Extracurricular Activities at Higher School of Economics
1. Extracurricular students’
activities support in
State University – Higher School of
Economics
Tatiana Zakharova
Vice-rector proxy on student extracurricular activites management
3. Why do we do it?
Extracurricular students’ activities are very
important due to the following:
1. Students are an unexсludable and fully
legitimate part of out university’s community.
They deserve no less attention than anyone
else in the university.
2. Students achieve practical experience while
participating in activities that are interesting
to them.
3. Students are engaged in useful and
challenging activities instead of drug and
alcohol abuse (which is a big risk in Russia) or
falling prey to religious or political sects.
9. Performers of initiatives
Our department supports the initiatives
that students exhibit.
There are initiatives coming from the
department, that are put into being by
students’ hands.
15. Student self-administration support
There are 18 facultees in HSE.
Many of them have their own student councils.
The councils’ primary tasks are to:
- protect the students’ rights;
- improve the dialogue between the students and the
facultees’ administrations;
- develop and nourish the facultees’ and university’s
corporate culture and traditions.
Our Department supports student councils in all
aspects at all times.
16. Student organizations support
There are more than 30 student
organizations in HSE.
Our department supports the projects that
they nurture.
A special annual award has been set up to
promote the best projects —
“The Cast Iron Egg”
21. Psychological help
The center for
psychological counseling
does:
— personal counceling for
students
— educational project
“Personal development
school”
23. Scientific pursuits facilitation
We provide organizational and IT support for the
annual contest of students’ scientific papers, held in
HSE for its students and students from other
universities.
We carry out summer schools, including international
ones (The annual “Baltic Practice”, summer school
of economics, Summer Academy: The Art of
Startup, to name a few)
We organize various student scientific conferences,
including cross-university ones.
27. Personal career start facilitation
This is mostly the task of Center for Career
Development, but sometimes we
cooperate.
Carreer-guidance and self-presentation
trainings are sometimes conducted
collaboratively by our Department and
Center for Career Development.
29. Culture center
Classic fine arts Hobby clubs
Theatre Historical fencing club
Historical dancing club
Classic music
Choreography
Art studio
Participation in external contests and festivals:
FESTOS
International choir music contest
Theatrical festival “She, who flies the waves”
Creative festival “Sails of Hope”
Fortepiano music festival
34. Center of Creative Studios
Contemporary youth culture
– digital visual art and design
– indy music (rock, punk, folk, electronic)
Carries out two festivals
ArtVyshka
MuzVyshka
39. A celebration and
a spectacular performance prepared to
welcome the new generation of students.
40. HSE Birthday
Celebration is held on
27-th of November each
year.
University always gets
congratulations from
the top leaders of
Russian government
including Prime-minister
and ministers of Trade
and Finance.
47. The Cast Iron Egg Award
There are so many
student organizations
in HSE and their
activities and projects
are so diverse, that a
special award has been
established some 7 or
6 years ago, to
promote the best ones.
48. The Cast Iron Egg Award
The award is presented to
students and student
organizations.
The winners are
determined through
voting by students,
held for a week all
across the University.
49. The Cast Iron Egg Award
This year there are 8 nominations,
including:
1. Personal extracurricular
achievements
2. Personal sport achievements
3. Best Sport & Health project
4. Best culture and entertainment
project
5. Best social awareness project
6. Best specialized project
7. Best creative project
8. Establishment or support of the
best information source
51. Respectum Award
Respectum is awarded
in spring.
It is presented to the
tutors, who were
voted to be the
favourite tutors of the
faculties by the
students of the
respective faculties.
52. 4.
Efforts on pedagogic and
health-improving activities
56. 5. Theoretical aid to HSE
employees engaging students
in extracurricular contexts
57. Theoretical aid
There are other employees but ours that
engage in extracurricular work with students
on a day to day basis
– Curators
– Housemasters at hostels
Our Department provides them with:
– Trainings
– Whitepapers on student engagement
– Educational courses
58. The process of
acclimatization and
incorporation of freshmen
into extracurricular student
activities
61. A big celebration held
just before the 1-st of
September.
The Great Concert Hall of Russian Academy
of Sciences is the traditional venue.
62. Before the performance starts,
the exhibition of student
organizations is held.
For them it is an opportunity to
present themselves.
For freshmen it is the first acquaintance with the student
organizations.
The freshmen fill in the questionnaires for the Core Leaders
School enrollment.
63. 2. Acclimatization trainings
Are carried out on all of the faculties for all
volunteering freshmen. Can also be carried out
for other students.
Freshmen are told how to enjoy the stay at
university and are taught the ways for most
effective studying.
The trainings are concluded by a brief presentation
of opportunities for extracurricular activities.
65. Core Leaders School
Freshmen are selected
based on the
questionnaires they
filled at Freshman’s Day
They are personally
interviewed.
Most interesting students
are hand-picked.
66. They are taken to some country holiday
center and are engaged in trainings,
games and simulation exercises.
67. 4. Incorporation into
extracurricular activities
Throughout all the first year of education the
freshmen are headhunted and recruited by
1. Student organizations.
2. Student councils.
3. Project initiative groups.
4. Creative and hobby clubs.
69. Summary
HSE possesses an established corporate culture and
a set of traditions.
Their continuity and stability are ensured by
continuous and thoughtful work with every next
generation of student activists.
The methods of extracurricular work are
continuously improved. Each year the number of
finished projects steadily increases.
The budgets allocated for student projects by the
University are growing from year to year.
This makes us feel confident and optimistic about
our University’s future.
70. Questions to colleagues
Is there an established process of
collaboration with student activists in
your university?
If there is, then what are your ways?
Why do you do this?
What goals are kept in mind?
71. More questions
What non-symbolic (not awards and not
badges of honour) methods of motivation
for student activity are you employing?
Some analogue for ECTS credits maybe?
(They’re called “opintopiste” here, are
they?)
Or maybe some special scholarships?
72. Even more questions
Is there a process of psychological support
for the students?
Do you have any acclimatization measures
for the freshmen?
Do you have curators for the groups of
students based on year when they were
enlisted on a faculty?
73. Well, that’s it.
Thank you for the discussion.
tzakharova@hse.ru
http://tr.im/StudLifeHSE
http://tr.im/UvrsHSE