I’m experiencing the best times of my life. The people in Scotland as well as the international students are fantastic. Local people organised a lot of greeting parties and tours outside of Dundee. I already visited some places where Harry Potter was filmed. And of course Edinburgh…Speechless…
Oleh Krykavskyy, a Chevening scholar from Ukraine, currently at the University of Dundee tells us a little bit about his Chevening journey so far; Many people scared me with their warnings about local weather and Scottish English. There is nothing to be scared of. The weather now is better than in Ukraine, and people try to be very polite and speak slowly, so you can understand perfectly. No language shock, surprisingly.
I feel very happy with the level of teaching so far. I am an energy lawyer and a student of economics, finances, geology and law. I have a complete understanding of the energy business. I am a student of CEPMLP (The Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy) which is the best in the world in energy regulations and policies. I used to lead the energy practice in a law firm in Ukraine and participated in debates between lobbying groups such as the American Chamber of Commerce and the European Business Association, and public officials. The hot topics were the introduction of a ‘green’ tariff, ‘green’ certificates and legislation on production sharing agreements. Now I feel I can contribute more. When I return I also plan to join the British and Swedish Chambers of Commerce.
Downstream law, which I take here, is lead by professor Stephen Dow, who already assisted the Ukrainian Government on the matter. I am happy that I will be able to share such experience with Ukrainian officials very soon to speed up reforms in Ukraine’s energy sector.
We have a lot of people from Nigeria in our classes. I discovered a lot about the country and people. My Nigerian flat-mate Ayo prepared a presentation on why nuclear power is not good for Nigeria and asked me for comments. I received a lot of details about the country’s political and economic situation. People are very religious, intelligent and friendly, and we recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of Nigerian independence!!! Wild dances! I wore my beloved green and white T-shirt and was very popular that evening. I can’t believe that I now have friends from every country which burns oil and gas. My class mates are impressive. People care about each other…