Students from SSE won the Swedish Championships in Business and Economics
“I used to be a part of the Education Committee, which organizes the qualification rounds here at the school. This year would be the last when I could participate so I decided to go for it and persuaded Rasmus and Axel to team up with me”, says Simon.
35 universities and colleges have the chance to take part and 32 of them participated in the competition this time. The qualification rounds where each school select a team takes place at each school separately, and previous years the teams which are then competing have met for a few days to take part in a conference, social activities, and banquettes alongside the challenge. This year, as well as 2020, it all took place online instead.
“It’s a little sad that we missed out on the social part, but we are glad that it took place at all”, says Axel. “The semi-finals were like a long exam, similar to the exams at SSE. In the final the format is slightly changed, with more time pressure. It’s about 50 questions of various character we need to answer”.
Technical programs impressed
Participating students are not allowed to have more than 210 credits, so most of them are in the 2nd or 3rd year. The questions are approximately 25% political economy, 50% business administration and 25% other economy related subjects. Among the other participants were not only students from Economy programs, but also a few Technical Universities. The team from Blekinge Institute of Technology even made it all the way to the final.
“I think that was impressing. They study Industrial Engineering and Management, not pure economy. They can be proud of that they made it that far”, says Axel.
”We were surprised how much we actually knew; it was cool to realize that we remembered things we had learned in courses during the first semester and hadn’t been thinking of for quite a while”, says Rasmus.
”Then the knowledge just popped up when we needed it. I guess that’s proof of that the education here at SSE is of really high quality”, says Simon.
The only thing they got together and really tried to study ahead of the final was Economy Nobel Prize winners, since it seems to be a returning theme at the Swedish Championships in Business and Economics.
“That was a fun exercise, to try to learn a new subject at a glance quickly. And it paid out since we nailed that question”, says Rasmus.
A winning combination
It’s not the first time that students from SSE won the competition, several other teams have been successful in previous years. Simon, Axel and Rasmus were leading during the whole final but in the end the runners-up from Uppsala were catching in. However, with two questions left to go it was clear that SSE had won.
“One of the things we learned during the competition was to have trust in each other, if one of us said I got this, we followed the path of that person. We learned to listen to each other even if we were working under pressure”, says Axel.
“We quickly realized that we were good at different things and complemented each other well”, says Simon.
Being a 2nd year student, Rasmus has the opportunity to compete again next year with another team. But will he?
“No, now when I’ve won once I think I’ve done my part. But I will encourage other students at SSE to take part in the qualification rounds here next year, to make sure that the school can send a great team to the finals even in 2022”, he says.
