Local Development

I am from a small town Tekeli which is located in the southeast of Kazakhstan. Since childhood I was very interested in studying and the learning process. I even went to school and finished a year earlier than my peers. I always had a dream to study and get a quality education abroad. During my undergraduate studies, I studied English assiduously and looked for various options for studying abroad. After careful analysis and preparation, I applied and enrolled at the University of Padua.

The first thing I liked was the comprehensive and varied programme structure: politics, economics and geography as well. Since the specialty of Local Development is very specific itself, we studied it from different angles and gained knowledge from different fields including subjects as Circular Economy, Space, Place and Mobility, Social dynamics and so on.
I also truly liked the teaching staff: they taught us with different methods, and we received both theoretical and practical knowledge. For example we had in one class we created projects using the methodology used by many international organisations, while in other courses we considered some topics from a scientific point of view and wrote a scientific article. We also analysed various cases and problems in the classroom.

The programme also offers various internship and exchange opportunities: this summer I completed a scientific internship on the project "Research of innovations in the field of sustainable development from the point of view of their economic feasibility and building effective enterprise management" in Almaty and the faculty covered my financial expenses for travel and accommodation.

I recommend this programme to future students because it will provide an opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge in this specific field and help to become highly qualified specialists who will solve fundamental place-based problems in various parts of the world. Also, the programme will give you the opportunity to study together with people from different parts of the world and with different backgrounds.

To prospective students I wish to tell them to not be afraid of moving to a new country, and adapting to a new culture. In my experience, Italy and Italians are very friendly and open. Moreover, in such a multinational student city as Padua, it will be faster and easier to adapt and find new friends. And finally, be confident in yourself and your strength. If you really want to achieve