In spite the epidemiological situation and the closure of borders, students of the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University (GSOM SPbU) continue to participate in the student exchange program with foreign partner universities: in the autumn semester, 55 students of the Business School took part in educational process abroad despite all the difficulties.

35 GSOM SPbU students studied full-time at universities in Finland, Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands, while the rest participated in an online format.

  

Daria Gorshkova, a third-year student of the Management program, studied in Germany at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. She became the first Bachelor student from GSOM to go to this university for an exchange. "In general, the educational process at WHU is very similar to the GSOM one. A significant difference is that the lectures are partly held in a hybrid format, i.e. about a third of the students are in the classroom, and for the rest there is an online broadcast via Zoom," she shared. Daria said that thanks to the help of the GSOM SPbU International Office, she was able to get a visa to Germany among the first university students in St. Petersburg.

  

A fourth-year student of the Management program, Semyon Ganyushin was on an exchange at the British campus of the Normandie Business School and was educated in a mixed format - on-campus and via distance learning. "The school follows the standard of two meters social distancing required in the UK. Thus, in the classrooms, most of which are designed for 40 students, groups of a maximum of 18 people can be present. If there are more students, they are divided into two subgroups. Online and offline participation is rotated: that is, for example, on Wednesday, one subgroup comes to two lectures in the class, the other connects to the lesson via Zoom, on Thursday - vice versa. The order is determined by the subjects - each subgroup should have an equal number of hours offline and online for each of the subjects, " Semyon explained.

  

Students say that in European countries, the rules for visiting public places during the pandemic are much stricter than in Russia. So, in the UK, it is forbidden to gather groups of more than six people, except at work or university. All public places, except supermarkets, close at 22:00, and customers there must either leave contact details or use an app to check-in. For non-compliance with the rules, violators face large fines. For example, for violating the 14- day entry quarantine, you will have to pay about 100 thousand rubles.

  

For reference: today GSOM cooperates with 85 academic partners. During the pandemic, the International Department of the Business School has signed agreements with four other universities — Gyeongbuk National University (South Korea), the University of International Business and Economics (China), Business School XXI Vek-Consult (Belarus) and the GFKM Business School (Poland). In January 2021, the agreement with Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland) on the implementation of a program based on the model of two diplomas for students of Master program — "Business Analytics and Big Data" and "Management" was renewed.