"I can definitely say that the results of participation in the mobility programme are maturing and personal growth". Arina Petrushina told about her experience of living and studying in Hungary, and also shared her criteria for choosing a university when applying for the mobility programme.
Arina Petrushina, a 2nd year student of the GSB Marketing and Market Analytics programme, visited the University of Pécs, Hungary. Read in the review why the student applied to a university other than a "top" university and what advantages such a choice offers.
I studied at the mobility programme "Business Administration and Management" at the University of Pécs, Hungary. In the summer of 2022, I travelled on my own to an Italian summer school. This experience made me realise that I was ready for some new experience — so I decided to apply for the mobility programme for the Spring Semester 2023. Moreover, after the summer school, I made some acquaintances in Europe, including Hungary. I would like to say that one of the main advantages of studying abroad is making friends all over the world.
About the University
The university itself in Pécs is quite small and more like a school. Compared to the HSE Graduate School of Business, there are not so many students there, everyone knows each other by name, including professors. There is no division into lectures and seminars either (or I would say, formally there is, but in practice you do not notice it). Here you won't have a huge workload, endless projects with high demands, as at the GSB.
The University of Pech is not included in the top rankings, so the expectations from students are not so high. For some people this may be a significant disadvantage, but there are also certain advantages: quite a free study schedule — a great opportunity to travel both in the country itself and all over Europe! During my mobility programme, I visited several cities and castles in Hungary and also five European countries. One of them could be reached in a couple of hours by bus/train and the others by plane. If you have the necessity to load yourself up with studies, you can easily do so by choosing more courses.
The university has a very cool system for exchange students: there are no compulsory subjects — you can only choose the ones you need or want to study. For example, I took only three courses, which I was able to replace my Vyshka courses with, but I also had online courses at GSB (I was not bored). I can't say that I was completely satisfied with the quality of education at the University of Pécs — after all, the level is lower than we are used to. But it is definitely compensated by the new experience and the opportunity to see other cities and countries, combining it with an investment in your own development. My verdict: if you want a strong line in your CV and to work in a highly competitive environment — this is not the place for you; if you are looking for an opportunity for new acquaintances, experience, you need more free time which you can spend on studying something else — the University of Pécs is quite suitable.
Document preparation
As for the preparation of documents, in general everything went smoothly, although I was very much worried about the long-term visa: whether it would be given at all and whether it would be given in time. The main difficulty in the process of obtaining a visa was that I had to apply for it directly at the consulate, and the record should have been opened only at the end of December, and I had to leave in January. It was very risky, I was afraid not to be on time. Then I decided to write to the consul directly, explaining my situation. He responded the same day, assigning my case to a visa centre, which was easy to sign up for the nearest date and had not even dealt with long-term visas before.
The next long nervous period was finding a flat (even though the university has a hostel), but even here everything was solved thanks to friends who live in Hungary. I also contacted the GSB Academic Mobility Centre, the exchange university directly and the Pécs Migration Office with some questions — they helped me in all situations. These difficulties definitely taught me not to be afraid to ask for help, now I do not think beforehand that my request is an impossible burden for someone else and try.
Impressions from the programme
I can definitely say that the results of participation in the mobility programme are maturing and personal growth, pumping communication and, let's say, survival skills. Of course, I had faced problems in my life before, but here they were of a different level. During this experience many pf them were related to adaptation and unfamiliarity with the subtleties of life in another country. My advice to everyone who is going to participate in the mobility programme: don't be afraid to ask questions, look for new acquaintances (which is inevitable if you go to another country) and set yourself up for a cool new experience that you create yourself!