ICEF Grad Sofia Salyamova Wins Student Research Paper Competition 2024
Congratulations on your convincing win, Sofia. When did you first learn about the competition and did you decide to join right away?
I first learned about it in my first year of studies. I was amazed at how talented the ICEF students were: writing a prize-winning paper and get acclaim from the professors of one of Russia’s best universities is no mean achievement. But here I am among the winners, telling you that winning this competition is quite real if you are hardworking enough and know how to put your knowledge to practice.
In my 2nd year, I decided to join the ICEF mentoring programme. It connects students with the graduates who can offer career guidance and advice. My mentor was Anastasia Ruzchik, who herself won the competition and was studying for a master’s degree at the London School of Economics. She became my role model.
One time I and Anastasia discussed the importance of choosing the right topic for research. If you are a researcher who takes a genuine interest in what you explore and can, as one of my teachers at ICEF puts it, make your research clear to your grandma, then you are bound to produce an exhaustive paper.
Another important thing to consider is who to choose to be your supervisor. I had several during my studies at ICEF, and those were excellent supervisors – Alina Myalo, who taught me how to conduct analysis; Nadezhda Kanygina, who taught me how to apply econometrics knowledge to practice and correctly analyse data; and Vladimir Sokolov, who helped me put together all the pieces of my research into an excellent thesis.
So, if you were to explain your research to your grandma, what would you tell her?
The title of my paper is An analysis of the characteristics of the banks influencing asset-backed security issue. It explores one of the ways banks use to attract financing – securitization. Simply put, a bank creates a basket of credits of various level of risk and proposes investors to buy it. The investors know they can use this basket to generate steady income at a relatively low risk and are willing to buy. In my work, I analyse the factors that can influence the banks’ decision as to issuing such credit baskets.
How did you come up with the right topic? What are some things to consider first?
My topic was prompted by my summer fintech internship at Ozon. One of my tasks there was to develop a strategy for Digital Financial Assets (DFAs) issue. While Russia now boasts a highly advanced DFA market, at the time I was collecting the data it was still an emerging market lacking segmentation, which complicated its analysis from the perspective of econometrics. Structurally, a DFA is very much like securitization, which, too, was a highly interesting topic to explore. So, I and my supervisor Vladimir Sokolov sat down to brainstorm some possible ideas for my thesis and this is how we arrived at a narrower aspect – the securitization performance in China.
Another challenge I encountered while writing my thesis was data collection. Fortunately for me, in the fall of 2024 ICEF gained test access to Wind, which is China’s financial information platform and it offered all the data needed for my analysis. But, since Wind was just launched, very few people knew how to use it and download the data.
As with many researchers of my age, I worried if I was doing my research right, but in the end I was able to produce a solid piece of analysis and it was appreciated highly by the examination board.
I am very grateful to Vladimir Sokolov for making me believe I was doing an important study. It was he who insisted on my joining the HSE Student Research Paper Competition. And suddenly this past December I learn my paper won top prize in the “Best Finance Research Paper by Master’s Students and Graduates 2024” category.
You wrote your thesis, defended it and won the student paper competition with it. What advice would you give our current students and graduates?
Don’t hesitate to submit your paper to the competition. No need to underestimate its potential. This contest is a great opportunity for those who seek careers in academia, granting winners academic internships.
Apart from academia, there are opportunities at ICEF for students to grow and prepare for careers in the industry. My dream became a reality thanks to the excellent teachers who gave me knowledge and helped me believe in myself.
I am currently a student at Warwick Business School in England studying for MSc in Finance. If someone told me five years ago that I, a high school student in Gus-Khrustalny, would graduate HSE’s leading financial economics school, write a prize-winning thesis and enter one of the best business schools in England, I would not believe them. None of this would have happened without my parents, grandma and my brother who supported me along the way.
Read the interview with Sofia and her former classmates about studying at Warwick Business School
Interview about studying at Warwick Business School
