in the group (student experts to be recommended by HSE student councils).

4. Dealing with conflicts of interest

Regulations to counteract conflicts of interest prescribe withdrawal from expert assessment group (in cases where the project is to be assessed by a member of the student organisation implementing the project).

What to Expect

Applications for the Increased State Academic Scholarship for academic, research, social, cultural, creative, and athletic achievements open on May 15. It will be held according to new rules, and the scholarship value and the number of recipients will be determined by the HSE Academic Council at the next meeting in late May.

Learn more and ask questions

The full version of the new regulations can be found on the HSE official document page or in the file (all changes are highlighted).

If you have any questions, please contact HSE scholarship center via email: scholarship@hse.ru

For student media and communities

We will glady assist student media groups to create materials regarding the changes to ISAS. Please contact Ivan Cherniavsky.