Calling Dundee Home - Filip Grzybowski

As we approach a slightly strange graduation week, the uniqueness of the situation will not detract from the amazing achievements of our students.

Here we find out about the experience of Filip Grzybowski, who has successfully completed his BAcc Accountancy degree, whilst also achieving the Alliance Trust Prize for best Senior Honours student in the Accounting stream and Accounting & Finance Prize for best Senior Honours student on the BAcc. He has also secured an Audit Trainee role with Henderson Loggie, starting later this year.

"I chose Dundee for a multitude of reasons, some more practical than others. When I started looking into studying abroad, Scotland instantly became my preferred choice due to the amazing funding support available to EU students and the excellent higher education quality. Choosing where to apply exactly was definitely tricky since I’ve never been to the UK before and I knew I wouldn’t visit Scotland or any of the universities prior to actually starting my course. The University offered a ton of interesting courses, great facilities and it seemed modern, student-oriented, and vibrant – just like the city. The impressive rankings for student experience and the student union further encouraged me in my decision. I was rightly excited for the social side of things with so many events and societies to choose from. I also knew that I would easily be able to call Dundee home since it felt so similar to my home town of Legnica – I love that It is small enough to give you a real sense of familiarity and community, but big enough for something exciting to always be happening! Overall, I genuinely think that coming to Dundee was the best decision I’ve made in my life and I am very fortunate to have made some wonderful friends here!

While I find many fields of study and work fascinating and had a really hard time choosing between what I want to do at university, I eventually chose Accountancy. My choice came as a surprise to some as I’ve always had more inclination towards humanities, and I knew that I want to be able to utilise my interests and skills in an engaging and meaningful way both during my studies and later on in professional work. As such, it was important for me that my course of choice ends up being inter-disciplinary and gives me plenty of opportunities to develop old and new skills, and accounting and finance fit that description perfectly. I can safely say that this was a great choice as studying accounting at University of Dundee gave me a fantastic appreciation of the accountancy, finance, and business world that always seemed so inaccessible before – not to mention the excellent job prospects!

I never expected to be finishing my degree under such circumstances so it’s definitely been challenging. Studying for the final exams in lockdown turned out to be unexpectedly difficult. Lack of physical classes made learning the material harder and despite not having much else taking up my time I certainly felt a decline in my motivation for self-study. That said, I think the biggest challenge to me personally has been the lack of ability to socialise. Although I have a great network of family and friends that I chat to often, it can still feel somewhat depressing at times not being able to meet them in person and just have fun. Similarly, my plans of going back home to Poland for the holidays didn’t materialise due to travel restrictions, which has been frustrating.

In general, I think my highlight would simply be coming to Dundee for the first time. Arriving in a foreign country, living by myself, starting university, and completely changing my social circles was equal parts scary and exciting. It took me a while to get used to the accents and more subtle things like the free water in restaurants or the ubiquitous jaywalking, but I found the people to be very friendly and accommodating! I quickly met one of my best friends, who was my flatmate at the time, and she really helped me feel comfortable with staying away from home. Although taking my first few classes at the University of Dundee was clearly a change of pace, many welcome events etc. were also organised to help ease fresher’s like me into this new environment. Another highlight would be my mom coming to visit me during the past summer holidays. It was great to see her get just as excited about the city as I was when I first came here and I’ve had the loveliest time exploring it all over again with her."