Boris Georgiev is 26 years old and is preparing a doctorate in economics at the University of Aarhus. His time passes in research, but when he has some spare time he loves doing sports actively.
First I came to Denmark with a school project. My first impression was very good. People were very friendly and kind. We spent almost all the time in the high school of Svendborg and I noticed that the infrastructure is well developed, and students have access to very modern technological equipment. There are a lot of investments in school infrastructure – educational materials, interactive systems etc. Danish students were also very friendly and cheerful. Somehow, after spending time in Denmark, I had more information about how things are here compared to other countries. My impressions from Denmark were positive and I decided to apply. I wanted to study economics and business administration. I did research for universities and specialties. I found out more about the specialties at the University of Aarhus and asked myself: why not?
I came here with a very open outlook. I was open to know how people live here, without having great expectations or prejudices about these people. I think it helped me because I have always striven to take the best from Denmark. I pay attention to certain features of society, how it works, how people communicate and what they do in their spare time. And I think that many European countries have a lot to learn from the Danes.
After graduating bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration, I had already lived here three years and knew the system fairly well. There is a site of the university, where you create your account and submit an application for the respective program. The whole process is so automated that it took me about 30 minutes to prepare all documents. What is required is a selection of specialty and grades of the bachelor’s degree. And it was enough to register for the master’s program. I picked a few majors and I submitted the documents for the master’s degree. It is a very simple and structured system that makes it easy for the applicants. Usually a reply on whether the applicant is approved arrives within two months.
It’s a fact that in most places in Western Europe, including Denmark, often focused and hard work is sooner or later rewarded. I think that for the period of eight years I’ve been living here, I learned one simple thing and it’s that if you work purposefully and diligently pursue opportunities that open before you, things happen. Here society is very egalitarian, i.e. even if one comes from the lower ranks of society, this doesn’t prevent them from acquiring the best education for free and becoming whatever they want.
There is a reason that the system here is like that. Education is free, so a person could develop in the direction they want, whether they have money for it or not. This promotes social mobility. In addition, I learned by experience that without hard work, one cannot achieve considerable success. I guess it sounds trivial, but when you do some hard work and see the results of the work, then at one point you say to yourself: Yes, things can happen! Gradually, you start spinning the wheel and based on the experience gained and a clear work system, you reach your goals more easily. These are the main lessons I learned from the time spent here.
