First of all, the University of Padua is one of the oldest universities in the world with an amazing history. I was especially impressed that for the first time in history, a woman received her degree from this university. As for the programme, Pharmaceutical Biotechnologies is in the top 100 worldwide so this is a great opportunity to learn from professionals. I would recommend it to other students because not only is university life interesting, but there also are a lot of opportunities to enjoy the city.

I would say that it is very practice-oriented because after the theoretical course we have the opportunity to work in the lab and obtain useful skills. Also, professors utilize different learning methods such as group projects, online learning and individual projects, which is really helpful.

I like pharmacology, so courses like Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Discovery and Development were very interesting for me. Also I found the Protein Engineering course very challenging but at the same time I enjoyed the topics.

When we have exams, we don’t have any questions to prepare (like we do in Russia) so we have to learn everything that the professor explained and sometimes it is really hard because you have no idea what they would ask you. Plus, the university organizes a lot of activities for students and it’s not only conferences or courses but also parties.

I spend time with my friends and we either enjoy the city or go for trips. We can go to another city or even a country in just a couple of hours so it gives a lot of opportunities to travel.