A year at TIAS: A new day will dawn

It has been about a year since I started contemplating on my decision to pursue a master's degree in the Netherlands. Looking back, I suddenly realize what a tremendous change I have seen – from travelling amidst the jampacked traffic of New Delhi streets on a hot summer evening, to cycling my way to TIAS on a freezing morning on bike lanes of a snow clad country that probably has not seen the sun for more than a month! The Netherlands was a huge change, in a good way. 

Several aspects of life divide these two parts of the world, but I will try and limit my words to academics. The TIAS MScBA is a truly international program – with 50% of the batch comprising of people from different nationalities, and the rest from the Netherlands. The diversity is hard to miss if you spend a year studying and doing group projects with them. There are several points that make studying at TIAS different from what I had seen before – the most prominent being the application oriented approach of the courses and the instructors. The focus is not on resorting to any means to outdo anyone to get a higher grade (something that is inevitably if you have a relative grading system), but on the sheer joy of learning! The content of the courses seem future-ready, especially in a world that is changing rapidly with the help of technology.

Utrecht is a beautiful, beautiful city to live in. In a strange way, Utrecht comes as an amazing example of the fact that nature and civilization can co-exist together in harmony. Couldn’t I have said the same thing about this entire country? :)


This blog was written by Full-time MScBA student Sushant Shekhar (32) from India.

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