Tuesday morning, 28 November, began with a breakfast with Rector Frans van Vught who moderated a discussion on the role of student organisations in the internationalisation of the UT, organised by the Student Union as part of the ongoing International Week.
Van Vught began the discussion by stressing the importance of internationalisation citing the 'speed of technological innovation' and the 'need to attract the best students' as critical reasons. Edwin Berends of Ureka, Sam Warnaars of Taste and Koen Dingjan of SMIT were invited to be the panelists and Edwin asked the students whether they indeed had the time to participate in extra-curricular activities. 'Well, it is always nice to socialise', replied Will Wang Bin (China), Master's student, TO. 'But Chinese students mix only amongst themselves and rarely with others', countered Alejandra Lopez (Colombia), TO.
Sam offered three barriers students may face towards integration - Language, Culture and Time. Estonian Juri Logvia felt that it is difficult to integrate when one's stay is only for a year and recounted that it took him nearly three months to feel at home. 'Some of us are shy, scared or even lazy', he said. Van Vught invited Will, Alejandra and Juri to join the panel, which won him a round of applause.
Suggestions ranged from having a central committee responsible for welcoming all international students, Dutch guides/mentors for each international student for a year and another to integrate them through sports. 'But of the 50 or so sports websites, only 3 are in English,' Koen observed. Van Vught commented 'that is an easy thing to fix' and pondered over the possibility of international members on the board of student organisations.
To express your views on difficulties in integrating with Dutch/other students, write to us at [email protected].
