Nuria

Why did I choose my programme (and CBS)?
I was looking for a programme that combined the tourism and hospitality industry with the sustainability scope. I did my bachelor thesis project about development of sustainable destinations, and it's a topic that have interested me for years.

I found this master in a google search and I was very convinced by the program. A one-year master was a perfect fit for me because I'm working at the same time.

Then I did some research to know more about CBS, and I found that it had a really good reputation.

What do I like the best?
For me, the best is to have lessons focused on what's going on in the industry now and looking towards the future. Everything is very current, we think about how to solve current problems that the industry is facing, or which challenges the industry will face, how it is expected to evolve and what role sustainability and new technologies will play in it. Classes are dynamic, not about boring theory from the past.

All the teachers are also really motivated and updated on the latest research, and they transmit that enthusiasm to the students.

How do I experience the difference in academic level between my bachelor and master programme?
What I mentioned before: having lessons in which we talk about current issues, and we apply current technologies and knowledge to start a debate on how we could fix them. 

I don't know how different this is from other universities in Denmark, but in my experience, at my bachelor’s degree in Spain, lessons were mostly old theories we needed to memorise. We didn't have workshops, we never applied the theory to real cases, we never did anything related with learning to be ready for the future. And I feel that's exactly what we do in this master.

What are the biggest challenges in my programme?
For me, the biggest challenge is to be working at the same time as going to classes, and I try to catch up with all the readings. Also having finals every month and a half – It feels like you never have a break.                                                                                                                             

Being a one-year master makes everything more intense, and sometimes I feel everything is going really fast. But so far, my colleagues and I are managing to all succeed at it!

What would I have liked to have known before starting my programme?
I come from a different educational background, where the system works differently: classes, the way of studying and preparing for exams is different, how courses are organised or our lessons are focused... It is all quite different. That's why I would have loved to know more about how the system works here in Denmark. I acknowledge that CBS has a lot of information about it on their website that I could have checked more in depth before starting the master, but I also feel that is not the exact same to read about it as actually living it.

What do I want to do after finishing my programme?
I would love to stay in Denmark and find a tourism industry-relevant job where I can keep developing the skills and knowledge I have started to gain thanks to this master.

For the moment, I'm happy to say that I'll collaborate with Visit Denmark for my thesis project, and I hope to have the possibility to prove to them and other companies that will hear about it, that the students of this master's programme are prepared to work in competent companies in the sector.

If I could give myself a piece of advice, before starting it would be…
I definitely would have done more research about how the educational system is at CBS, and what it is expected from us. It would have saved me lot of stress on my first term, trying to figure out what teachers were really asking for and how to meet all the requirements.

Learning how a new system works at the same time as I was stressed about exams was something I could have made simpler by reading about it before starting the programme and asking the relevant questions to the teachers at the beginning, and not when we were in the countdown for exams.