ICEF undergraduate students Maria Denisova and Yana Fedosimova have completed their three-month exchange at Istanbul Bilgi University. Founded in 1996 as a private university, BILGI delivers its degrees in two languages, Turkish and English, operating as the University of London Recognized Teaching Center for degrees in economics, management, finance and social sciences. Here’s Maria’s and Yana’s experience of doing the Economics and Finance (Honors) courses at BILGI.
Yana Fedosimova (left) and Maria Denisova
© ICEF
” This exchange has helped me broaden my knowledge and raised my cultural awareness
Born and raised in Kaliningrad, Maria Denisova studied at a grammar school and was a regular competitor in physics and economics competitions. When the time came to choose where to do her degree, Maria carefully studied ratings of the domestic economics schools to arrive at two priorities – English medium instruction and double-degree programme.
“My choice was an obvious one,” says Maria. “Nothing but ICEF.” An excellently trained high school student, Denisova didn’t have any difficulty enrolling in her dream university.
Maria’s first two years in Moscow flew by quickly. How did she get into Istanbul Bilgi University?
“I was one of the candidates selected for BILGI’s Economics and Finance (Honors) programme, which is a collaborative effort with the London School of Economics.
It was a highly competitive selection process. Applicants are expected to show excellent academic performance. But with my high end-of-year GPA, which ranked me among the top three students, I satisfied all BILGI’s selection criteria.”
Was settling in an new environment a challenge for you?
Our communication with BILGI started with a curious misunderstanding. We didn’t know our curator Deniz (meaning “sea”) was a woman until we arrived there. We wrongfully addressed her as ‘Mr.’ We were laughing heartily at ourselves when we met her. Deniz did help us with some of the issues, but most of the time we were on our own, so our time in Istanbul proved a useful experience.
We were a small group of students, mostly from Turkey and Egypt. We also met people in other groups, some of whom were natives of the CIS-countries.
Some of our teachers at BILGI had been trained abroad, and overall, the learning process wasn’t more difficult than here.
Unlike at ICEF, with its challenging learning style, you were on a 3-day week at BILGI. Didn’t it feel weird at first?
We did have the time to explore the beautiful country of Turkey, true. But those have been three very busy months. Funny but at the end of the exchange we were more familiar with local attractions that the local guys themselves.
We fell in love with the rich history of Istanbul, its majestic monuments, mosques, architecture, the stunning Bosphorus vistas … We tried to see as much as we could.
Our diet changed as well. We fell in love with Turkish tea and baklava, but sometimes we missed our home-cooked food.
What was your most useful experience from this exchange?
This exchange has helped me broaden my knowledge and raised my cultural awareness. It gave me adaptability skills and new friends.
Beware of the campus cats
Yana Fedosimova comes from Yoshkar-Ola and is in her third year of study at ICEF. Yana had been to Turkey before and says she wasn’t sure she would feel at home in Istanbul. But, Yana gave it another chance and does not regret it.
Things worked out more than well for me, both on the training side and with cultural experience. After three months in Istanbul I found my favourite places – the Asian Side and Moda. One experience that added to my admiration and respect for Turkey was witnessing it celebrate its 100 years as a republic.
How were your studies doing at BILGI? What was new for you?
BILGI students don’t have seminars and homework the way we have known them at ICEF. It’s mostly at lectures that they learn the bulk of what they are expected to know.
With my experience from Y1 and Y2 at ICEF, this wasn’t a problem for me, but some people need time to get used to it. As we heard from the local students – there were ten Turkish students in our group – they find learning difficult.
But overall, studying at BILGI turned out to be a wonderful experience.
BILGI is famous for its beautifully landscaped campus. Is it true that this is why students are allowed to bring in pets?
The campus is, indeed, very different from those to be found in Russia. Its buildings are rather small, with coffee shops. It was warm outside, so we spent most of the time between classes outdoors.
And there are, indeed, many cats and dogs on campus because students are allowed to bring them in. When dining in outdoor areas we had to watch out for cats trying to steal food right from our hands.
Another thing that follows you wherever you go is the singing of mullahs. You hear it five times a day no matter where you are, in class or apartment, it can be heard from everywhere.
Did you feel you were being treated differently because you were international exchange students?
To be honest, we felt we were being treated differently, at BILGI and everywhere around, because we were blonds. We’ve met a lot of local students, but, unfortunately, haven’t built friendships. Instead, we communicated a lot with BILGI students from CIS-countries – great guys who introduced us to the campus and the Turkish lifestyle.
What was your most useful experience from this exchange?
The experience of living in a country with a different culture. It proved to me again that of all cities I have been to, Moscow is perhaps the most livable.
