Motivation
Gain experience from a reputed European University, while being able to gain local experience and knowledge about the culture and lifestyle. Other motivation was the course available for selection. As I had nearly completed other relevant courses at UQ, I only had limited European Universities as options to pursue.
Personal Development
I met a lot of new friends from all over Europe and some from rest of the world. Gained valuable experience with different lifestyle, culture, rules and regulation motivations and thinking of the natives etc. I now have a much more broader view on the European lifestyle, especially in relation to culture and finance.
Academic Development
As I am from a non-financial background, with no preliminary studies related to even economics and accounting, it was a lot to catch up during the short time frame. There were a lot of students with solid accounting and financial background and hence the teachers were not very particular in explaining the fundamentals. I still managed to understand the various methods of analysing financial statements, by putting in extra efforts to catch up with others. Teaching methods and classroom experience was very poor compared to that I have experienced from UQ and from Harvard Summer School. The faculty even conducted a preliminary exam preparation day, however the orientation given during that day and the way questions were asked during the exam had very little similarity. Even for students with solid accounting and financial background the exam was very difficult. CBS needs to either offer the course over a 6 weeks period and significantly improve their teaching materials and student study materials. There was literally no in class room practice sessions where students could practice the learnings. Workload was reasonable, but the classroom sessions didn’t cover most of it. I was only able to overcome this and achieve a grade, due to focusing on the fundamental theory and by trying to include the relevant theory knowledge together with each examination question answers.
Professional Development
Learnt to adapt to different lifestyle and learnt to build rapport with variety of people from multicultural background. Some of these connections are there to stay forever which would be very valuable for my personal and business progression. Usually I am a quiet person when it comes to a new group. However, I had to adapt and be very proactive in introducing myself in order to join other groups to get to know them and be part of a wider group.
Costs
I planned my travel almost close to the start of the course, hence expenses were a bit on the higher side. I arranged an accommodation via Facebook marketplace (but beware of scammers, as some students got scammed). My experience with using Facebook marketplace in Australia helped me to reasonably identify the scammers from genuine accommodation providers. I had to spend nearly 4000 DKK for 3.5 weeks of accommodation about 25 mins away from the city by train. Food is expensive and had to spend close to 7000 DKK for food and drinks and rest was for other sight seeing and flight tickets.
Accommodation
via Facebook. most places only have a heater, but these days you may find it necessary to get an aircon (possibly due to global warming). aircons are slowly appearing in the local appliance stores. Accommodation host was helpful, but I relied mostly on internet resources to find my way around. google maps was particularly helpful as it shows the local train and bus connections in realtime. As the metro train network is very good, staying even up to 30 mins away from city isn’t too bad. It will save a lot of money from expensive city accommodation. Metro train is literally only minutes walkable distance away from University.
Highlight
European Experience
Advice/Top Tips
Consider learning accounting and economics before pursing finance degree, especially if you are from a non-accounting background.
