Lots of young people often wonder what they can do after they have completed university in their own countries. Although many of them decide to spend up to six months in a foreign country with the Erasmus programme, others prefer to improve their future career by attending a Master’s Programme or taking a traineeship. The real problem is that sometimes these students do not know where they can realise this option. This need, meaning to realise this, has prompted the origin of the EU Studies Fair 2016 in Brussels. On the 5th and 6th of February, more than 300 students and graduates have participated in this event that took place in the Belgium capital.
Organised by the American political journalism organisation, Politico, many universities were present at this international event, such as Reading, Oxford, Cambridge, and Milano Bocconi. Most of these Universities’ courses dealt with Law, Business, Economics, Public Policy and International Relations. Eventually, you could spot and enjoy a Master about Human Rights and Criminal Law at the University of Belfast. Another attendee of a one-year-postgraduate-course of Law, organised by the same Irish University, represented a valid alternative of becoming a lawyer in the United Kingdom. This, without substaining and passing an examination as it is the case in, for instance, Italy. Everyone can also attend this course part time, over the course of two years.
People, furthermore, also had the chance to get some help in building or checking their CVs by experts. This was by far the most visited booth at the fair. The students in queue said that they thought this was either the first thing they wanted to do at the fair, or that they thought it was the most important booth present.
Lastly, one of the major areas of study that was represented was European Studies. According to some of the organisers, European Studies is nowadays more important to engage in than ever before. The European Union is at a critical point in its development, being constantly threatened by events like the Greek debt crisis, the EU’s rapid expansion towards former Soviet territories, and the possibility for the United Kingdom to leave the EU.
One of the key qualities of European Studies, one of the organisers says, is that it is ever evolving; people become more and more involved in the political process. Simultaneously, there is a greater demand for political and economical analysts from both inside and outside of the EU to get a grasp on the aforementioned factors that could be a threat to the EU.
Universities from Europe as well as 
universities from all over the world have therefore come to the EU Studies Fair 2016 to convince potential students to join their programme in this, ever more students demanding, academic field. A few examples are Georgetown (US), John’s Hopkins (Italy and the US) and the University of Canterbury at Christchurch (New Zealand).
The EU Studies Fair is a two-day, annual activity and the AEGEEan would highly recommend that you check out this EU-microcosm yourselves.
Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari & Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen