Here you can find an interview about the Development Studies Minor that we conducted with Elena!
Questions | Your answer |
Which minor did you do? | Development Studies (University Minor) |
What made you choose this minor? | I was always interested in development cooperation, since my father works in the field. Although or exactly since I am quite critical about the topic, I chose to learn more about it. |
What were the subjects you had in your minor? | I took 6 courses:
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What was your hardest experience during the minor course? | Personally, the hardest to understand were the more scientific and technical subjects from the Faculty and Engineering and the Faculty of Economics and Business. It was super interesting to learn about economic growth and trade functions or the physics behind energy supply, but it was definitely difficult to make sense of that. |
What was the best experience during the minor course? | I really feel like the minor helped me to gain better understanding of development issues like the relationship between global trade, food supply and the environment. It opened my eyes to consider a career in the field. |
Did the course meet your expectations? Yes, why/ No, why not | Some courses more than other others. The Social and Institutional Change Course for example had little to do with development studies. I really enjoyed Global Development Studies. In general, every course gave a different interesting angle about the topic. What I disliked is how some concept where still used in a quite conservative, uncritical way, for instance “developing countries”. |
Which other minor did you consider? | In the beginning I wanted to take the Career Minor or the Placement Option, since I really wanted to do an internship. But that didn´t work out due to corona. |
Do you think that your minor will be useful for your future career? Yes, why / No, why not | Yes. I know now that I want to go into development cooperation. It is always useful to be able to show that you have gained some more theoretical knowledge in the specific field. Right now I am applying for different internships and hopefully, saying that I took the Development Studies Minor will help. |
What would you say to future IRIO students who consider this minor? | If you´re passionate or concerned about issues like poverty, migration, food supply and global trade, this is the perfect minor. The fact that you can take courses from different faculties to gain diverse insights is very valuable. |
Ratings: Rate from 1 to 10 | |
Was the minor doable? (1 very hard <-->10 very easy) | 4 |
Was the workload less/the same/or more than the IRIO programme? (1 much less workload <--> 10 a lot more workload) | 4 |
How much would you recommend doing this minor? (1 not at all <--> 10 100% yes) | 8 |
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