Understand Europe. Study Euroculture: An Interdisciplinary European Studies Programme
I applied to the MA Euroculture, because I felt my IR studies were excessively theoretical and I needed a more practical approach.
That is a difficult question actually: I am from the Hungarian minority in Transylvania (Romania). I consider myself Hungarian but I have never lived in Hungary. I started my first Higher Education in Cluj-Napoca in English, at the Babes-Bolyai University, European Studies Faculty.
I was a Blue Book trainee in the European Commission, DG Education and Culture, Unit Higher Education while finishing my last semester of Euroculture in Groningen. During the last month of the internship, I started applying to different organizations. The European Association for International Education called me back and I attended an interview in Amsterdam for a full position as a knowledge development assistant. There was three weeks between my internship and the start of the job, but I was hired before I was done in Brussels. The connection with my job is that I studied at four different universities in four countries so I had a lot of experience with internationalisation already when they hired me in DG EAC as a trainee. Having five months of policy and programme experience in the EC led me to apply for the position at the EAIE, where I also work on higher education and internationalisation.
As a European Studies student in Cluj Napoca I was lucky to be able/ encouraged by the faculty to complete shorter and longer exchanges during my Bachelor. After finishing my Erasmus semester in Prague in 2016, I was in love with studying and living abroad, so I was sure I would apply somewhere different for my master studies. I wanted to experience something other than Central Europe this time, so The Netherlands was an obvious option considering the tuition fees and cost of living.
I was interested in European Studies and IR programmes, but the criteria restrained me a bit: even though my overall English exam (IELTS, C1) results were high, my writing was under 7.5, thus I could not apply to the research tracks or some more specific programmes. In the end, I was admitted to IRIO and accepted the offer without hesitation.
Months later, writing my IRIO thesis, I noticed the Euroculture poster on the corridor of the Harmoniegebouw. I applied, because I felt my IR studies were excessively theoretical and I need a more practical approach to find a job later in life, as I knew I am not PhD material. I talked with some alumni and student ambassadors and they convinced me that this is the right master if I am looking for practical experience.
For me, Euroculture was an incredible multicultural experience that provided me with so many stimuli and challenges and that was key to step out of my comfort zone and broaden my horizons.
Being passionate about EU affairs and willing to work in an international environment, I found that graduating from Euroculture helped me to find jobs matching my interests.
I am Iida Honen, 27 years old, originally from Finland. I got my joint master’s degree from the University of Groningen and The University of Strasbourg (in France) in November 2020. Right now I am living in Brussels where I have worked since September 2020. I am working at the European Parliament as an assistant to a Finnish Member of the European Parliament. I actually started my job as a trainee last September but the traineeship quickly turned into a job - mainly because there was a lack of time and knowledge for communication in my MEP’s office and I managed to fill that gap. So there was definitely a close link between my traineeship and the first “real” job after graduating!
I have also done another traineeship earlier - during my studies - from September 2019 until February 2020. This traineeship took place at Finland’s Permanent Representation to UNESCO and I worked for the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Even though this traineeship did not really create an actual job for me, it was my first step in the field of international cooperation/politics and it contributed to getting my next internship at the European Parliament without a doubt.
I did my master’s degree in European Studies at the University of Groningen. I studied in the Erasmus Mundus Euroculture programme, which meant that I actually only spent one of my four semesters physically in Groningen: during the programme you study in two different European universities. My other university was the University of Strasbourg where I started the programme in autumn 2018. The semester that I spent in Groningen was spring 2019.
My Euroculture Master improved my academic thinking and consolidated my opinions about the idea of Europe. Working with my cohort still definitely has an impact on my team management skills.
After living around and outside Europe for five years, UG alumnus Giulio Baroni moved to Italy and now works as a Project Manager at an NGO. He talks about his work and how his studies and experiences contributed to his current position.
Before Euroculture, I really struggled to get roles in the UK Government, possibly because my CV wasn't that relevant to the public sector. I believe that Euroculture gave me the headspace, confidence and focus to plan and execute my career switch from the private sector into the public sector, as well as the EU-specific knowledge to excel in the EU-related roles I've had over the last 6 years.
