Shilpa Singh Jaswant

My account on the Scholarship offered to me by DAAD-Stiftung for the year 2017-18 -Shilpa Singh Jaswant, Europa Kolleg- Hamburg At the interview, I had the opportunity to interact with the professors from Germany that helped me to get an overview of the kind of education I would be receiving in Germany. After expressing my interest to study EU law especially Competition law, I received positive responses from the interview panel that guided me to narrow my ideas and expectations. Almost after two months, when my shortlisting was confirmed I was overwhelmed. I was informed further that I had received the Basu scholarship from the DAAD-Stiftung made possible by the patronage of Mr. Basu who had formerly received a scholarship from the DAAD e.V (the DAAD-Stiftung’s trustee). I am always thankful to the DAAD-Stiftung for offering me this wonderful opportunity which had helped me to advance my knowledge in my field and set my path in academia.

With regard to the preparation I had the opportunity to take an online course on German language. This course was basic but was enough for me to get familiar with the language.

Upon arriving in Marburg in Germany in August 2017 for my pre-scholarship German class, I was invited to stay with a German family, which I opted for. The family helped me throughout my stay in order to understand the German culture. They introduced me to their friends and invited me to lunches, dinners and church services on Sundays. During this time, I studied German language – A 1 level which turned out to be helpful in communicating basic requirements when e.g. going to stores or taking buses. It was also the class activities which made learning fun and exciting. During this time, I met many DAAD scholars from different parts of the world and this gave us the opportunity to share our experiences., The German language course lasted for 2 months where I received my certificate of completion of A1 level.

Then, I moved to Hamburg where I lived in the dormitory of Europa-Kolleg, my institution for LLM. The class consisted of 16 scholars and was representative of several faculties from all over Europe. I made many friends there who were supportive and helpful. Particularly, the faculty for Political Science and EU Single market were interesting because of several activities happening during the class which made the discussion in the class lively. It was in fact the discussions and tutorial classes that made learning easier and this helped all of us to understand the application of EU law.

At the end of the course, we all had to submit a research thesis under a supervisor and accordingly, I made my thesis titled ‘Establishment of Investment Court System under CETA and EU-Viet Nam FTA and its Compatibility with EU Law’ under Prof. Armin Hatje, Professor at the Stiftung Europa-Kolleg Hamburg. It was a pleasure to have a supervisor like Prof. Hatje due to his motivation and suggestions to improve my thesis. In the end, I was awarded with the highest grades and my thesis was published as the best thesis in the form a study module. Further, I secured with the highest grades and was ranked as top 15 in the history of Europa Kolleg-Hamburg.

Importantly, during my stay in Hamburg, I came across a group of former DAAD scholars who organised events for new and former DAAD scholars to meet and interact. After meeting the scholarship holders, I was encouraged to learn advanced level of German of A2 and participate in different activities organised by them. In this way, I made some good friends who encouraged me to apply for a scholarship for Ph.D. studies at DAAD e.V. Not only this, I encouraged my junior colleagues from my university to apply and one did so successfully, a girl who qualified to study in Germany.

In simple words, the DAAD-Stiftung is not just an organisation to fund studies but aid to create minds for future by helping students collate their ideas and executing them. I will always be thankful to the DAAD-Stiftung for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime and shaping my academic career. Since I am currently teaching at an Indian University it has become easier for me to disseminate my experience in Germany.