They’ve been hectic months, with four simultaneous and very demanding courses. But they’ve taught me a lot about studying and working with different cultures, about varied topics relevant to my future career, and about myself.

Over 20% of the students at EUR are not from the Netherlands, while at the moment CBS has less than 17% non-Danes. That small percentage difference doesn’t look like a lot. But as a student at both, I can really feel a difference.

Besides, I feel there are more nationalities represented here, while at CBS I mostly know Europeans, and Germans comprise the majority at both universities. Overall, EUR feels slightly more diverse and truly international.

Diversity plays a crucial role during the courses. Given that nearly all assignments are set in groups, we get to work with people from all over the world.

This was particularly interesting in the program I followed here, the MSc in Business Information Management, as, besides the different nationalities, people join from diverse backgrounds (business administration, economics, marketing, and so on), making it a truly rewarding experience. Everyone can contribute from their own viewpoint.

(Photo by Diana Perez Lemonche)

That being said, I have to admit to having missed some of the time to prepare and deliver assignments, compared to CBS. As I explained in a previous post, EUR divides the semester into two blocks. Often, courses for each of the blocks have 4 assignments in total.

All in all, this means that we’ll have two weekly deadlines on assignments counting for a significant percentage of our final grade!

Meanwhile, I’ve experienced that in Denmark we might have 4 assignments in a semester. This feels more attainable and a lot of time can be spent on research and preparation. Here at EUR, everything has a somewhat faster pace.

However, my time here has brought me an interesting new angle on some e-business concepts I had seen before during my MSc in Business Administration and E-business studies at CBS. The Erasmus professors’ perspectives were different and at times more technical than the CBS ones.

I found my Big Data course particularly challenging here, although friends of mine taking that elective at CBS have told me that it is equally challenging over there. Luckily, my Big Data group was great!

All in all, it has been an enriching experience. I am far more confident in Enterprise Architecture, Data Science, Business Process Modelling, Object-Oriented Programming and other e-business concepts after my exchange.

And I would say I am more confident in myself after having worked with so many different people and having been put on the spot with the International Consultancy Project.

Perhaps more importantly, during this time I’ve befriended amazing people. People who reminded me to care for what truly matters and will be life-long friends!