ICEF Master’s Programme Hosts Its Open Day
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The 12th November open day session introduced prospective students to the MSc Financial Economics. Not only were they able to find out more about the learning process and admission, they met with programme graduates who cited personal examples of how their diplomas helped them start their careers in business and academia.
Prof. Maxim Nikitin, MSc Financial Economics Academic Supervisor and ICEF Assistant Director and ICEF Deputy Director, started the session with a brief historical review of ICEF and its master’s programme. Highlighting the benefits of MSc Financial Economics, Prof. Nikitin referred to it as “one-of-a-kind blend of fundamental and applied courses in Economics and Finance, which now embraces also data analysis and programming. Drawing on the best of scholarly traditions of Great Britain, our programme is delivered entirely in English, while allowing the flexibility of individual learning trajectories and international mobility. It features in the QS Top 100 Business Masters in Finance for six years now.”
Speaking next was the Coordinator for ICEF MSc Financial Economics Olga Nizhevich. Olga filled the audience in on the application process and the entry schemes.
The 2024 enrolment period:
1 November 2023 – 11 August 2024
Together with the solid training in math and economics, the strong brand name of the programme has paved the way into the world of finance, consulting, and IT for hundreds of its graduates around the world. One special focus is on career planning. To assist its students with job search strategies, ICEF operates its own Career Services.
Over the seventeen years of its existence, MSc Financial Economics has graduated a total of 400 young people who found jobs in leading banks, consulting companies, retail businesses and industries around the world. Two of them have joined the session to share their academic experience and career stories.
The life of Daniil Yesaulov has been going hand in hand with ICEF since he joined the MSc Financial Economics (class of 2012) after graduating from the Moscow State University Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. Currently in charge of analytics unit at Avito, Daniil teaches courses at the ICEF Summer Bridge:
Daniil Yesaulov, BSc from Moscow State University Faculty of Mechanics, MSc from ICEF (2012), Analytics Team lead at Avito, ICEF visiting lecturer and class-teacher
“Joining the MSc Financial Economics after MSU Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics in 2010 turned out quite a culture shock for me, in a good way, of course. The support I was receiving from the Studies Office was more than impressive: people here will help you with any query or issue. What’s important to know is also that you can expect assistance at all times, be it through the Studies Office as an official channel or your classmates.
With students coming from different professional backgrounds, it’s always a diverse team. You’ll be working together a lot, but competition is never an obstacle here. The same is true for home assignments. We used to get together after classes to patiently explain mathematics to those who needed it, just like the Economics majors never failed to do the same for us, mathematicians.
Going back to mathematics, it is taught as a stand-alone course only in the first six months of Year 1. But here, math is like this power behind the throne that influences progress in all onward courses, so you’d better learn it well. And in this respect, the Summer School I teach at offers an ideal bridge from bachelor’s to master’s studies.”
The prospective students didn’t have to wait until the start of summer bridge school to find out about the requirements for applicants. Daniil presented them all in his overview of the mathematical knowledge expected of the applicants.
Like Daniil Yesaulov, Alexander Shirobokov, who holds his bachelor’s from St. Petersburg State University of Economics and master’s from ICEF (2018), serves at ICEF as a class teacher. Currently an employee of Gazprombank, Alexander enrolled in ICEF a few years later, but appears to have had the experience and impressions just like those of Daniil.
Alexander Shirobokov, who holds his bachelor’s from St. Petersburg State University and master’s from ICEF (2018), works at Gazprombank and is ICEF’s class teacher
“To me, ICEF was a revelation. It’s a special place completely devoid of ‘teachers – studies office – students’ hierarchy, and it doesn’t assign you to your certain place in it. Here, you feel part of an organic whole – the whole that has one goal in mind: to give knowledge.
But, to be more precise, knowledge per se isn’t an ultimate goal. It’s these special skills you gain as ICEF’s master’s student that you benefit most from. ICEF gives the insight, it teaches you to be a good problem setter. By learning to immerse yourself in a topic and find benchmarks that will let you formulate the problem, you also become a better strategist. This is probably the most important skill you gain here.
Knowledge evolves, skills stay.
And one more thing I can’t but mention is the community this programme built. Your two years here will be nothing but productive knowledge sharing, with no pain of competition. They will level up your skills in a variety of areas. I was able to benefit from them in both work and life.”
At the end, the prospective students had a Q&A session with the programme team and graduates and exchanged contacts.
MSc Financial Economics presentation can be viewed here.