130 HSE University Students Receive Scholarships under VK Education Subscription Programme

© HSE University

As a result of the annual VK scholarship programme, the students receive monthly payments and other bonuses for developing skills and growing professionally. These include career consultations, access to a closed pool of vacancies and internships, the opportunity to participate in VK Education training programmes without undergoing an additional selection process, and a subscription to VK Music.

A total of about 4,800 applications by students from more than 300 universities were submitted to participate in the programme last year. The scholarship recipients went through three selection stages, during which experts assessed the students’ achievements in olympiads and championships, their level of motivation, work experience, and experience in public speaking and volunteering.

Based on the selection results, the programme’s expert council approved 273 scholarship recipients from leading Russian universities for the 2023/24 academic year: 182 first-year students and 91 students from other years.

Full-time undergraduate and specialist students can participate in the programme. Students of technical specialisations who have achievements in various olympiads, hackathons, IT championships, etc. can apply for the Subscription programme by VK Education.

One of the scholarship recipients is Arseny Semkin, a first-year student in the Software Engineering programme at HSE University in Moscow. ‘I presented my achievements in olympiads and several practical projects that I had implemented: for example, a model that generates text on a requested topic. I wasn’t entirely sure I would win. Many talented people with serious achievements applied for the programme,’ said Arseny.

Arseny Semkin

The student advised future scholarship recipients not to be shy when talking about their results. ‘Each of your achievements is interesting and unique,’ ​​he believes. ‘It’s worth posting your projects, for example, on GitHub (the largest web service for hosting IT projects and their joint development. —Ed.).’

Nikita Nakhaenko, a first-year student of the Business Informatics programme at HSE University in Moscow, always sets himself the goal of trying to achieve the maximum result. ‘I came across information about the VK scholarship programme in various sources, and I decided to apply too,’ says Nikita. ‘I didn’t think about whether I would win or not. But I knew that there would be a serious selection process and that people with good olympiad achievements would come, but I also had many projects, results, and achievements.’

Nikita Nakhaenko

Like other participants, Nikita first passed the selection process via questionnaire and only then took part in a video interview. ‘I got a high score at the first stage; while I was anxious in the “video business card” interview stage, I was able to say a lot about my projects and achievements, about how I see my future in the IT field and what I like to do. I think that is why I managed to get the scholarship,’ he says.

Ekaterina Nikolaeva

Ekaterina Nikolaeva, a second-year student of the Applied Mathematics and Information Science programme at HSE University in St Petersburg, is sure that the scholarship provides many opportunities for career development. ‘I’ve long wanted to get to know VK better, so I immediately decided to apply,’ says Ekaterina. ‘In the application form, I pointed out my successes in a number of olympiads, spoke in more detail about the project that we had carried out as a team in the first year, and about the internship experience.’

According to Ekaterina, the main thing in such competitions is not to be shy and to talk in more detail about your achievements and interests: ‘It is useful to try and look at your application from the jury’s viewpoint, to think about what they expect from contenders.’