Did you know that popular video calling app Skype was born in Estonia? The very first e-voting was also conducted in this European nation. Mushroom and cherry-picking apparently are all the rage there and if you are a student, public transport is free! These and a lot of other fun trivia was shared by Payal Rajpal, Ambassador for Study Estonia and Riho Kruuv, Ambassador of Estonia in India at the Study Estonia event in Hyderabad while the focus point remained just one, why students should opt to study in Estonia. “This European nation is not only technologically advanced, we are the only country in Europe which has the maximum number of start-ups per capita,” says Rajpal, whom we had the chance to catch up with at the event. She also went on to cite the affordable fee structure, anything between 2,500-6,000 Euros. Speaking about what students get to experience, she paints a vision of students walking on frozen ice, exploring any of the 2,200 plus islands around the country and of course, plucking mushrooms and cherries as they chat with friends from several parts of the world. This sounds like an absolute dream!

Some of the popular courses opted for by Indians are ICT, Start-up Entrepreneurship and Cybersecurity

Study Estonia is also conducting robotics sessions for children as old as five and upwards in a few cities of India, including Ahmedabad. “We are teaching the younger kids to make Lego robots and the older ones are being taught how to make sumo robots,” says Rajpal, telling us to expect a huge robotics competition from them next year. Right before we catch up with Riho Kruuv, Rajpal leaves us with a thought. “Rather than looking at larger countries, which has always been the norm in India, start looking at new opportunities. For example, e-governance which will soon be the need of the hour. Where do you study that? In the country where the first e-vote was cast, in a land which pioneers in this field,” she says and we quickly rush to Riho Kruuv, who summed it up quite nicely by saying, “It might not always be warm outside in Estonia, but people have very warm hearts.”

For more on them, click on studyinestonia.ee