Orientation Session: an adaptation event for international students took place at HSE Perm

On August 30, an adaptation event was held for newly arrived students who came to Perm from abroad to study. Within the admission campaign of foreign citizens 2019, the geography of applicants expanded significantly, and the International Office for the first time recruited freshmen from Mongolia, Syria, Morocco, Ghana, Georgia and Armenia. At the event, the freshmen met with the academic supervisors of their educational programmes, learned about the educational process and received valuable instructions on living in Perm and studying at HSE.

This year, 16 foreign students were enrolled in the Perm campus of Higher School of Economics in the Bachelor's degree programmmes as “Economics”, “Business Administration”, “Software Engineering”, “History”, and 8 students in the Master's programmes as “Finance”, “Project Management: Project Analysis, Investments, and Implementation technologies”, “Experience Economy: Museum, Event, and Tourism Management”, “Information Analytics in Enterprise Management”.

The meeting began with a welcoming speech by Dmitriy V. Kashin, Head of the HSE Perm International Office. Dmitriy congratulated freshmen and gave an opportunity to each of the employees and members of the teaching staff invited to the meeting to represent their areas of responsibility.

The head of the Students and Alumni Center Elena S. Vilesova told about the possibilities of participating in extracurricular activities, as well as about student clubs and organizations. In September, several meetings are already planned, where everyone who wants to show their talents and lead an active student life besides hard study is invited. The head of the Security and Regime Department Andrei A. Shcherbakov warned international students about possible dangers outside the university and told how to avoid them.

At the event, students met with their academic supervisors and representatives of educational programmes. Svetlana A. Belykh, Dmitry G. Artemyev, Yuri V. Vasilenko, Alexander O. Sukhov, Marina A. Zavertyaeva answered all the questions about the upcoming first year and explained where to find the office of each educational programme and who can be contacted for help. Everyone had an opportunity to meet and chat in an informal way.

HSE students from the Buddy Club were invited to the meeting. The students are ready to provide any help to all the newcomers in educational and extracurricular activities, as well as in adapting to life in a new city.

At the end of the event, freshmen shared their first impressions of Perm, HSE, the Ural weather and how they decided to enter HSE Perm and its Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes. After the meeting, everyone joined an excursion to the new building No. 2.

Umidjon Ergashev, 1st year student of the Bachelor's programme “Business Administration”

On August 30, we, international students, were invited to a very cozy and informal event before start of a new academic year. I think that this is a very right decision of the HSE, because it will help us to join the HSE family quickly and feel at home. To be honest, I did not expect to meet here so many international students. In Perm, I applied only to this university and made every possible effort to enter here.

On admission I received a lot of help with choosing a programme and information about  student exchange from Elizaveta Dengina and Iuliia Babenko, who I am very grateful to. Also, I was very well influenced by the words of the academic supervisor of our educational programme Dmitry G. Artemyev: "We create chaos ourselves and we must organize it ourselves." In general, the impressions are only positive. I think that throughout the entire educational process they will remain the same. In the future I plan to stay here to study at a Master’s programme.

Ibrahim Sandouk, 1st year student of the Master’s programme “Information Analytics in Enterprise Management”

Once I had a dream of building a place where people would gather from all over the world to share an exquisite experience, a place where you can learn and love what you are learning, a university that would appreciate your knowledge as like as your good manners. An intellectual space where your language, appearance and colour would not matter, but your commitment, hard work and ethics would be the most crucial factor of your success. Altough, I did not know that someone preceded me to that achievement and called this place “Higher School of Economics”.

Almost half of my life I have spent in the educational process, and here is the most important rule that I have learnt: calculate for the worst, wish for the best but expect nothing. I was lucky enough to become one of the students that have been accepted in such a marvelous place.

Last Friday I had the chance to meet all the freshmen and the professors they were more than polite and nice. My new journey as a Master student in business informatics had just begun and soon I will meet new people and put another brick into the wall of my success.

Last but not the least, I want to thank Alexander and Daria for being great teachers as well as friends and those dedicated HSE employees who made this possible, especially Iuliia, Elizaveta, Dmitriy and Anna. Thank you sincerely for your support. I wish that I would make you proud soon.

Congratulations to the students on admission to the HSE Perm!