Share Your Story of Studying or Working at HSE University

In 2019, the International Admissions Office launched a project, HSE Stars Featured: Professors’ & Students’ Stories, which offers a perspective on HSE University through personal stories of teachers and students. The project author, Alina Ageeva, talks about the idea for the videos and about how to participate in the new – second, in fact – film season.

If you want to share your story or recommend someone for the future HSE Stars Featured video series, please contact: a.ageeva@hse.ru.

Alina Ageeva
Head of the Centre of Marketing Communications, HSE International Admissions Office

Attracting students to HSE University is an important task, and my colleagues and I decided to take an informal approach to it. We looked at the experiences of other universities, including international ones, and saw that many use students’ success stories, while only a few show off their teachers. Of course, we have official video presentations, in which academic supervisors talk about the advantages of their respective programmes. But we wanted to launch a format of live personal stories of academic or business careers, research interests and projects, as well as the life aspirations of our professors.

The project aims to demonstrate what is behind the scenes of each programme and study process, except for the academic supervisor. We have outstanding professors and industry leaders who have a lot to share with the future students. Each of them has a fantastic background, lots of cases and insights, which is much more thrilling than a programme summary. Before we create the video, the instructors or professors prepare a short text about their personal reasons for choosing their academic field and the ways in which it may be attractive for prospective students.

This way, the teacher talks about their field of study, presents themselves and puts a face to HSE University’s reputation as a national research university with lots of opportunities for growth and development.

Teachers from the International College of Economics and Finance, the Banking Institute, the Faculty of Communications, Media and Design, the Faculty of World Economy and International Relations, the Faculty of Social Science, and the Faculty of Economic Sciences have already shared their ‘professors’ tales’. We have also shot a video about a new Russian-taught Master’s programme in economics.

We publish all our videos on social media in Russian and English, as well as on our English-language YouTube channel.

We came up with the idea in summer 2019. It was supported by Deputy Vice Rector Marina Kozak, and we started shooting videos, including those with international students.

When we work with students, we prepare the questions in advance, so that they have less stress before the camera. For example, we ask them about why they have chosen the programme, the admissions procedure, the opportunities that the university offers to international students, as well as about stereotypes that proved to be right or false.

The students share some useful tips about studying and living in Moscow, talk about our international community, about what surprises and worries them in the new linguistic and cultural environment. In addition, such videos act as a form of career guidance for prospective students who are not quite sure about what university or programme to choose.

In March 2021, we started the second season of shooting at HSE Cultural Centre on Pokrovka and are now looking for the new project stars. I hope that by 2021 admission campaign, we’ll be able to make the project even more interesting and exciting. We’ll also be reformatting the videos in terms of technology, to make them look better.

Marina Kozak
Deputy Vice Rector

Students love to learn something new from their professors, particularly if it is something from their personal experience. Many students become inspired by our professors and choose their programmes for further studies. This is particularly true of Master’s programme applicants, who choose their programme and future profession more consciously.

May 27, 2021