Ilyas Sadykov:  I think that almost all international students would experience culture shock when they first come to Russia. And our tutors make every effort to help them with it all the time. Last year we provided service for HSE students in Saint Petersburg to help them with study problems and immigration problems. And we noticed that sometimes foreign students can have problem with talking to native Russian speakers as well. Some students, honestly, don’t speak Russia at all, so it can be difficult when they try to communicate with Russian people. We helped them with that as well.
Vlada McCormick: I suppose the greater shock is related to study because through my work I found that so many students don’t have an idea how much they will need to accomplish in HSE. The system in HSE might be quite different from what they have in their own countries. So I think they are shocked more by dealing with deadlines, online courses, projects, sessions and exams in their academic life here. Besides study, living in Russia is another serious problem because it is not easy to get accustomed to a particular environment in a foreign country. That’s what I think about the main obstacles that international students might come across.