New Generation of Graduates

Three years ago, according to the new Educational law of Russian Federation, graduate studies became the third level of education. Students who got enrolled in 2014 did not only study with the use of new educational programs, but also passed their final examination conducting a scientific report, as well as presenting a template for a course, a series of lectures or workshop connected to the subject of their study.

Opening the graduation ceremony deputy director of HSE Saint Petersburg Natalya Chicherina highlighted the fact that implementing the new format of graduate studies has been a challenge not only for the students themselves, but also for the campus staff. This period witnessed serious changes in the process of graduate studies management, such as the introduction of graduate studies commission, chaired by professor Eduard Ponarin. A lot of work is also done by graduate school coordinators, such as Anna Nemirovskaya (social sciences), Elena Serova (economics), Dmitriy Goncharov (Political Science), Tatiana Borisova (history). Graduate students can address their questions not only to the department coordinators, but also to the graduate studies campus manager Anna Tolkacheva.

Hopefully, there changes together with effective academic supervision of students will result in them defending their thesis during the first year after finishing graduate studies. Such students as Elena Zelenskaya, Alexander Travin, Elena Elkanova, E. Pavlova, Olesya Volchenko and Vera Titkova have announced the following plans in their presentations.

All the study areas of HSE Saint-Petersburg are represented among the graduates of 2017. Of all the 10 graduates 2 graduated with diplomas in economics, 2 – in political science, 2 in history, one in law. All of them have successfully completed the state examination, but, as stated by the director of the university Valeriy Gordin, even though this exams are called “final’, the main outcome of the graduate studies is thesis defense.