Education

Q&A

Has Holland lived up to your expectations? Each month Page 4 asks a member of TU Delft%s foreign legion to share their thoughts with us. This week, we meet, Valerie Bannert (22), from Austria, an exchange student from ETH Zurich, where she studies Business Engineering & Manufacturing Management.

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Theft

Why did you choose TU Delft? Because it’s an internationally renowned university and a good place to improve my English – I’m allowed to follow MSc courses here. It was also a great opportunity to explore northern Europe. I had never been here before.

Has Holland lived up to your expectations?

Yeah, the climate’s cool and so are the people. The Dutch are wonderfully open-minded and tolerant and everybody speaks English, even the bus drivers. However, I’m disappointed by the amount of theft here. Most exchange students I know have had something stolen from them, like a walkman, mobile telephone, coat or bike.

How does TU Delft compare with ETH Zurich?

A lot of assiatant professors give lectures here, which is not the case at ETH, but the TU Delft teachers really seem to care about thier students. ETH professors are stricter. Here, the assitant professors are very flexible, perhaps too flexible, because we students must be prepeared for real life situations out in the business world, where people won’t agree to reschedule meetings because you’re going on holiday or have got something else to do.

Why did Austrians elect the far-right Freedom Party?

Austrians didn’t vote for the Freedom Party; they voted against the ruling coalition. It was a protest vote. However, the Freedom Party is run by young, talented, innovative professionals, like the party’s finance minister. Haider shouldn’t have publicly praised Hitler’s employment policies – it wasn’t tactful. But the EU did overact, and they behaved like little kids when they refused to shake hands with the Austrian delegation

Who do you admire in your field?

Carla Fiorina, the Italian businesswomen who’s the head of Hewlitt Packard. A great achievement for women! And Richard Branson, because he’s got good ideas and is always successful, even if he’s always in second place behind big companies like BA and Coca Cola.

What’s the greatest challenge for mankind in the 21st century?

The environment. We need to stop talking and act. So many people say, ‘I care about the environment, but’ There should be no more buts. We must act now and begin raising people’s awareness of enviromental problems.

Before accepting a job, will you consider the impact the company%s products have on the environment? I care about the environmental impact of a company’s products, but that wouldn’t stop me from accepting a job. I’d prefer to change the company from within. If I don’t take the job, somebody else will, and that person might not care about the environment at all.

Gore or Bush? Definitely Gore. He has strong policies and picking a Jewish vice-president was a good move. Bush is a moron’he’s definitely not presidential material.

Each month Page 4 asks a member of TU Delft%s foreign legion to share their thoughts with us. This week, we meet, Valerie Bannert (22), from Austria, an exchange student from ETH Zurich, where she studies Business Engineering & Manufacturing Management.

Theft

Why did you choose TU Delft? Because it’s an internationally renowned university and a good place to improve my English – I’m allowed to follow MSc courses here. It was also a great opportunity to explore northern Europe. I had never been here before.

Has Holland lived up to your expectations?

Yeah, the climate’s cool and so are the people. The Dutch are wonderfully open-minded and tolerant and everybody speaks English, even the bus drivers. However, I’m disappointed by the amount of theft here. Most exchange students I know have had something stolen from them, like a walkman, mobile telephone, coat or bike.

How does TU Delft compare with ETH Zurich?

A lot of assiatant professors give lectures here, which is not the case at ETH, but the TU Delft teachers really seem to care about thier students. ETH professors are stricter. Here, the assitant professors are very flexible, perhaps too flexible, because we students must be prepeared for real life situations out in the business world, where people won’t agree to reschedule meetings because you’re going on holiday or have got something else to do.

Why did Austrians elect the far-right Freedom Party?

Austrians didn’t vote for the Freedom Party; they voted against the ruling coalition. It was a protest vote. However, the Freedom Party is run by young, talented, innovative professionals, like the party’s finance minister. Haider shouldn’t have publicly praised Hitler’s employment policies – it wasn’t tactful. But the EU did overact, and they behaved like little kids when they refused to shake hands with the Austrian delegation

Who do you admire in your field?

Carla Fiorina, the Italian businesswomen who’s the head of Hewlitt Packard. A great achievement for women! And Richard Branson, because he’s got good ideas and is always successful, even if he’s always in second place behind big companies like BA and Coca Cola.

What’s the greatest challenge for mankind in the 21st century?

The environment. We need to stop talking and act. So many people say, ‘I care about the environment, but’ There should be no more buts. We must act now and begin raising people’s awareness of enviromental problems.

Before accepting a job, will you consider the impact the company%s products have on the environment? I care about the environmental impact of a company’s products, but that wouldn’t stop me from accepting a job. I’d prefer to change the company from within. If I don’t take the job, somebody else will, and that person might not care about the environment at all.

Gore or Bush? Definitely Gore. He has strong policies and picking a Jewish vice-president was a good move. Bush is a moron’he’s definitely not presidential material.

Editor Redactie

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