While we’re in the middle of summer, some of you might be fishing around for some extracurricular activities to join and enrich your student experience against the next academic year. We will be going through some in the next few posts. I personally have been involved in quite a few and can give some information based on my experiences. As you know, I always like to involve other students to get an unbiased opinion and then add mine to kind of top it off. The university has a relatively good selection and the best part is just about any student can join, as long as you have the drive and motivation.
In this post, we are gonna be talking about the Unibuddies. I was a Unibuddy myself for a year and it was a really great experience. Today, I have interviewed a current 6th year student in the Unibuddy programme, and I will also be giving some information from my POV about it. So let’s get to it, shall we?
Q: Thank you for being a part of this blog. Let’s start with a little introduction.
A: Yes. So my name is Prithvi. I live in the UK although originally I’m Indian, and I’m currently a 6th year medical student at the University of Pécs.
Q: Great! And for those who don’t know, what is Unibuddy exactly?
A: It’s an online communication platform with your details where prospective students who are interested in academic positions at the university can contact you for more details regarding the admissions process, tips for the interview or any general questions regarding the city or even job prospects after graduating. We also sometimes have to take part in online webinars to advertise the University and answer any questions people might have.
Q: When did you first become a Unibuddy and for how long have you been a Unibuddy?
A: I have been a Unibuddy for one year. I believe October last year was when I officially started the programme.
Q: What was the process of application like? How did you prepare?
A: It was quite simple really. We had to fill out a form with our details and upload it. Since I was in the Peer Programme as well, I was exempt from the interview and got the position immediately, but I know some of my fellow Unibuddies had to do an official interview with representatives from the Dean’s Office.
Q: How many hours per week did you dedicate to it?
A: I’d say about an hour a week.
Q: Are there any perks of being a Unibuddy?
A: It is a scholarship programme, so we get paid 15,000 ft per month for 10 months as part of the contract. Also, we have a chance to interact with other Unibuddies who are sometimes in other faculties, or even the ones from our faculty who are in a different year.
Q: Have you had any negative experiences? Can you share them?
A: Luckily I haven’t had any negative experiences. But since it’s an online platform sometimes people ask vague questions and when we give responses they don’t reply after that, which is sometimes … awkward!
Q: What kind of person best fits the Unibuddy role in your opinion?
A: I would say someone who is outgoing, knows the ins and outs of the major they’re in, as well as someone who speaks fluently to engage in online webinars and taking part in open days at the university.
Q: Would you recommend this for even final year students?
A: Yes, definitely!
Q: Anything else you would like to add?
A: The application for next year will be announced sometime in September, so stay tuned with the EGSC postings so you don’t miss out on the deadlines!
Q: Thank you so much for all this information, and for sharing your experience.
As I said previously, I was a Unibuddy in the same year as Prithvi. We essentially acted as student ambassadors or representatives for the university. The call for applications was put out sometime in September. We had to submit a motivation letter and fill in an official form.
After your application is assessed, you get invited to an interview. Based on your experience, the interview could be waived. In my case, it was waived because I was a student ambassador (basically a similar role but working with the International Center) for 2 years prior and had actually worked in a similar capacity and with the same Unibuddy platform.
Once you are approved, you will be invited for a photoshoot to build your Unibuddy profile. You will also be asked to provide a few words about yourself and academic journey at UPMS that will be on the uni website. Here you can access the page of the current Unibuddies to see what to expect.
Once your profile is set up, you are ready to begin. You will get an intro course about Unibuddy, how to use it and general communication guidelines but aside that, you are now acting as the student liaison between prospective students (and sometimes family) and the university. You won’t always know the answer to some of the questions asked. Sometimes, just a little research is enough to find the answer. You can also ask in the common group with your fellow Unibuddies, you can ask the managers of the programme and you can reach out to the Admissions office to clarify something. I personally reached out so many times to the Admissions office and got very helpful answers.
Because the student ambassador programme runs concurrently with the Unibuddy programme, you often get students inquiring about other courses that are not offered in the medical school. If the questions are easy enough or you know the answer you can answer them yourself, but when they get specific, it might be more beneficial to refer them to someone else in the programme. On the Unibuddy platform, you are also able to make blogposts and videos to provide more information on the platform. During the academic year, you might be asked to participate in webinars or Open Day events where the office comes in contact with interested students, so that is always a good opportunity to participate in and represent the school.
All in all, I would say an extra-curricular, this is a pretty easy, mostly low-effort one and if you apply yourself, you can really benefit from the opportunities to improve your presentation skills, public speaking, writing, etc. I did it in my final year and it did not take a toll on my schedule even one bit, so final year students are also encouraged to apply.
At the end of the year, we had an appreciation dinner and received certificates which was very nice. This past academic year was the first time (to my knowledge) that the programme was run within the medical school and as a previous ISA, I will say I preferred the Unibuddy programme because everything was just a bit more tailored to the medical programme which I am familiar with.
So that’s that. If you are interested in working as a Unibuddy, keep your eyes open for the call for applications coming in September.
Author’s note: I would like to extend my gratitude to Prithvi for his willingness to participate in this blog post.
Is it only open to Medical and pharmacy students?
Hi! No. All students of the medical school can benefit from the programme so Dentistry and Biotechnology students are also included, I’d imagine. If you are in neither of these programmes, please reach out to the International Student Ambassador manager at sandor[dot]anna[at]pte[dot]hu. They have a similar programme for all faculties. Deadline is passed but you never know, there might be a place for you.