HSE’s Diploma Is In Line With The European Standards

Starting from this year, all graduates of the Higher School of Economics will receive an appendix to their diploma confirming its compliance with European standards. Boris Zhelezov, Head of the HSE Office of International Academic Mobility, and Anna Korovko, Head of the HSE Office of Organization of Educational Process, told us about the opportunities which students will get thanks to this additional document.

— What exactly is this appendix to the diploma?

B. Zhelezov:

— A European-standard appendix to the diploma is a document in English and Russian which contains the marks for all disciplines studied by the students during their HSE education, the title of their degree and final-year theses as well as a list of the student’s individual achievements. In addition to that, it contains a description of the Russian educational system and a summary of the methods of performance evaluation used at our university as well as a comparison of these methods with similar methods used in the EU countries. This document consists of eight paragraphs in line with the requirements of the European Commission, the Council of Europe and UNESCO, making this document transparent and comprehensible for the entire world.

Another important fact is that the new appendix is printed on special paper with the same level of security used by universities in many European countries. We also decided to include our own hologram and an individual number in the forms.

Anna Korovko

— How will the possession of a European-standard appendix affect our graduates’ relations with Western universities and companies?

A.Korovko:

— It should make professional relationships between the HSE graduates and international employers and universities much more straightforward. We do not want ot expect all of our students to go abroad, but it is important for us to give them an opportunity to get a diploma which will be recognized by the international community, both academic and professional.

— Do you often get requests from graduates to issue such appendixes to diplomas

B. Zhelezov:

— This year, we’ve been asked by about a dozen students who wanted to get confirmation of their education at the HSE. We get similar requests from international companies which employ our graduates. I believe that this new appendix will largely eliminate the sensitive problem of such requests. Thanks to this innovation, both international employers and universities will trust our diplomas. For example, many British universities are still skeptical about our bachelor’s degree, and are not always ready to enroll Russian graduates in their master’s programmes. But we have good reasons to assume that such appendix will convince the admission offices that our bachelor’s degree is not fictional. It seems to be a formal thing, but there is a separate paragraph in the Bologna declaration that a European diploma should contain such an appendix. This is a kind of good courtesy, a sign that the university really is a world-class one.

Boris Zhelezov

— Do any other universities in Russia issue such appendixes to their diplomas?

B. Zhelezov:

— There are several universities in our country which can issue European-standard appendixes to diplomas. For example, the Saint-Petersburg State University has started issuing this kind of document a number of years ago. But this practice is still an exception rather than the rule for Russian universities. All graduates of our university – bachelors, masters and specialists – including those in the regional branches, will get this new standard appendix.

— Does it mean that even this year’s HSE graduates will be able to boast about these appendixes in their diplomas?

A.Korovko:

— Yes, they will. Over the next few days we shall finish the task of preparing the contents of those appendixes including an accurate and clear translation of the titles of disciplines into English. The forms will include the results of this work, and the HSE graduates of 2011 will be the first in the history of the university to get a European appendix to their diploma. We hope that this will happen during the graduation ceremony.

Liudmila Mezentseva, HSE News Service