Alumnus Victoria Tregub was recently featured in an article published in The Bulletin magazine. The article is titled “Let’s get down to business studies” and takes a look at Belgian’s management schools that offer Graduate/MBA programs to both young and senior professionals who find themselves in a cutthroat job market where every qualification counts.
“Victoria Tregub, 24, an American with Russian-Ukrainian roots, has lived in Belgium since she was four. She completed a BA in Communication at Vesalius College and after several months spent working in the US, returned to Belgium to enroll in a Master’s program in Business Administration at the Antwerp International Business School [UIBS]. Today, she works at NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division, press and media section”
“Even though I could have studied in the US, I chose to do both my undergraduate degree and my master’s in Belgium. I immediately chose [UIBS] because of its flexibility. I never even considered other schools. [UIBS] allows students to step in to their chosen program at any time. Additionally, it offers courses in English, has very small classes and focuses heavily on the use of technology. Students all have to use a laptop in class. We were constantly making PowerPoint presentations or going online to research topics. I also liked the fact that many case studies we discussed were real-life projects or Harvard case-studies.”
“MBAs are notoriously intense courses that place significant ‘real-life’ demands on students. “A lot of emphasis is placed on project management,” says Victoria. “For one of the projects I worked on we were given the option either to create a complete business plan for the development of schools in Turkey or to create a women’s television network in a country of choice. Working in teams is crucial. You also need to be able to conduct research and present the end product in front of an audience. The challenge of a full-time MBA definitively lies in being able to combine writing your thesis and still focusing on your day-to-day coursework.”
“And finally, after months (or years) of hard labor: graduation day. “Since [UIBS] has campuses in various countries around the world, our graduation ceremony was held in Barcelona, with graduate students from all the campuses gathered together. That is when you really get the feeling that you have studied in an international environment that has prepared you for the real world,” she says with a smile.”
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