In other words, it is quite normal for an EBS student to be a business owner, middle-level or top manager. “Our course mates include CEOs as well as those about to become CEOs,” says a student in the EBS yearbook of 1999.
Kersti Uudla, who started her master’s programme in business administration in 1994, remembers her course mates as a colourful bunch, who already had their first diploma and an impressive professional experience. “We all came with a different background, with an age difference of ten years. One boss was bigger than the other – some owning a shipping company, others serving as financial directors of major public companies. The melting pot of individuals made the school life very exciting,” says Kersti Uudla.
Indeed, master’s students were so excited that when lectures ended in Friday or Saturday afternoon, no-one wanted to go home. “Often, classes were followed by a night-club visit on Friday evenings, with the Saturday fuelled only by juice bought from the corner shop,” Kersti Uudla recalls with a smile.
The bond made with the course mates was not severed after 2.5 years of studying. “Eva Truuverk and Lee Murrand established the EBS master’s club in October 1996. The aim was to create, maintain and strengthen the bonds between entrepreneurial and high-spirited EBS masters, to learn and to keep up, and to spend time in an educating and fun environment,” Uudla describes the birth story of the master’s club which went on for years.
Kersti Uudla also points our another significant advantage of studying in EBS. “We have a dozen course mates, with whom we still meet on a regular basis. I can call them at any time, in good times and in bad. We trust each other and never say “no”. EBS gave me cool friends for life!”
“I respect the synergy and intimacy within EBS, and the fact that the school is always ready to support. You can have a very personal relationship with EBS.
EBS welcomes you and always stands ready to support and to give, if you are only willing to accept. I also like the fact that you can shape your own path within EBS – if you have cool ideas, you can always implement them in your studies, projects and ventures.”
In addition to CEOs, top specialists in their field have come to study in EBS. Attorney-at-law Urmas Arumäe was one of these specialists more than a quarter of a century ago, and the proud owner of EBS master’s diploma No 1. “In 1992, I was the first of the three completing the master’s programme. Urmas Kaarlep and Tauno Vanaselja were the other two, but since diplomas were issued in alphabetical order, based on the person’s last name, I was the first to get the diploma,” Arumäe says with a smile.
Arumäe had quite a mundane reason to opt for the open master’s programme: as an attorney, he had more and more clients whose needs went beyond legal counselling. “Everyone wanted to be an entrepreneur and do new and exciting things. Counselling was sought in areas I was unqualified in. I opted for the EBS master’s programme to become a better counsellor. Entrepreneurship and management was completely new to me. These things could not be studied previously,” says Arumäe.
As regards school life and exciting lecturers, Hardo Pajula is the first to come to Urmas Arumäe’s mind. “As soon as he opened his mouth, new and fascinating information followed. The foreign lecturers teaching in EBS were a breath of fresh air, as well. What we were offered was undoubtedly American. Urmas Kaarlep and I also had practical training in America. We visited the offices of Detroit Diesel and Penske Track Leasing and got an inside view of the work arrangement in different departments,” says Urmas Arumäe, describing the practical training.
“To get rich, quickly. It is true. Many have come to study international business administration to become businessmen and start a company of their own. Obviously, quite a few of us have succeeded in our efforts. We have defended our business plans; two new and five companies from previous years are currently in operation. The money will follow, that’s for sure!”
Source: EBS yearbook 2003
Rille Roomeldi, who studied in EBS at the end of 1990s, has described how Indrek Kaldo became their favourite lecturer in the freshman year. “Who else could have reiterated to the heavy-eyed audience, with relentless self-confidence and stoic calm, that, in order to calculate the adjugate matrix, the matrix determinant must be multiplied with the transposed matrix calculated based on sub-determinants, allowing to multiply the adjugate matrix with the matrix consisting of free variables in order to solve the matrix equation.”
Alumnus Sirli Kalep recalls a cool Women’s Day during her bachelor’s studies. “We had a lecture in commercial law, with Madis Kallion serving as the lecturer. He was usually a deadly serious guy, but on Women’s Day, he came to the lecture hall, placed his things on the desk and started singing, with a deep and beautiful voice! At the end of his song, he wished us a Happy Women’s Day. It was the coolest thing!”
“I graduated from EBS Upper Secondary School in 2018. People were really nice, school felt like family and the teachers were wonderful. There wasn’t a single day when I didn’t want to go to school. On my last year, I became convinced that I wanted to study business in the best school. Since I decided to continue my education in Estonia, EBS was the only rational choice.
I want to go abroad with Erasmus. It was one of the reasons for choosing EBS. EBS has more than 60 partner universities all over the world. For students like myself, studying abroad has been made simple.
The network provided by EBS also plays a role. This is one of the reasons I joined the EBS student representation, organising sports events – to make new connections.”