Introduction weeks over, what stood out?

In the last few weeks of the summer vacation, the cities flooded. Sleeping mats at the sports centers, information fairs, athletic days, dance parties, tipsy singing, crowded bars and nervous freshmen on campus: the introduction weeks were like old times again. A tour of other university towns.

Stray vocational school students
Vocational school students (MBO) were allowed to participate in introduction week in more and more student cities. Education Minister Dijkgraaf likes to see them mixing with students from universities and universities of applied sciences. But it’s not going smoothly yet.

At the introduction weeks this year, they were still somewhat lost and underrepresented. In practice, they do not yet participate everywhere. In Leiden, for example, they were only allowed to attend the closing ceremony. In Eindhoven they think a joint introduction is not feasible.

#MeToo
In several cities attention was paid to countering transgressive behavior. In Maastricht, for example, there were #MeToo lessons. Students were taught about sexual transgressive behavior and told where they could find help if they had to deal with it. The House of Representatives would prefer to see these classes in every university town.

• What was the OWee 2023 like again? You can find our coverage here.

In Utrecht, they also took social safety quite seriously this year. For the first time, the UIT-week board had drawn up a code of conduct and appointed an external confidential advisor. If participants did not follow the rules, they were sent off the premises and their wristbands were cut.

Won studio and barred associations
At the information market at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the longest line stood at a stall run by housing association Student Experience: there, by spinning a wheel of fortune, you could win a housing studio. Students to whom the award passed must have looked at it with eagerness, because affordable student rooms in the capital are becoming rarer every year.

There were also student associations barred from the introduction weeks this year following incidents at the hazing. The Maastricht-based Tragos was not welcome at this year’s introduction week Earlier, the same happened to the Rotterdam student body. The association was now back at the information market, but was still not welcome at the opening ceremony.

Game Night
In most places the introduction week was a resounding success as always. In Enschede, a new ‘Game Night’ at the University of Twente’s Kick-In was well attended. Students got to know each other by playing board and video games.

HOP, Peer van Tetterode