Final Assessment
Final State Certification - 2025
Schedule for final state certification in the 2024-2025 academic year: to be announced
State Examination Board for the 2024-2025 academic year: to be announced
Appeals Committee for the 2024-2025 academic year: to be announced
Thesis Deadlines
To approve a supervisor and title of Master's thesis
Opportunity to change the supervisor
Opportunity to change the title of Master's thesis
Uploading Master's thesis to LMS (until 23:00)
Defence
How to upload student papers and theses in Learning Management System (LMS)
Regulations
Regulations on Final State Certification
Procedures for Appeals Committees for Considering Academic Appeals Against the Results of Final State Examinations Filed by Students (Annex 2 to Regulations of Final State Certification)
Procedure for Appealing the Results of State Final Certifications
Admission to the defence
Students who successfully complete all the courses and submit their master's thesis within the prescribed period are admitted to the defence. Persons not admitted to the defence of the thesis are expelled from HSE University. The defence is carried out by the State Certification Board, which is headed by a chairperson approved by HSE Academic Council. Topics and supervisors of master's theses are approved by the directive in the second year of study.
Guidelines for Master's thesis preparation
Guidelines for Master's Thesis_DABE
Defence
The defence begins with a presentation by the student on the topic of the master’s thesis. The length of the presentation should not be longer 20 minutes or 30 minutes for individual and group presentations respectively. All group members must be present at the defence. Students present the main content of their theses freely without reading a written text. Students are required to use multimedia tools – e.g., PowerPoint slides; graphs, tables or other material to illustrate relevant aspects of the thesis can be used. After the presentation, members of the State Examination Board ask the student questions that are directly related to the topic of the thesis or related to the field of research. When answering questions, the student has the right to use a printed copy of his/her thesis. The presence of thesis supervisor and (or) the reviewer at the defence is not mandatory. After the discussion, the student is given the final word. In concluding remarks, the student must respond to the comments of thesis supervisor and the reviewer, if any, after which the defence procedure is considered completed.
Graduation with distinction ("red diploma")
Degree certificates with Distinction ("red diplomas") are awarded to students who have received an excellent grade for the master's thesis defence and have only good and excellent (no less than 75 % of the total) grades for all courses, internships, projects listed in the diploma supplement. In accordance with the Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments at HSE University, the retake of a positive assessment (a 4 and higher) is not allowed.
If students have completed optional courses, they can remove these courses from their diploma supplements when approving the draft supplements via their personal account (ELK), "Completion of studies" service.
Post-graduation leave
Students who successfully completed the Final State Certification in June have the right to apply for a post-graduation leave, thereby extending their student status. The date of the end of the porst-graduation leave is to be confirmed.
Students submit applications via their personal account (ELK), "Completion of studies" service.
Procedure for granting a leave
Regulations on the State Examination Board’s Operations for the Final State Certification of Students of Bachelor’s, Specialist and Master’s Degree Programmes at National Research University Higher School of Economics