‘An Amazing Atmosphere’: Prospective Student from Turkey Makes a Virtual Visit to HSE Master’s Programmes

© Daniil Prokofyev/ HSE University

In November, the International Admissions team organized the first online Study Tour experience for prospective Master’s students. International students were able to attend online classes offered by different Master’s programmes and see first-hand what studying at HSE University is like. The aim of the initiative is to help international students make a more informed decision about which Master’s programme to apply to Tugrul Eroglu from Turkey, shares his experience.

Tugrul Eroglu

I want to expand my knowledge of the social sciences with multidisciplinary academic approaches. When I was researching higher education in Russia, a duality that I can summarize as "Á la Russky" style and "Western School" caught my attention.  Though the components of this duality contradict each other, I believe HSE maintains balanced, efficient relationships with both sides. I learned that HSE has a strong reputation and ranks highly in international academic rankings, especially in economics and political science. Moreover, the academic opportunities HSE provides in methodology, my weakest area, are fantastic!

It is also important that academic programmes have both their contact information and course syllabi available on their web pages. As can be seen from the course announcements, HSE tries to conduct academic communication in a more transparent, efficient, and simple way. All these details show how effective HSE's academic approach is. To sum up, this is why I want to study at HSE.

I tried to attend as many classes as possible during the International Study Tour experience to get to know HSE University and its programmes better.

Firstly, I was able to attend the lecture Professor Mikhail Mironyuk gave in the PEP master's programme.  The title of the course was (Dis) Order and Governance in the Global Age.

I especially liked Mr. Mironyuk's interaction with his students. In online classes, people tend to act like robots. I haven't observed a vibe like this from Mr Mironyok and his students. On the contrary, the lesson was held in a very warm atmosphere. Mr Mironyuk even talked about his student memories related to the course, made jokes etc.

Throughout the course, Mr. Mironyuk analyzed the terms "hard power," "soft power" and "sharp power" with his students. He tried to explain how these terms evolved and which debates they triggered in terms of international relationships. During the course, I asked Mr. Mironyuk, ‘Why is the discourse created by the theory of the world’s system and the center-periphery approach abandoned and why is the discourse formed by evolutionist, institutional-institutionalist approaches used in the discussions where international competition is explained?’ After giving a short answer to my question, he shared the titles of the articles he thought would enable me to understand his answer better. Then, I asked him for the materials they used in the lesson. After the course, he sent me a dropbox link including all articles regarding the course. After that, Mr Mironyuk asked if I was satisfied with the materials he posted on the link, which was very kind of him.

In the ‘Entrepreneurship and Business in Asia’ course, Sergei Shaposhnikov explained the economic factors that affect investments in Vietnam. Despite some technical issues with MS Teams, the students were all very engaged in the lesson and made interesting comments. I found Professor Shaposhnikov’s discussion of how Vietnam’s cultural structure affects the country’s economic trends to be particularly interesting.

The next course, ‘Civil Wars: Onset, Dynamics and Termination’ taught by Carter Johnson, was so great! Professor Johnson asked students questions to guide them through the subject matter of the lesson. Thus, he could explain the approaches and criticisms of ‘Consociationalism’, a form of political power-sharing. During the class, he made a simple presentation by pointing out key areas. The question-answer method was fantastic!

I was pleasantly surprised when Ninel Seniuk wanted to meet all guest participants like me before starting her course, ‘BRICS Economies and Russia’. We introduced ourselves briefly, sharing our academic background and goals. After the introductory part, I focused on the presentation prepared by the students on ‘The Development and Importance of New Development Bank’. After the presentation, Professor Seniuk asked us to share our thoughts on the factors affecting the economic relationships between Russia and developing countries.

Finally, I would like to talk about Modern Asian Political Processes taught by Mikhail Karpov. It was an unbelievable experience! I was able to listen carefully and focus on the lecture for about 3.5 hours. I have never seen a lecture delivered over zoom with a large number of attendees have such an amazing atmosphere. It was incredible!

The subject of the lesson was the socioeconomic development of India from the colonial period to the present. Three students made presentations on the topic. The key points on the slides were simple and easy to follow. The illustrations that formed the background of the slides were related to what the slide mentioned. What’s more, I am sure that the illustrations were not ready-made patterns but prepared with artistic concern! It is so amazing and wonderful to see such serious effort put into an academic presentation! This shows how motivated and qualified the students are. Moreover, it was also great that one of the students who made the presentation answered my question about whether the trends of Indian foreign policy could be evaluated as hard-power.

Professor Karpov is a lively man. He is a great lecturer and a very energetic person who is able to engage students with the course in a funny way. I am sure that nobody was bored for 3.5 hours! I even heard students say that they missed Professor Karpov towards the end of the lesson. Indeed, I envied them at that moment.

Finally, I would like to comment on Professor Karpov's presentation in the class. He discussed how the dominant belief systems in both Indian and Chinese cultures shape the sociopolitical reflexes that these identities display nowadays by giving examples through childrearing/care practices and kinship relations. This idea was much discussed among the students. He deliberately tried to heighten the debate. All the answers he gave made me experience the ‘benefit of the doubt’ situation after a long time. I would like to express my gratitude to him for the brainstorm he organized.

I have to admit that I never thought the classes I was going to sit in on would be so fun and engaging.  Now I can better understand the reasons why I am interested in Master’s programme at HSE University.

HSE University welcomes applicants from all over the world and offers not only different levels of study, but also different formats in English and Russian, online and offline. International applicants can apply for Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes in a separate admissions process for foreign applicants and receive scholarships with full or partial tuition fee coverage.

When applying to a Bachelor’s programme, including five English-taught programmes in Moscow, it is possible to submit international certificates you have received in English and mathematics, such as IELTS, TOEFL, A-Level and other international exams and they will be recognized by HSE University, so taking entrance exams in relevant subjects will not be required.

Undergraduate applicants can test their chances of admission now by taking mock tests. Master’s applicants also have the opportunity to get a preliminary assessment of their portfolio and communicate with their programme of choice online.