Working for a better tomorrow

This informal working group, which is comprised of both Dutch and foreign students, enjoys the support of TU Delft’s Executive Board and International Office.

When Aerospace Engineering student Bob Kars became the VSSD’s international coordinator last year, he was confronted with three main issues concerning foreign students: that there was no meeting place for foreign students on the TU campus; that many foreign students had complained about the shortcomings of their welcoming period on the campus during the first weeks of the new academic year; and that despite the seemingly huge amount of promotional efforts made by various TU Delft departments to promote activities organized for foreign students, hardly any foreign students ultimately participated in these events.

Kars, who incidentally is Dutch, was joined by Christine de Lille, a student from Leuven, Belgium, who was also board member of Aegee-Delft during the past year, and by Els Koppelman-Valk, a staff member of TU Delft’s Studium Generale. Together, the trio began establishing contacts with various TU student organizations and departments in an effort to address these issues and improve the situation for foreign students.

In the process of doing this, the idea was hatched to establish an informal working group to address foreign student issues. Hence, the Workgroup International Students or WIS was founded and has been striving to make a difference for foreign students for the past year.

From the beginning, WIS was welcomed enthusiastically by most of the university community. The early challenges were less about acceptance and more about ironing out the practical details, such as where and how often the group should meet.

Although WIS has had no proper definition of its responsibilities nor been given an official status within the university . it remains an informal working group . it has for the past year been functioning as a useful meeting forum, a place where foreign students and representatives of the various student associations and university service providers can meet once a month to discuss a wide range of issues, like improving foreign student housing conditions and devising new ways to promote foreign student events and parties.

Via WIS, the various services providers for foreign students, such as student housing corporation DUWO, and the TU’s International Office, now have regular and direct contact with foreign students and also with each other. WIS has helped to create transparency: the various parties concerned are now more aware of each other’s efforts, and the monthly WIS meetings also give them an opportunity to coordinate their activities.
Grievances

When De Lille first came to TU Delft from Belgium she experienced firsthand what it’s like to drop into a new country and right into your first day of lectures.

“People think that Belgium and the Netherlands have so much in common, and that consequently Belgian students should have no trouble at all adapting to life here, but that is so not true!” De Lille exclaims. “I’ve had some really rough times here and it hasn’t been easy for me to adapt even though I speak the language.”

Motivated by her personal experience as well as by her work at Aegee, De Lille has been actively participating in WIS for the past year and is very satisfied with the WIS experience up until now: “The International Office has been listening to us and they appreciate the initiative.”

A number of projects have been conceived by WIS and are being realized by the International Office, in cooperation with the VSSD and others. WIS helped launch the recent mentor project, in which mentors are assigned to look after newly arrived foreign students during their first few months on campus, and WIS was also instrumental in organizing the successful introduction weekend for foreign students, in which a series of special events tailored for new foreign students were held in the first weeks of the new academic year this past September.

Mahla Alizadeh Dehlavi is a former board member of AAG, one of the student parties in the Student Council. She regards the new introduction weekend program as one of WIS’s major successes. Dehlavi also believes that WIS will continue to benefit foreign students in other important areas, such student housing, because WIS has the ability to bring together all the various players and serve as forum for foreign students to air their grievances.

“Housing is one of the most important and most difficult issues that need to be tackled,” Dehlavi says. “The results of surveys conducted by the student council last year show that the housing issue – from high rents to poor living facilities – is seen as the biggest problem for international students.”

From its humble beginnings as a loose collection of concerned students, WIS has since grown into a recognized protector of foreign student interests and advisor to the TU’s International Office. In the coming year, WIS will continue to hold its regular meetings once a month. All foreign students are encouraged to attend the meetings and share their ideas and opinions on whatever matters they find important.

WIS always welcomes new participants and students who are interested in organizing new activities. Those interested in attending a WIS meeting should contact Els Koppelman-Valk: e.koppelman-valk@tbm.tudelft.nl; or Christine de Lille: delille@gmail.com.

Workgroup International Students. (Photo: Hans Stakelbeek/FMAX)

When Aerospace Engineering student Bob Kars became the VSSD’s international coordinator last year, he was confronted with three main issues concerning foreign students: that there was no meeting place for foreign students on the TU campus; that many foreign students had complained about the shortcomings of their welcoming period on the campus during the first weeks of the new academic year; and that despite the seemingly huge amount of promotional efforts made by various TU Delft departments to promote activities organized for foreign students, hardly any foreign students ultimately participated in these events.

Kars, who incidentally is Dutch, was joined by Christine de Lille, a student from Leuven, Belgium, who was also board member of Aegee-Delft during the past year, and by Els Koppelman-Valk, a staff member of TU Delft’s Studium Generale. Together, the trio began establishing contacts with various TU student organizations and departments in an effort to address these issues and improve the situation for foreign students.

In the process of doing this, the idea was hatched to establish an informal working group to address foreign student issues. Hence, the Workgroup International Students or WIS was founded and has been striving to make a difference for foreign students for the past year.

From the beginning, WIS was welcomed enthusiastically by most of the university community. The early challenges were less about acceptance and more about ironing out the practical details, such as where and how often the group should meet.

Although WIS has had no proper definition of its responsibilities nor been given an official status within the university . it remains an informal working group . it has for the past year been functioning as a useful meeting forum, a place where foreign students and representatives of the various student associations and university service providers can meet once a month to discuss a wide range of issues, like improving foreign student housing conditions and devising new ways to promote foreign student events and parties.

Via WIS, the various services providers for foreign students, such as student housing corporation DUWO, and the TU’s International Office, now have regular and direct contact with foreign students and also with each other. WIS has helped to create transparency: the various parties concerned are now more aware of each other’s efforts, and the monthly WIS meetings also give them an opportunity to coordinate their activities.
Grievances

When De Lille first came to TU Delft from Belgium she experienced firsthand what it’s like to drop into a new country and right into your first day of lectures.

“People think that Belgium and the Netherlands have so much in common, and that consequently Belgian students should have no trouble at all adapting to life here, but that is so not true!” De Lille exclaims. “I’ve had some really rough times here and it hasn’t been easy for me to adapt even though I speak the language.”

Motivated by her personal experience as well as by her work at Aegee, De Lille has been actively participating in WIS for the past year and is very satisfied with the WIS experience up until now: “The International Office has been listening to us and they appreciate the initiative.”

A number of projects have been conceived by WIS and are being realized by the International Office, in cooperation with the VSSD and others. WIS helped launch the recent mentor project, in which mentors are assigned to look after newly arrived foreign students during their first few months on campus, and WIS was also instrumental in organizing the successful introduction weekend for foreign students, in which a series of special events tailored for new foreign students were held in the first weeks of the new academic year this past September.

Mahla Alizadeh Dehlavi is a former board member of AAG, one of the student parties in the Student Council. She regards the new introduction weekend program as one of WIS’s major successes. Dehlavi also believes that WIS will continue to benefit foreign students in other important areas, such student housing, because WIS has the ability to bring together all the various players and serve as forum for foreign students to air their grievances.

“Housing is one of the most important and most difficult issues that need to be tackled,” Dehlavi says. “The results of surveys conducted by the student council last year show that the housing issue – from high rents to poor living facilities – is seen as the biggest problem for international students.”

From its humble beginnings as a loose collection of concerned students, WIS has since grown into a recognized protector of foreign student interests and advisor to the TU’s International Office. In the coming year, WIS will continue to hold its regular meetings once a month. All foreign students are encouraged to attend the meetings and share their ideas and opinions on whatever matters they find important.

WIS always welcomes new participants and students who are interested in organizing new activities. Those interested in attending a WIS meeting should contact Els Koppelman-Valk: e.koppelman-valk@tbm.tudelft.nl; or Christine de Lille: delille@gmail.com.

Workgroup International Students. (Photo: Hans Stakelbeek/FMAX)