University of Helsinki
The beginning of my international master story dates back to the spring of 2011 when I was deciding where to spend my next semester as an Erasmus exchange student. After a very long consideration of all the other possibilities, I chose Helsinki, a nice city with a well-known university. From the point of view of a real ice-hockey fan, Finland itself seemed like a very interesting country and promised a lot of unforgettable experiences. Though, at that time I didn’t know that this place will reserve a special spot in my heart forever.
After the semester spent at the Faculty of Law of University of Helsinki I realized that this place really has grown into me and that one day I will come back. So I started to look for opportunities. While I was still in Helsinki I got to know about the International Master Programme in International and Comparative Law which of course caught my attention. After having finished my studies in Slovakia, I decided to apply. I knew that I don’t have much time to waste as I had to make a certificate in academic language proficiency and gather all the documents required for admission. Fortunately, the communication with the University of Helsinki was very swift and helpful and I managed to deliver everything on time.
By the time I got the great news of me being accepted to the University of Helsinki I also knew that I had gotten accepted to other universities as well. The decision where to go turned out to be very easy. I remembered my time in Finland, the atmosphere in the university and in the city, the quality of the studies and people I met who also decided to either stay or come back and there was suddenly nothing to hesitate about.
Of course international master studies are not Erasmus, but the flexibility of your studies is maybe even higher. You make your own schedule and you decide what you want to do and when. This academic freedom suits me very well and I was very pleased to find out that all the credits for the courses that I completed during my Erasmus studies were transferred to my master studies as well! The credit transfer is a very convenient opportunity to ‘feel safe’, gain more credits from subjects you are really interested in and be able to focus on your further studies and thesis. Apart from the credit transfer, also my email account, student card and other facilities I have been using before, were restored, so I did not need to wait for anything and everything went on very smoothly. It feels like I’ve never left!
Text and picture:
Katarína Jelenčiaková
International Student Ambassador