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Regular version of the site

Final State Certification

Final State Certification

The Final State Certification (FSC) for getting the master’s degree includes the defense of the final qualifying work (FQW).

Regulations on Final State Certification of Students in Bachelor’s, Specialist and Master’s Programmes at National Research University Higher School of Economics

Admission to the FSC

Students who have successfully completed the theoretical course and who have provided the FQW with the supervisor’s review are admitted to the FSC. Students who not admitted to the FQW are expelled for failure to pass the FSC from the HSE.

The defense is conducted by the State Examination Commission, which is headed by a chairman approved by the Academic Council of the HSE. Topics and supervisors are approved by order of the university in the second year of study.

Methodological recommendations for the preparation are the Rules for the FQW preparation, approved by the Academic Council of the HSE, Minute № 9 05/10/2021: Rules for the FQW preparation

FSC schedule for master's students in 2023

Not later than 15/04/2023 – changing the topic of your FQW

Not later than 15/05/2023 – downloading ready FQW in LMS

During the week after downloading the FQW - The study office downloads the final versions of the FQW from the LMS and sends it to the reviewers. Their reviews will be available in your LMS Personal Account

FQW's defense procedure

The defense begins with a student's report on the topic of the FQW. The report takes maximum 20 minutes.

The decision of the State Examination Board about the final mark is based on the assessments of:

·        supervisor for the quality of work, the degree of its compliance with the requirements for the FQW;

·        the reviewer for the work in general, taking into account the degree of novelty, practical significance and validity of the conclusions and recommendations made by the author based on the results of the study;

·        SEB members for the content of the work, its defense, including the report, answers to questions and comments of the reviewer.

FSC Results Appeal

Procedure for Organizing and Conducting Appeals to the Results of Final State Examinations

Postponement of the defense of the FSC

If you do not appear for the defense of the FQW for a valid reason, in order to postpone the defense of the FQW, you have to check out the algorithm and write an application.

A student who fails the final state certification without a valid reason, including those who receive unsatisfactory results, is expelled from the HSE and is issued an academic certificate. In case of reinstating on programme the specified student can pass the final state certification again no earlier than one year and no later than two years after passing the final state certification for the first time.

Conditions for getting an honours degree

In accordance with federal standards, an honours degree is issued to a HSE graduated student who has passed exams with an "excellent" mark in at least 75% of all disciplines that have the form of final control "exam" included in the diploma supplement, and in other disciplines included in this application is rated “good”, and passed the FSC with only excellent mark. Also re-credited grades are also taken into account in accordance with the procedure established by the HSE.

According to Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics you cannot retake the FQW with good and excellent mark.

Postgraduate leave

Students who successfully passed the FSC in June could be expelled not immediately after the defense FQW, but before the end of the academic year.

Postgraduate leave can be issued until 08/13/2023.