‘This Important Day Will Be Written in the History of the School of Foreign Languages’

At the end of December, the HSE School of Foreign Languages held its first-ever defence of student projects with the participation of industry partners representing large companies and organisations. Third and fourth-year students of the Bachelor's Programme in Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication presented their works to the members of the expert committee.

The projects presented at the poster session were prepared by students of several specialisations (‘Translation and Translation Studies’, ‘Theory and Methodology of Teaching Foreign Languages’, and ‘Intercultural Corporate Communication’) from September 15 to December 20, 2023.

Ekaterina Kolesnikova

Ekaterina Kolesnikova, Head of the HSE School of Foreign Languages, welcomed the defence participants: ‘We will all get great pleasure and energy at this event, which will contribute to the professional development of our students. This important day, when we are holding a poster defence of projects together with potential employers for the first time, will be written in the history of the School of Foreign Languages.’

The school faculty also discussed project activity as the basis for successfully entering the labour market. ‘Every student and graduate of the School of Foreign Languages should have project competencies,’ says Ekaterina Kolesnikova. ‘After all, projects develop a sense of managerial responsibility.’

Anastasia Sapozhnikova

‘This year, we faced the challenge of organising the defence of specialised projects of 4th-year students for the first time,’ shares Anastasia Sapozhnikova, coordinator at the Scientific and International Activities Unit of the HSE School of Foreign Languages. ‘We thought that our partners would be interested to see the results of our students' work, so we invited them to participate.’

Third and fourth-year students presented 38 projects, 24 of which were implemented jointly with external partners.

Representatives of the following companies and departments took part in the poster session:

 Russian Academy of Education

 My Job Moscow employment centre

 Prosveshcheniye Publishers

 Marilink

 HSE International Admissions Office

 HSE Centre for Educational Model Design

 HSE English Website Support Unit

 NPF Technoyax

 AKM-West

‘The students did a great job. It was a new challenge for them, and they proved themselves,’ says Ekaterina Kolesnikova.

Representatives of the expert committee also shared their impressions of the defence session with the HSE News Service.

Tatiana Lobok, Deputy Head of the HSE University Centre for Educational Model Design

‘Firstly, the students prepared very well for the defence, and the project managers also did a great job. All the students looked confident during their presentations. Secondly, I want to mention the perfectly prepared posters and various additional materials—some students made websites, Telegram channels, or entire applications.’

Denis Korolenko, youth employment specialist at the My Job employment centre, Moscow

‘I found out that this format of defence has been held for the first time at the School of Foreign Languages, and I should say that everything was first class. The projects are excellent, the students have prepared well both in terms of visual format and foreign language proficiency. In addition, three students of the school have already taken internships at our company, where they helped us organise events. During these internships, the students showed great knowledge and skills, and today I also appreciated their projects.’

Inga Mkrtchyan, Project Team Manager at the HSE Centre for Educational Model Design

‘This is not my first time at a poster session—last year, my colleagues and I went to a similar event at MIEM HSE. I really like this format; the students do a great job. We assessed five projects and asked students difficult questions, but they did well. This is a useful experience for them as future specialists.’

Irina Temnova, Head of the Centre of Linguistic Education at Prosveshcheniye Publishers

‘I want to thank the HSE School of Foreign Languages for this experience. Ten students supervised by Svetlana Bogolepova (Academic Supervisor of the Bachelor's Programme in Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication—Ed.) worked on a project for our Linguistic Education Centre. I hope our cooperation will continue. We would be glad to learn about new ideas that we can implement next year.’

Maria Nikitina, Chief Editor, English Website Support Unit, HSE University

‘This semester, we attracted students of the School of Foreign Languages (SOFL) to two projects: one team wrote texts for our Life in Moscow project, and the other helped with various parts of the HSE University English-language website. Both teams performed real-life tasks that improved the content of the university portal. The students refined their writing, translation, and communication skills. I look forward to further cooperation with SOFL.’