The program fully matched and went beyond my original expectations in term of knowledge acquisition

The program fully matched and went beyond my original expectations in term of knowledge acquisition

Student profile

French citizen. I moved to Moscow with husband and children in 09/2017 without previous knowledge of the Russian language. I lived in a private apartment and not in a student accommodation.

I first completed a one year foreign student language program at the HSE in 2017-2018.

Academic objectives

1- get fluent in Russian

2- complementing education by acquiring studying art history and art theory

Overall assessment

The program fully matched and went beyond my original expectations in term of knowledge acquisition.

Initial underestimation of the intensity of the program.

Concerning the Russian language, I learned a lot and became proficient in understanding colleagues in my field of expertise. Comprehension skills are beyond my expectations but I myself still not speak as good as I wished I would. I have prioritized the content of the master to the language as I could not have worked on both front at the same time. All of the classes were thought in Russian Language except for 2 over the two years and one optional class. I wrote all my written assessments in English language except for 2. Most of the oral presentation could also be done in English.

Work load

This information is not necessarily representative for other students. Because of my personal background I had to dedicate 60-70 hours weekly to be able to follow and keep up with the pace.

The first year was intense essentially due to understanding issues and my need for translations (in average 1-2 hours of preparation before and after each class).

Because my Bachelor was in Business and not in Art History, I had to catch up with a lot of materials that was already covered over the course of an art history bachelor.

As an international student, I was also not used to also go to class 6 days a week and to have lecture exclusively between 16-21:00 during weekdays. The holidays were also very limited : 1 week in January and 10 days in May in addition to a few national holidays.

The work load of the 2d year remained high for me, 60 hours/week, but for other reasons. The Russian language was no longer the major obstacle. I was personally extremely motivated by my research project that occupied most of my private time. I was writing about the contemporary Russian art market and was therefore optimizing leisure and research. In my free time, I visited exhibitions, met with artists, carried out interviews and engaged in cultural social happenings to get connected.

Program content

The program of the first year in mostly common to all students while the second can be selected related to personal preferences and interests. Both years are a mix of compulsory and selective classes. There are almost 50% lectures and 50% seminars, in all class. In the first year there was a very important historical bloc covering European art history and culture from the 13th-20th century. Classes about research methods, architecture, fine arts, legal basis of the market, museum management were also dispensed providing a valuable ground knowledge to use in additional or subsequent classes.

Social integration

I felt very much supported at the beginning by Anna Guseva, the program representative who was very helpful and responsive. During the 2 years the administrative program manager Yulia was always of great help but to me the Russian language was still a barrier.

My classmates proved to be extremely helpful, but my experience showed me that ‘generally speaking’ the Russian mentality is quite different from the Anglo-Saxon or south European culture in term of social engagement. The help is always given if you asked. Student in need of help need to be pro-active as it will not be systematically offered when a newcomer arrives.

My impression is also that Russian life is still much harder than what I knew from Western Europe and the USA. People work harder, longer, do not complain and have much less free-time. Some students were much younger than me as they came directly from their bachelor, other had already several years of professional experience and most of them were cumulating job and master during the two years of the programm, therefore they had very limited availability to engage into socializing with foreign students.

I have not personally experienced any lack of socializing with Russian or other foreigners but I have heard of several foreign students complaining of their lack of integration and scarcity of contact with natives. I think that the international student office is very active and that it certainly provides valuable support if needed.

The quality of the faculty in their personal field of expertise was amazing in my opinion. Never had I witnessed such an overall level of knowledge over the path of my previous academic course. The Russian experts seem to dedicate their life to their expertise and seem to have very little time for a parallel private life.

Prior educational and professional background

First education in international business and marketing, followed by work in the communication and finance field until 2009.

Change of career in Fall 2009 from the corporate to the cultural world. Work with artists, museums, galleries and for non-profit organization in the visual art sphere. Practical education in drawing, oil painting, modeling and casting and professional certification as art appraiser in 2014. Work as an independent consultant providing marketing, commercial and business administration services in the cultural sector until 2018.