News

On 21 February 2025, the town of Penza witnessed the completion of the National Combat Sambo Championship U-20. The final stage in national team selection, it was participated by +550 male and female juniors who competed for the right to represent Russia on global area at World Sambo Championship 2025 to be held in Indonesia. The gold medal in 98 kg combat sambo was won by Georgy Khvatkin, who earlier won gold at the World Cadet, Youth and Junior Sambo Championship 2024 and is currently in his first year of ICEF International Bachelor’s Programme in Economics and Finance.

In early February, our teaching and administrative staff met with those of ICEF students who are currently in RIEM SWUFE (Research Institute in Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China) studying for a double degree in economics and finance. The meeting involved also those who went to SWUFE for a semester-long exchange that started in September 2024. Convened to discuss the delivery of both the double-degree and exchange programmes, the meeting has produced a summary of issues to be brought to the attention of those who are interested in studying in China.

In the run-up to the 2025-26 fall semester academic exchange, the team of ICEF International Administrative Department met with students seeking study-abroad experience. Here are the exchange opportunities available, the documentation package required and how to get it right.

In this interview, Pavel Smirnov, who earned his bachelor’s in 2024, talks about his unfolding career. Currently a Sales Specialist & Trader at Raiffeisen Bank Institutional Clients, Pavel shares his experience and emphasizes things to pay attention to while a student for a successful career start.

In January 2025, HSE University entered into a cooperation agreement with the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) to implement a double master’s that joins ICEF’s Financial Economics programme with SWUFE’s Master's in Finance. Combining the best of China and Russia’s academic frameworks, this new degree offers a unique study-abroad experience. In this collaboration, HSE ICEF is partnering with the Research Institute of Economics and Management (RIEM), which was established at SWUFE in 2006 to facilitate top-level, international research and training in economics and finance.

Meet Yan Minghao from Harbin. Yan is in his second year of master’s study at ICEF HSE and has a passion for mathematics and Russian culture. In this interview he shares the experience of being an ICEF student, contributing to international research venues, and travelling around Russia.

How does one end up at United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) as an exchange student? Are classes at UAEU really single-sex? What is there to do at the weekend? ICEF student Ulyana Kobylkina and FES Economics and Data Science student Nika Prokudina share their experiences of their recent exchange.

ICEF has a good tradition of encouraging its students to sit their first winter examination, Accounting, dressed in fancy New Year’s outfits.

Nikita Morozov, who is in his first year of Master of Financial Economics at ICEF, boasts an incredible amount of academic accomplishments in his portfolio. We started this interview by asking how Nikita has achieved them, what his first impressions of being an ICEF student are, and what he expects from his master’s studies.

Sofia Salamova, who graduated from ICEF in 2024, authors a paper that won top prize in HSE Student Research Paper Competition in the category “Best Finance Research Paper by Master’s Students and Graduates 2024”. Here’s Sofia about what inspired her to do her research, supervised by Associate Professor of ICEF Vladimir Sokolov, how it went, and why it is important to be able to “explain your research to your grandma”.