Our People in Linz

HSE Nizhny Novgorod Management faculty students Anastasia Shikina and Alesya Zaporozhchuk have returned after a year in Austria’s Johannes Kepler University. They share their impressions of studying at our partner university.

Thanks to our beloved HSE, we had the unique opportunity to spend the 2014-15 academic year at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. This was the most interesting, crazy, and unforgettable year in our lives. Thanks to this exchange programme, we got to: meet excellent people from all over the world, travel al; over Europe and get to know new cultures, and of course, we got great life experience. We immersed ourselves in a completely new, independent life, and we still can’t believe that this fairytale episode really is over.

Austria is a beautiful country and we fell in love with it at first sight. We were particularly taken by the combination of mountainous landscapes and unusual urban architecture. Linz is really beautiful. It is one of the largest cities in Austria, and has a population of about 260,000, but compared to our Nizhny Novgorod it felt really small.

Johannes Kepler University has an impressive campus – large and technologically equipped. The teachers are all really responsive, each has their own approach to education. At first it was really hard to get used to studying in English, but after a while that wasn’t a problem. The most important things are: dedication and patience, and then everything works out.

Another significant thing we got out of our Austrian experience is the ability to have a broader view and find common ground with diverse people. We are often in touch with our friends from Linz, trade memories, and plan our future trips. Austria has a hold over us. Even in Nizhny Novgorod we keep finding things to remind us of it, and that is great.