The Three Degrees!

Side by side: Polish pals complete academic journey together

Three close friends today completed an academic journey by celebrating their graduation after being in the same class at school, college and university.

Szymon Fiuk, 23,Stefan Przybylowicz 22 and Marcin Augustyn, 21, sat on the same bench for more than five years for lessons at Edinburgh’s St Augustine’s High School.

They were then stunned to find, on their first day at Edinburgh College, that they were in the same HND Interactive Media class.

The by now inseparable trio then went on to complete a BSc (Hons) in web design and development at the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University – and as considered their future after picking up their degrees at a ceremony in the capital’s Usher Hall, it emerged that this might not be the end of the story!

Szymon,said: “I have a couple of business ideas but I need money and people who I could work with – maybe Stefan and Marcin will be interested!”

Szymon and Marcin actually went to the same primary school in Dabrowa Gornicza in southern Poland. Their families moved to Edinburgh separately, and Szymon was astonished to see Marcin in a maths class on his first day at St Augustine’s.

A year later, Stefan – originally from Slupsk in northern Poland  – arrived at the Edinburgh school, and the three shared a bench for a number of classes during their early years of high school as the other two helped him adjust to life in Scotland.

They left St Augustine’s not expecting to meet again but were in for a huge surprise on day one at Edinburgh College when they found out during induction that they were on the same course.

Stefan said: “We found ourselves to be performing at similar level and getting comparable grades throughout the following four years of studying the course at Edinburgh College, and later on, at Edinburgh Napier.

“Over some time, we started to distinguish our strengths and weaknesses and supported each other in different areas of expertise.”

He too believes that graduation may not yet be the end of a story which has taken the three of them from primary school in Poland to a university education in Scotland’s capital.

Stefan said: “Since successful web design studios achieve their goals thanks to efficient teams of talented people contributing different skills and ideas to the projects, we are considering establishing our own company together.”

Three’s company, maybe?