福利姬

鈥淚 chose to study Agricultural Economics for several reasons. Firstly, there鈥檚 a lot of freedom to specialise in the area you are passionate about. It鈥檚 also possible to take courses on other degree programmes.

For example, I have taken courses on the Economics programme. On the Agricultural Economics programme you can choose to do an internship in a company. I chose the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, which is an interest organisation, and which has given me some very valuable practical experience.

I think it鈥檚 great that it鈥檚 a small, intense degree programme with small classes, where the lecturers really engage with the students. You feel that you can influence things, and are seen and heard. There鈥檚 also room for change. If you want to change something, it鈥檚 possible to do so. There is generally a good, open dialogue, and you can get a lot of academic input on assignments and projects.

Favourite Subject and Financial Competences

My favourite subject is Industrial Organisation. You learn about competition between companies, cartels and what impact company mergers have on the market. Sometimes a representative from Danish Business Authority or a company comes and talks about the things we are learning on the course. 

We鈥檝e done projects based on theory, which we then apply to a real-life case. For example, we might look at how making many product variants impacts the market 鈥� e.g. iPhones in multiple colours.  

In relation to competences, I like the fact that we acquire a wide range of financial tools that can be used in most companies. For example, I can analyse the US stock exchange and spot opportunities for trade with other countries.

I can also 鈥榙issect鈥� any Danish or foreign food company to identify their strengths and weaknesses: where they make money, where they don鈥檛, and how they could do so.

What Is Difficult?

You do a very intensive course on economic modelling at the beginning on how to analyse large datasets. This could be data collected over a 20-year period, where you have to make a meaningful model to say something about changes in property prices in a given area in relation to wage levels. This can be difficult given the many different parameters involved. But the course provides solid background knowledge that you can build on and use later on.

I鈥檝e already started going to job interviews, and I get the feeling that employers are really interested in agricultural economists, because we think differently to traditional economists. We are good at analysing and developing new practical solutions in grid-locked situations.

Strong Sense of Community

The study environment is really good. There are many academic associations holding Friday bars and organising inspirational academic trips. For example, there鈥檚 an economics group that regularly organises visits to the Danish Tax Authority, the Ministry of Finance and other relevant organisations to hear some good presentations, and perhaps go out for supper afterwards. Good friends and a strong sense of community have helped carry me through my studies.

Career Opportunities

I know for a certainty that I鈥檒l get a job when I鈥檓 finished. I want to work with buying and selling. For example, as an economist in a company that buys raw materials abroad and sells them Fairtrade in Denmark.

It could also be a position that combines commodity and stock trading with budget control. I鈥檝e also thought about working as an economic consultant in a third-world country, but that will not be my first job.
 

I would recommend Agricultural Economics to anyone who wants to do an economics degree programme that links theory with practical work. You gain tools and learn theories that are needed in the corporate sector 鈥� and there is virtually no unemployment.  As a graduate, you can sail straight into a job with a company.

Since this interview, Christian has graduated and now works as a self-employed farmer.

What do you do?

I currently serve as Development Director in a family-owned property group. My primary activity is to buy new properties with operational and development potential, and optimise the existing property portfolio. I also run a nature conservation company in parallel with a former university friend, where we manage 800 hectares and have 220 suckler cows.

How did you end up in your current job?

鈥滾ife is about living your dreams. Forging your ideas while the thought is still glowing. Those who don鈥檛 boldly seize the opportunity, squander the prime of their youth.鈥� These were the words of my grandfather during a speech he gave as principal of an agriculture school in the 1960s.

I have always been fascinated by primary production, and the opportunities that arise when you apply theoretical knowledge to practical issues. That is why I went to agricultural college and did practical training in Canada after senior high school.

When I returned home, I was determined to study further, and chose the bachelor programme in agricultural economics, which is highly focused on applied economics and current societal issues. During my studies, I held student jobs as a practice teacher on a number of economics courses.

I was also self-employed, working in a nature conservation company that I started with a friend while I was studying. I have had both feet planted in the agricultural sector for many years. As my economics studies gave me greater insight into investment theory, my interest in investment properties increased. Finding an economic rationale for investing in agriculture, rather than typical investment properties, became a focal point for my studies.

Today, I have the pleasure of being able to do both. In addition to being a student, nature conservationist and practice teacher, I held a student job as an analyst in the real estate sector during the last two years of my studies. A sector I was born and raised in. My student job led to a full-time position in the property sector as research coordinator in a consultancy firm. I later returned to Funen, where I have now become part of the executive management of a family-owned property group.

My current work situation has never been a goal for me, but my aim has always been to create something that creates clear value. As a practice teacher, it was helping students to understand and experience the joy of learning. As a farmer, to see cattle, crops and nature develop. As a property investor, to see a property be built or rebuilt/renovated, while the key figures also improve - that is what motivates me.

Which academic skills do you use most in your work life?

I have to make investment decisions each day, where I draw on my economics studies. The most concrete competences I use from my degree programme are in relation to investment theory and valuation methods.

I also use much of my general financial intuition in relation to the assumptions I make, which form the basis of my decisions.

In my earlier positions, I drew more on my expertise in relation to statistics and data processing, and my ability to put together relevant and interesting analyses and make connections. As an agricultural economics graduate, I believe I have a more applied approach to economic issues, which is a major advantage in my experience in business life.

A good advice: What do you want to tell a prospective student?

It has always been important to me to be able to relate theory to practice. I see a student job as a necessity in order to maximise learning. It is also important to take social responsibility and contribute to the community while studying. This makes your study years much more fun, and leads to greater academic solidarity.

What do you do?

As an administrative officer in the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority which is a government agency under the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, we work with work with the utilities sector in my department 鈥� specifically the water sector, which is a monopoly sector.

This means there is a risk as consumers that we end up paying too much for our drinking water. To ensure this does not happen, my colleagues and I are seeking to introduce an artificial competitive pressure, so consumers get good, cheap water. This is done in part using a financial (benchmarking) model. I am project manager for the group working on developing this model. In addition to being a project manager, I am working on developing new legislation in this area. This involves helping to transfer the agreements made by politicians into actual legislation.

How did you end up in your current job?

Frankly, it is essentially a matter of chance how I have ended up working in my particular area. During my studies, I held various student jobs, all in the financial sector. But towards the end of my studies, I stumbled upon a job with the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority, with a job description that matched a course I had completed on the programme and which seemed exciting.

Given that it was also within the utilities sector, which I find interesting, I decided to apply for the job. Following my studies, I was employed full time in the same place. I have since held two other jobs as a consultant in private companies. I got these based on the experience I had gained in my first jobs. It was important to me to try out something different, so I took the chance when it arose and changed job.

I have now returned to my first workplace 鈥� albeit in a different position. Even though I am back where I started, my intervening jobs have given me good experience and a broader perspective that I am pleased to have. My career path has been largely 鈥榬andom鈥�. When I started my studies, I had no clear plan for where I would end up. I did not know what I wanted to work with, I just thought the degree programme looked exciting. I think my lack of a plan has left me open to trying new things when the chance arose. It has also sent me in different job directions during my studies.

I was sometimes worried at the time that I had too little direction. I now see it as a strength in my work, where I often draw on knowledge I have acquired through courses and jobs that are not directly relevant to my job. I was active in the student environment during my studies, and went on an exchange to USA for one semester. I believe both have helped shape me as a person and given me insight that I benefit from today. They also helped make my studies great fun!

Which academic skills do you use most in your work life?

I got my first (and current) job because of a specific course on economic benchmarking that I had done during my studies, which is not offered very broadly.

I am now project manager for the group that works with this particular benchmarking model. So I draw on the specific knowledge I gained on this course every day. The fact that we acquire these competences in my degree programme means that I work with several people with the same background as me.

A good advice: What do you want to tell a prospective student?

That you do not have to have a clear direction during your studies, and that a student job gives you valuable insight into how your life as an economist will be after you have graduated.

I actually started my Master's in Ukraine. In the second semester of my Master's, I went on an internship to Denmark and that is how I and ended up staying in Denmark and studying at 福利姬 (UCPH). I didn鈥檛 want to go back and finish my Master鈥檚 in Ukraine, because the programme there wouldn鈥檛 give me the same knowledge I could gain here.

I moved to Copenhagen where I had to start from scratch. I had to take four supplementary courses. The courses were spread over a long period of time, so it took me almost two years.

Was Agricultural Economics the obvious way to go?

I knew I wanted to continue more or less in management or economics, so I chose the most interesting one.

Agricultural Economics was something new, but I found it interesting, and it just matched things, I already knew about. I specialised in International Economics and Development in particular, because I am interested in economic issues in developing countries.

How would you describe the programme?

This MSc programme is a two year programme where you take some compulsory courses but you also have elective courses where you choose subjects which are more oriented towards your interests.

For my specialisation, I chose International Economics and Development. Two of the compulsory courses are Applied Econometrics and Trade and International Cooperation. In addition to those you have a long list of courses you have to choose from.

I decided to take some courses, which are more related to business, including one which focused on EU regulations and standards, and another course which were held at Copenhagen Business School 鈥� it was an elective course where you can choose to go to one of the other faculties or you can go abroad.

Furthermore, I also did a course called Project in Practice where you can go abroad and have a very short internship. I spent four months in Zimbabwe Southern African Research and Documentation Center.

What was your thesis about?

I was investigating how increasing trade between Asia and Africa influenced the EU. My focus was one single country, Zimbabwe: how Chinese exports into Zimbabwe displace EU exports.

I was using an econometric model to do some estimates 鈥� to do quantitative analysis. I found that in the case of Zimbabwe, China has displaced EU. In manufacturing there was a huge displacement. I also wanted to include the political economy because Zimbabwe has had very chaotic political relations with the West for a decade, which is the explanation why the displacement happened. It鈥檚 very interesting.

What differs most from the your university in Ukraine?

It鈥檚 a completely different experience. In Ukraine, we focus more on memorizing things, while here you focus more on the analysis. Here you have to actually think a lot ... (laughs). And now I have kind of both 鈥� I鈥檝e learned how to memorize things and how to analyse things.

And then of course you have group work here. In Ukraine you do everything on your own most of the time. While here most of the projects I鈥檝e been doing during my courses, I have done in groups. So we are three or four people, we gather information, we discuss it, we decide what to write and then of course you sit down and write yourself.

How do you find being an international student in Copenhagen?

First of all everyone speaks English. You can communicate with everyone on the streets, in the shops and also here at the university.

I know that many international students are complaining about Danish people. That they are kind of closed and that it鈥檚 very difficult to get Danish friends. I can see that 鈥� but I also understand that, because if we have international students in Ukraine, it would be the same. It鈥檚 normal. You have your network already in the place where you grow up.

But during my studies I鈥檝e met a few Danes and we are still in contact and I have become good friends with a few of them. They a very open-minded, keen to meet new people, and they have travelled a lot. I think it depends on who you meet.

Would you recommend the University to other internationals?

Definitely. It鈥檚 a great place to study, they have quite a few internationals and they have provided all the facilities for international students so they can feel comfortable here. I think Denmark and Copenhagen in particular is a good place for students. I found it 鈥� well, it鈥檚 not easy, but I can鈥檛 say it鈥檚 difficult to be an international student here.

What about accommodation?

It鈥檚 especially difficult to find accommodation in August and February. And it鈥檚 also quite expensive. People coming from Eastern Europe always complain about prices and that it鈥檚 expensive to rent an apartment.

So you need a student job. And a student job not only means money, it also provides an experience, especially if you find something that is relevant to your studies.

What kind of jobs can you get now when you have graduated?

There is actually a quite broad range of opportunities because my programme focuses quite a lot on analysing policies and solving problems. I could work both in the private and public sectors or, for instance, in international financial institutions like the EU, UN, the World Bank or OECD.

If we are talking about Denmark and the public sector here, then of course you have to speak Danish, but even if you haven鈥檛 learned Danish, there are so many international companies here dealing with agriculture and the food sector. It can also be banks. Many of the students who graduated from this programme work in consultancies which I guess is more business-oriented.

I would like to work with food security in developing countries. The UN has what they call a World Food Programme and that would be my first choice, because they deal with development and food security. Or it could be a job in an NGO.

Lena has graduated and now works as a Financial Analyst at A.P. Moller - Maersk.