«We have managed to create the atmosphere of an offline Model UN in the digital space»
The third annual International Model United Nations conference «HSEIMUN» took place at the HSE University in Saint-Petersburg on 9-11 April. This year it was held online and gathered more than 120 participants from 7 countries.
Model UN is an international educational movement. During the MUN conferences university and high school students from all over the world play the role of diplomats representing various countries and simulate the work of the United Nations Organization. The aim of each committee is to develop a resolution to solve a global issue.
Model UN conferences at the HSE – St.Petersburg («HSEIMUN») are organized since 2018. It was initially the idea of students and lecturers of the BA Programme in Political Science and World Politics, later supported by other programmes.
Despite the challenges related to the pandemic, the HSEIMUN team has managed to hold the conference only and gather more than 120 participants, including 91 delegates from Russia and other countries. The vast majority of participants were not from HSE.
The conference was divided into 7 committees in English and Russian. The general topic of HSEIMUN 2021 was related to the global challenges created by coronavirus pandemics for healthcare, education, economic and other spheres of life, with the special attention to the developing countries.
That is our third MUN conference already, but the first which was held online, and we were a bit nervous. At the end of the day Model UN is not only about education and diplomacy, but also about the real communication between the participants from different cities and countries. However, I believe that we have managed to create the atmosphere of an offline MUN in the digital space. There were a lot of amazing speeches, tough diplomatic debates, and informal communication. In other words, there was everything for what we love MUN. I want to thank everyone for their active participation and express my gratitude to our partners for their help and cooperation!”
HSEIMUN pays a lot of attention to education and soft skills development. Before the conference 16 workshops had been organized, including the World Politics Day. This allowed our participants to be well-prepared for the main event.
During the conference 3 additional workshops were held. Our partners from «AEISEC» and «The Speaker Group» conducted master-classes on leadership skills and public speaking. Evgeny Kuznetsov – leading expert at «Attega Consulting», who has a big experience of working in the United Nations and other international organizations, also held a lecture. He told the participants how to build a career in the United Nations and what skills are required for that.
The most prepared and active delegates have received lots of valuable prizes from the partners: e-books from the publishing agency «Alpina Publisher», online-cinema subscription from «IVI», certificates for language courses at «Marks Languages» school, and many more prizes from «Tele2» company, board games store «GaGa.ru», café «Granola», and art-loft «Сofee Art Hall».
I got great experience with the lectures, which were held on Saturday. It was also the first time I participated in the Security Council, and I got more knowledge on the agenda. I learnt a lot of new information that was useful for me, and met new people. I had a great time.
Mateo Rojas
Student, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod
The conference was not held in an ideal circumstance, but it was very well-organized. Having the chance to work closely with the organizing team, I am impressed with their painstaking efforts to make the conference happen. I would definitely have the Higher School of Economics on my MUN to-go list next year.
Alex Nguyen
Student, THINK Global School, United States
The online format definitely brings a lot of extra challenges in terms of organization, but for me personally the event went really great. It was cool, that you managed to invite partners and add some breaks with entertainment into the working process. That helped to relax and come up with new ideas for the project of the resolution. Conducting the resolution-writing sessions in Zoom was also a good idea. That is how we managed to discuss collectively each operative clause and amendment, so that the final document turned out to be of a good quality.
Valeriia Morkhat
Student, St. Petersburg State University
Yury Kabanov
Senior lecturer, HSEIMUN coordinator