On September 10, 2009, the British Embassy in Moscow traditionally hosted the ceremony for awarding diplomas to graduates of the International College of Economics and Finance of the University - Higher School of Economics (ICEF, HSE). This year is outstanding for ICEF, because this year along with Bachelor’s programme students, the first cohort of Master’s programme graduates received their letters of validation from LSE and Russian state degree. >>
The graduation ceremony started with a speech by the ICEF director Sergey Yakovlev, who mentioned that this year's Bachelor’s programme had a record number of graduates - 86 people, with about 60% of them receiving either a first or an upper second class honours from the University of London.
16 graduates of the ICEF Master’s programme “Financial Economics” that was opened two years ago received the HSE diplomas signed by the rector, Yaroslav Kuzminov, and official letters of validation from LSE signed by the director, Howard Davies. The international level of the programme is ensured, in the first place, by involvement of LSE, which includes monitoring the programme, lecturing special courses, supervising external examinations, and also inviting professors with confirmed international qualification and experience in research at the leading Western universities.
Deputy British Ambassador, Laurie Bristow, defined the HSE and LSE collaboration as ‘the best example of a way to develop and strengthen communication between Russia and Great Britain'. Janet Hartley, the 
LSE Pro Director on Teaching and Learning and the author of a number of works on the history of Russia and Russian-British relations supported this idea. An alumni of Leningrad State University, she urged the graduates: "Set yourself the most challenging tasks: they are achievable!"
The HSE President Alexander Shokhin was impressed with the number of graduates. He emphasized that this graduation will be a test of the effectiveness of the HSE and LSE educational programmes during the current crisis in the world 
economy.
Representatives of Sberbank and VTB-24 Bank assured the graduates that they won't be entering a world of unemployed. ‘The crisis has created new opportunities, - said Mikhail Zadornov, President of VTB-24, - and we hope that these ICEF graduates will come to work in the Russian banking sector'.
ICEF students and staff sincerely congratulate the 2009 alumni!
We wish you further success and happiness!
