The 2023 graduation ceremony. HSE ICEF
© ICEF
ICEF’s 2023 graduation ceremony was held in HSE Cultural Centre and celebrated the graduation of the 23rd class of bachelor’s and the 15th class of master’s students. The two classes were awarded their degrees and delivered graduation speeches before an audience of ICEF faculty, HSE leaders, staff, and families.
In his opening speech, ICEF Director Sergey Yakovlev extended his congratulations, stressing the importance of high academic achievements and the fact that ICEF graduates continue to be the preferred candidates with many employers and post-graduate programmes. "We are really proud to have so many students who present themselves to the world as highly competent, competitive professionals,” said Sergey Yakovlev. More than 70% of this year’s class of bachelor’s and 90% of master’s graduates have made confident choices in favour of further education or career. More than half of the bachelor’s class are embarking on careers straight after graduation. Traditionally, the majority have found jobs in finance, banking, consulting, audit, industry, IT, and related sectors – at SBER, VTB, Bank of Russia, Raiffeisen Bank, Credit Bank of Moscow, and Rosbank.
A little less than half of the bachelor’s class of 2023 have chosen to pursue post-graduate finance programmes in Russia, particularly at HSE, and abroad. The offers made by overseas schools exceed 100 and include well-known universities – MIT, Yale, Oxford, LSE, LBS, as well as top business schools in Europe, UAE and China, which have been the preferred choice among our recent graduates. A special message was addressed by ICEF Director to Vladimir Averin, a bachelor’s graduate who won a scholarship from Yale University Department of Statistics and Data Science (USA) and is starting his PhD track this fall.
Alexander Shokhin, who holds the post of HSE University President, serves as President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and chairs ICEF Board of Trustees, has referred to ICEF as a pillar of prestige of the entire HSE. “Providing high competence and skills is one of our core missions, and in this sense ICEF has become Russia’s benchmark in education quality,” said Alexander Shokhin. Speaking on behalf of the Russian employers, the HSE President said that more and more employers are looking forward to see ICEF graduates among their staff, adding that this year’s class are just one step away from making a seamless transition from college to prestigious jobs.
Next to congratulate the graduating class was Vadim Radaev, HSE Senior Vice President, member of ICEF International Academic Committee. “I often say that of all HSE faculties, ICEF’s programme is the best. If you made it to graduation, you can safely consider yourself a highly sought-after candidate for jobs and post-graduate places in the world’s top universities,” said Vadim Radaev. The Senior Vice President ended his speech by thanking the ICEF management, faculty and staff for being able to keep their degree programmes in line with the highest of standards during all these years.
ICEF owes the launch of its degree programmes also to business community. In his address to the ICEF class of 2023, Mikhail Alekseev, Otkritie Bank President and Board Chair, member of ICEF Board of Trustees, said: “In the world of today, we all need to be lifelong learners. And I have every reason to believe that the solid grounding you’ve gained from your teachers at ICEF will help you excel as you learn new skills.”
The speeches were followed by conferring of HSE degrees to the bachelor’s and master’s students of ICEF. Top achievers and contributors to campus life have been awarded also the certificates of recognition, as have the three Best ICEF Teachers of 2022/23 as voted by students – Associate Professor Daniil Esaulov, senior lecturer Olesya Kondrakhina, and Professor Alla Fridman. “Time will pass, some of you will leave somewhere far away, but I hope no time or distance will erase your memory of the best moments of your student life at ICEF,” Alla Fridman said in her address to the graduating class.
The ceremony closed with the speeches by graduates Alexey Kipriyanov, Grigory Kuzmin, Natalia Yefremenko and Stepan Sannikov.
Grigory Kuzmin, graduate of ICEF BSc Programme 2021, ICEF MSc Programme 2023, teacher at ICEF
As a first-year student, I remember someone describing ICEF to me as “a place that will teach you learning skills.” I agree and would add to this description “thinking skills”. I hope this special learning environment will stay to benefit the new cohorts of students.
Stepan Sannikov, graduate of ICEF BSc Programme 2023, will pursue his master’s studies at the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School
I am sincerely grateful to ICEF for these four challenging years. They gave me lots of knowledge and have completely changed my worldview. I was in Humanities class before enrolling in ICEF, so after learning so many courses in Finance, Macro-, Microeconomics, Game Theory, and Statistics, I adopted a completely different set of mental models that have changed the way I think and perceive the world. I now interpret global phenomena in terms of personal benefit, public good, utility, and externalities. And with every course I did at ICEF, my perception gained a new perspective. An exposure like this gives new optics and it’s great.
