"Summing up my experience in Moscow and in HSE University is merely impossible. This academic year has been full of amazements and surprises..."
Summing up my experience in Moscow and at the HSE University is impossible. This academic year has been full of amazements and surprises.
About the academic side of my stay in Moscow, I only want to say that I am very pleased with the teaching provided by my faculty (Public administration). My Russian was very weak before I came to Moscow -I could read cyrillic but I couldn't say a lot besides "Hello my name is Charlotte, can I have some more tea?". The staff at HSE has been tackling this difficulty head on by providing me with 6 hours of Russian language per week. I am very grateful to them and especially to the Centre for Cooperation with France which has been instrumental in providing those courses and helping me through the first weeks of my Russian experience. Within my faculty I took mostly courses in English and the professors have always been very positive even enthusiastic about having "European" students in their class. Indeed, most of my classes were relying on student presentations and thus debate. So it has been very interesting for me as a political science student to debate a range of topics with the Russian students. I genuinely felt a part of the class, the professors all knew my name and I had the feeling I could come to them if I had a problem. I enjoyed my class which allowed me to meet great people and the professors were always open-minded and interesting.
As for the supervision of my stay, I have met very helpful people from the start of my experience in Russia. All the administrative issues ha been resolved in the first days very swiftly. When I arrived, a "buddy" had been assigned to me and I met an amazing young women who picked me up at the station and brought me to my dormitory. Then the Centre for Cooperation with France took over. The international office was disorganized at the first semester and I had some trouble to get my visa extension. I was actually quite worried but finally everything ended up quite well. Since the second semester, the office has changed and it has been much more efficient. As an international student I have the opportunity to live in a dormitory located close to the city center and this is a huge advantage in a city like Moscow. The dormitory is a very decent place managed by very nice people who have always been helpful to me.
Finally, I have absolutely no regrets about coming to HSE Moscow because being a student in Russia is an awesome experience. With the student card I have access to concessions at many museums and theaters and my cultural life has been intensive since I have been here. In September 2012 the HSE had its 20th anniversary and we were invited to a big celebration in Gorky park, it was the perfect introduction to a great year in Moscow.
I hope more international students will come to HSE Moscow because my stay here has changed fundamentally my view on Russia and Russians. I would do it again, for sure and I will be very sad to leave Russia at the end of my stay!Charlotte Duflos