Research Paper Competition Winners Can Get a Headstart on Their Academic Careers

Winners of the 2016 Student Research Paper Competition

The application period for HSE’s Student Research Paper Competition has started. The winners will have an opportunity to take part in workshops on academic skills development, while those in state-financed studies will improve their chances of seeing their academic scholarships increased. Also, in addition in HSE students, learners from other academic institutions are eligible for this competition.

This year, the Student Research Paper Competition is being held in 21 areas, including the newly added Arts & Design field. Competition in five areas – Business Informatics, Mathematics, Media Communications, Computer Science, and Political Science – will be open for students from Russian and international universities. For instance, around 200 out of 1,256 papers submitted for the competition in 2016 were by non-HSE participants.

‘We see the Research Paper Competition as a good kickoff for an academic career,’ said Igor Chirikov, HSE Vice Rector, adding: ‘The winners will get to take part in a special course, where they will learn about writing academic papers in Russian and English and how to submit them to leading journals. They will also learn how to speak about their research achievements. For this purpose, a “research battle” will take place, followed by an analysis of typical errors. Moreover, renowned teachers and coaches will be brought in to conduct the course, thereby helping to motivate students to actively pursue academic careers’.

The three-day course for the winners is slated to take place in spring 2018 at the HSE Training Centre in Voronovo. Students from various programmes will have an opportunity to communicate and think about joint projects, since many of the most thrilling research projects are usually formed and reach fruition at the interface of different fields.

Winners of the competition (first, second, and third place) will get points, which ensure an opportunity to receive an increased state academic scholarship, notes Pavel Zdorovtsev, Director of the HSE Student Development Office. Furthermore, they can receive almost the same number of points as for a publication in a Scopus- or Web of Science-indexed journal from the first quartile (20 and 24, accordingly, but it is quite rare for students’ work to appear in such publications). Moreover, a half year scholarship may range from 10,000 to 30,000 roubles per month.

Full-time state-funded students, who have successfully passed (without any C grades) two recent interim attestations and have not failed any academic assignments, may also apply for the scholarship. Since the points for being a winner of the Research Paper Competition are valid throughout the calendar year, those winners with C grades, have a chance to pass the next two examination periods with As and Bs, and thereby can compete for the scholarship as well, Pavel Zdorovtsev notes.

Students whose tuition is covered by HSE (e.g., students of programmes in Physics and joint programmes in Mathematics with the Centre of Teaching Excellence) retain the same rights for scholarships as state-funded learners. Winners of the HSE Student Research Paper Competition who pay for tuition are not eligible for the scholarship, but they can still participate in academic development projects.

For students from other universities, being a winner of the HSE Student Research Paper Competition is usually taken into account in the development of academic portfolios, which, among other things, may impact the size of future scholarships and financial support. In addition, they can also take part in HSE’s various academic development projects.

Applications for the competition are being accepted through October 15. The results will be announced at the end of December, followed by an award ceremony.

If you have any questions about the competition, please don’t hesitate to contact the Organizing Committee via e-mail at tzakharova@hse.ru