QS MBA Community Scholarship: 2020 Winner Costas Georgiou

We’re pleased to announce that one of the winners of this year’s QS MBA Community scholarship is Costas Georgiou.

The scholarship is awarded to five students annually, with each receiving an award of US$2,000. Recipients must attend a QS event, start their first year of MBA study in the next academic year, and the scholarship must go towards tuition fees.

We caught up with Costas to learn more about the impact this scholarship will have on his studies, as well as his top tips for future scholarship applicants.

What are you planning to study, and why did you choose the university you’ve applied to?

I will be undertaking the UCL MBA at Peking University’s National School of Development (NSD).

The NSD was established more than 100 years ago by the Chinese government of the time to help the nation develop. Throughout the past century, and to this very day, the school continues to advise the government directly and operates as one of China’s leading think tanks.

Furthermore, half of the program’s faculty are UCL professors who fly over to Beijing for their lectures. I find this mix of Western and Eastern education extremely fascinating and I feel that the combination of the two cultures and education systems can provide someone with a truly global perspective. 

What do you hope to gain from your degree? How will it affect your career plans?

What I hope to gain from the program is enhanced business acumen and a thorough understanding of how global businesses are built, scaled and made successful. I feel that in this day and age, this is an incredibly valuable skill to have that can enable one to initiate and pursue business ventures regardless of where they are.

In turn, this mindset and skillset will enable me to pursue my own business endeavours.

How did you find the scholarship application process?

I found the scholarship application to be an extremely useful exercise as it allowed me to reflect upon the work we have done with BeHive over the course of the past three and a half years. I felt grateful and privileged for being able to share some of the ways our organisation assisted our community of university students and young professionals in Beijing.

What difference will this scholarship make to you? 

This scholarship could be of enormous consequence as it would allow me to focus on my MBA studies, explore and initiate new ventures while continuing to assist BeHive to grow and thrive. Had I not received this financial support, I would have had to invest more time in trying to generate income to cover my daily expenses.

What advice do you have for other prospective students who are applying for scholarships?

I would advise other students to start their search early. Quite a few scholarships have early deadlines and it would be a pity to not compete for one simply because you missed the time limit. Additionally, I would suggest that they use social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) to connect with people who have received the scholarship they will be applying for and ask for tips and insights. The previous winners will definitely have valuable information to provide and, more often than not, they will be more than happy to help.

Last but not least, I would recommend they find someone to proofread their application before submitting it. After spending a lot of time on a piece of work, we tend to get used to how it looks and we become unable to recognise our mistakes. If someone else proofreads it, though, you can eliminate those blind spots.