Extracurricular Life

There are more than 25 sports clubs at HSE, from football and swimming to more exotic groups for curling and shaping. To attend a club, you must bring a medical certificate confirming your admission to practice the sport in question. The classes are free, and attendance is not compulsory.

If you do not find a sport you are interested in, you can contact the university's physical education department with a proposal to form a club or team.

You can find more information about groups, class schedules, and the locations of training sessions here.

Student Sports Organisations

• HSE Sports
• HSE 3x3
• HSE 5x5
• GSB Anchors Football Team
• BI Bison Football Team
• The Jiggies Basketball Team

If you find yourself in a difficult financial situation and can prove it with documents, you may be eligible to receive financial assistance. HSE will not leave you in distress.

Financial assistance is available in the case of: the birth of a child, death of a parent (or legal guardian), paid medical treatment, theft, fire and other force majeure circumstances.

Orphans, people with category 1 or 2 disabilities, people with disabilities since childhood, and students with children under 18 years old can also receive financial assistance. Financial assistance can also be provided in the event that a student's family is facing a difficult financial situation.

Applications with all documentation are submitted to the faculty committee. They are reviewed twice a year.

Details can be found on the Office of Social Services webpage.

A teaching assistant is a teacher's helper.

If you want become an assistant, prepare a course, and help junior students master difficult topics, be sure to keep an eye on your grades: you should have no academic debts or grades below 6. You can become an assistant as early as your sophomore year. And a nice added benefit is an increase in your scholarship. You can do it!

A credit is a unit for measuring for the amount of study in courses, projects, term papers, and so on. 

The more credits a course 'weighs', the more time and effort it usually requires (one credit equals 38 academic hours). A bachelor's degree is awarded if a student has completed 240 credits throughout their studies at university (please note that students of history, Asian studies, and law have to complete 300 credits). You can find out the 'weight' of a course in the curriculum or in the LMS.

A minor is an additional qualification other than your major. You choose and study it during your second and third years. A minor includes four courses, after which you master your second minor. There are plenty of minors at HSE, and you can choose any that are not closely related to your major.

A minor is a great opportunity to broaden your knowledge and learn something new and interesting! You can study data analysis, law, physics, anthropology and much more. Students are assigned to minors based on their rating, so it's worth staying on top of your studies from the start.

Your knowledge will be graded on a 10-point scale, so unfortunately you won't be able to brag about A's to your parents or former classmates.
But there is a system for converting to a 5-point scale and to 'excellent to unsatisfactory':

10–8 - 5 - 'excellent'

7–6 - 4 - 'good'

5–4 - 3 - 'satisfactory'

3–1 - 2 - 'unsatisfactory'

A rating is a comprehensive evaluation of your academic performance. Your rating determines your student discounts, scholarships, and the opportunity to go on an exchange to a foreign partner university.

Ratings come in two varieties: current and cumulative.

The current one compares students' grades for two completed modules. The cumulative rating shows what grades you've accumulated throughout your studies. You may already know that you can get a discount on your first year's tuition based on the sum of your USE scores. For the second and subsequent years, you can get a discount based on your results, depending on your rating position.

Results-based discounts are awarded at the end of each academic year for the entire following year, based on the results of the student rating of your course and your EP.

To receive a 70% discount, you must be in the top 15% of your class rating. A 50% discount requires being in the top 25%, and a 25% discount requires being in the top 50%.

The results-based discount is calculated from the sum of the following ratings: the current rating after retakes for the first semester and the current rating before retakes for the second semester.

Student exchange programmes are a good way to gain experience in an international academic environment, see the world, make new friends, and improve your foreign language skills.

HSE cooperates with universities in 43 countries.

To go to a foreign university, you need to apply for the selection competition, which takes place in February–March and August–September. You can also apply for a scholarship from the host university, such as Erasmus+ and First+, or a grant from HSE.

Sometimes you need someone to talk to. It can be hard to cope with the stress of exams or personal problems. HSE is here to support you!

For undergraduate and graduate students there is a 24-hour free psychological help hotline: 8-800-250-04-33 (you can even write to the chat room).

You can also sign up for in-person psychological counselling. In order to do this, you need to fill out a form on the Centre for Psychological Counselling webpage.

HSE has its own military training centre. Upon successful completion of training, young people can get a military ID card and will be enrolled in the reserve of the armed forces. Studying in the military department requires responsibility and full immersion in the process.

There are three training programmes: soldiers (1.5 years), sergeants (2 years), officers (3 years). At the end of the training, there is a one-month military camp in the summer. Selection for the military department is conducted in the spring of the first year on the basis of health status, rating and results of physical fitness tests.

If you come from another city or country, don't forget to register for military service at the place of stay.

If you want to hold an event for HSE students, you need to fill out the form at the link. You will be contacted within 3 working days by the staff of the Department of Student Affairs to clarify the details.