News

Congratulations to the First-Ever Alumni Fellowship Recipients

26 November, 2020

It’s been a year since we established the Student Support Fund for CERGE-EI Master Students in order to raise funds for stipends and fellowships. Today, for the first time in CERGE-EI’s history, we are proud to announce the first-ever recipients of the Alumni Excellence Fellowship for the 2020/2021 academic year: Maksim Smirnov and Martin Kosík.

Thanks to the generous support and engagement of CERGE-EI Alumni and the Board of Nadace CERGE-EI, our first alumni fundraising call managed to raise the sum sufficient to provide a full year fellowship for two students.

"We are always excited to hear from our alumni, we are proud of their successes, and we always wish them the best. The collected sum is a clear sign that our alumni also care about us as much as we care about them," said CERGE-EI Director Sergey Slobodyan.

He continued with a message for the Alumni. "The years spent here were a life-changing experience that you will never forget, and we were excited to see how many of you contributed to give that experience to someone else. For us, this is a clear expression of the trust you have in this university, your alma mater. I can promise we will not disappoint you and we will continue to do what we do best - to provide top-quality education and to remain the center of excellence in the field of economic research," he said. 

The fellowship is meant for newly enrolled students who were ranked as the very best by the Admission Committee and remain among the top quarter of the first-year cohort based on their cumulative GPA ranking. It can also be awarded to second-year students who manage to pass the complete first-year general exams with a PhD pass and rank among the top three students of their study cohort.

Maksim Smirnov is a first-year Master in Economic Research student. Maksim holds a bachelor degree in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University and from the Higher School of Economics.

Martin Kosík is a second year Master in Economic Research student. Martin holds a bachelor degree in Economics and Finance from the Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University.