‘My Mobility Year Taught Me to Approach New Environments More Calmly and Communicate with Completely Different People’

Roman Aminev

Photo courtesy of Roman Aminev

Roman Aminev, a fourth-year student of the Information Science and Computation Technology programme at HSE MIEM, spent his last academic year in Hungary, where he studied at Óbuda University under the academic mobility programme. In Budapest, he not only joined the educational process but also learned how to face everyday challenges and solve academic issues. He had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, and tell them about his country and HSE University. In the interview, Roman told us how his one-year immersion into an unfamiliar life had changed him.

About the scholarship programme

I had been planning to participate in a study exchange programme for a long time. I spent my childhood above the Arctic Circle, in Murmansk. My father often worked abroad and, returning from business trips, eagerly talked about life in other countries. It was interesting to learn how different life was in other parts of the world. I wanted to see everything for myself, and after entering university, I strove to become part of the international student community and share my experience of studying in Russia with foreign students.

In the autumn of my second year, I learned about the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship programme. I was impressed by the terms of the scholarship: it covered tuition fees and, of course, offered the opportunity to study in Europe for a year.

Applying for this programme is different from the usual HSE mobility competition, primarily in the number of documents required. You need two packages: one for the Russian side and another for the Hungarian side. Preparing these documents was probably one of the hardest parts of the entire application process.

Photo courtesy of Roman Aminev

The selection results arrived only towards the end of spring. I already had to decide on subjects for the mobility year. However, staff of the Programme Office and teachers helped me to select a curriculum. It did not cover all my subjects at HSE University, so I still had to study certain disciplines online. Our laboratory’s innovations were a great help: thanks to the remote workstations, I was able to complete laboratory sessions while in Hungary.

Adaptation

The first month was the hardest. I had to deal with a lot of bureaucracy: find a place to live near the university, get a SIM card and the necessary documents, obtain a residence permit, open a bank account for the scholarship, and sort out medical insurance.

At first, studying also posed a challenge. For example, I took a C# course in the first semester, and I had to re-read the lectures after some classes. It was not so much due to the complexity of the material as to the fact that I wasn’t yet used to absorbing large amounts of technical information in English. While listening in class, everything seemed clear, but I could hardly recall anything afterwards.

Photo courtesy of Roman Aminev

During the first weeks, I was extremely tired by the end of each day from the constant use of English; sometimes I even found it harder to construct long sentences. With time, I reached an interesting turning point: I stopped formulating my thoughts in Russian and translating them, and started thinking in English instead. After that, it became much easier to understand the lectures. By the end of my mobility trip, I hardly noticed what language I used when learning or communicating.

I received a great deal of help at the university; I met people who came on similar programmes, and it was even somewhat amusing to go through the initial hardships together.

Academic and extracurricular life

The learning process began gradually. First, meetings were held in which the specifics of studying at the university were explained, then there was an excursion that ended with a formal opening of the academic year in an ancient castle.

University life was not limited to lectures and exams. The head of our programme regularly arranged joint events attended by students from different courses and countries. We celebrated Halloween and Christmas together. Such meetings facilitated adaptation: the informal setting made it much easier to get to know classmates, teachers, and other international students and to gradually start feeling like a part of the university.

One of the main differences from HSE University was the absence of the familiar concept of a cumulative grade. As a rule, we had to pass mandatory tests during the semester, and then there was the final exam, which everyone had to attend.

At the same time, the system was more flexible: up to two retakes were granted for each exam with further attempts available for a fee. At the very first meeting, we were told, ‘We are not forcing anyone, you can move the subjects around as you like.’ Perhaps that is why many Hungarian students approach their studies in a slightly more relaxed way than students of Russian universities.

Photo courtesy of Roman Aminev

At Óbuda University, I studied in the Computer Science Engineering programme. I remember the Computer Networks subject best. The lecturer’s charisma was amazing: he joked a lot during classes and constantly tried to add interactive elements. In terms of mood, these lectures reminded me somewhat of Eduard Klyshinsky’s object-oriented programming classes.

In addition to the usual lectures, the university regularly hosted career guidance events where students could interact with representatives of various companies, as well as hackathons. I took part in one of the latter.

This year was also my first experience living independently. I learned a lot about everyday things, such as cooking.

Goulash is probably the most famous example of Hungarian cuisine and also my favourite local dish. Hungarians really enjoy it, and I would compare it to Russian borscht in terms of popularity. At the same time, if I wanted something familiar, I could always find such foods in stores, and there were some Russian cafes and restaurants in the capital. By the way, I also often invited foreign friends to introduce them to our cuisine.

Deep dive into Hungary

I rented a flat in central Budapest. The university offered me a dormitory, but I opted to rent a flat, which cost about 60,000 roubles per month. In my experience, taking into account the usual household expenses, you can live quite comfortably in Hungary for about 100,000 roubles a month.

Hungary itself is an unusual country. Historically, it boasts a combination of European polish with oriental and even Slavic motifs. Budapest is truly a city of contrasts. In some areas, amid classic European buildings, you can quite unexpectedly stumble upon instantly recognisable prefab houses.

Our scholarship foundation, Tempus, arranged regular tours of Budapest. It was on one of the tours that I met the people who would become my closest friends. We all came from different countries, but that didn’t stop us from communicating and spending a lot of time together.

Photo courtesy of Roman Aminev

Eventually, we travelled around almost all of Hungary. Getting around the country was simple and cheap. A student pass, which was good not only for intracity public transport but also for intercity trains, cost only about 400 roubles per month.

Apart from the capital, one of my favourite places was Pécs, a small academic city a few hours by train from Budapest.

Overall, the desire to experience new places has always been a part of my life, and Hungary’s location provided great opportunities for this. For example, there is the popular Budapest—Bratislava—Vienna route: the distances are so small that you can visit several countries in a very short time.

But I did not limit myself to Central Europe. During this year, I managed to visit Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Serbia. Sometimes I found tickets for as little as two thousand roubles in one direction.

I saw a lot during this time—from Vienna’s Gothic cathedrals to Amsterdam’s narrow streets and from the sandy beaches of the Lido to the bustling bars of Barcelona.

This was probably what I valued most from my mobility year: you don’t just study at another university, you immerse yourself in a completely different country and culture for a time. You learn to solve everyday and academic challenges on your own, meet people from all over the world, tell them about your country and university, and at the same time learn about their lives.

This experience was also useful for me from a practical point of view. After I returned, I was able to secure a job at Yandex, and the recruiters really appreciated my experience of studying abroad. My mobility year taught me to approach new environments more calmly, to communicate with completely different people, and not to be afraid of situations that you don’t initially understand.

Dream, travel, and reach new heights, friends!