News

Dean Fantazzini, Deputy Head of the Department of Econometrics and Mathematical Methods in Economics at Moscow School of Economics in Moscow State University and Visiting Scholar at the HSE ICEF, was the first foreigner to defend his DSc thesis at HSE University. We spoke with Dean Fantazzini about his research and cooperation with HSE.

The pre-New Year period traditionally brings together ICEF alumni for what is known as Unconference. Offering a unique experience, unfolded from onstage (or Zoom) by the alumni, this year’s Unconference featured un-PowerPoints telling all the truth about job search and how “failure” has become a norm, what mobile games industry is really all about and why big data is just hype.

A springboard to careers in academia for many promising contestants, this year’s Student Research Paper Competition has announced as many as 13 winners – students and graduates of ICEF.

In assessing an employee’s performance, employers often listen to his immediate supervisor or colleagues, and these opinions can be highly subjective. Sergey Stepanov, an economist from HSE University, has shown that biased evaluations can actually benefit employers. An article substantiating this finding was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

Card game masters claim that careful analysis of the opponent’s combinations is a key to winning, enabled by the key capabilities in game theory data science. Anastasia Erastova, currently a data scientist at BNP Paribas' New York office, graduated in 2018 from ICEF BSc with honors and the title of Russia’s Bridge Vice-Champion. In her interview to Success Builder Anastasia explains why math and card games are entwined, what makes studying next door to Wall Street beneficial, and how mathematics students can get a work visa for the USA.

In 2020 13 winners of All-Russian Olympiad in mathematics and economics were admitted to ICEF. All of them receive 100% discount for their full undergraduate degree course and a VTB Bank scholarship. These students have successfully finished their first module, passed the exams, and chosen the elective courses in addition to the main programme. Many of them have already started studyingon ICEF Academia programme. They told us why they chose HSE-ICEF and the programme and why it is important for them to study here. They also told us what current school graduates expect from higher education and what they hope to do in the future.

HSE Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov has signed an order stipulating that HSE University will transition to online learning beginning November 16.

ICEF graduates Alexander Odintsov and Anton Volodin, currently consultants at Bain & Company, did a Q&A where they told students why consulting is the better springboard to career than industry, what ‘experience share transfer’ is, and how Bain gets its team to travel together, do an MBA and just be friends. The session received the highest rating from students in the fall session of the Bain events.

At a recent webinar of the Master’s programme ‘Financial Economics’, held at ICEF (International College of Economics and Finance), presenters explained why the programme is unique and what sort of career prospects are open to alumni. Graduates of the programme, working at major global companies, shared their personal experiences, spoke about the key benefits of training and gave valuable advice to those preparing to work in international companies.