In August, around 980 new international students enrolled at TU Delft. Over 100 more signed up for extra programmes. By mid-August, campus was flooded with these students.
To help the new students settle in, the Central International Office organised a two-week long Introduction Programme called the 2013 Survival Guide. Starting with shuttle services to pick up students from Schiphol, survival activities ranged from teaching them about the university’s intranet (Tulip, Blackboard etc.), to shopping for basics such as groceries and bikes. Ice-breakers included a trip to the beach, karaoke evening, board games, beer tasting and a pub crawl.
The hub for the activities was the Survival Cafe, a designated space at the Aula where new students could rendezvous each day and decide which activity they wanted to attend. “To make things easier for them, this year we categorised each activity into different colours,” explains Marlies Poelmann, Communications Manager of the CIO. The categories include Learn (orange), Sightseeing (royal blue), Food (green) and Shop (magenta) among others. Each colour has a corresponding board in the cafe where students can get all the information about them. “Last year one of the big issues we faced was that students were overwhelmed by the number of different activities offered and this made it easier for them to make a choice,” adds Poelmann. Students were also given nifty handouts such as the Survival Guide booklets detailing all the events and Survival News, a three part newsletter. A new introduction, the newsletter had interesting articles on topics such as bikes in Delft, the campus card, service points and public transportation in Delft.
Besides these, several masters’ students volunteered to be survival coaches. Incoming students were divided into teams of nine and each team was assigned a coach. Coaches not only helped them through the team activities planned, but also showed them around campus and the.
“We help students feel at home and adjust to life here. We prepare them for what to expect academically and culturally,” said Sujaya Shinde, an MSc student from India. “For us it’s also a great way to meet people from different nationalities and it seemed like a really interesting job to do over the summer,” said Lei Thewessen, a Dutch MSc student. Among the most frequently asked queries they get through the day are questions such as “How far is so-and-so place by bike?” and “Does this food item have any meat in it?” One of the most popular events was the weekly happy hour where students could get two drinks for the price of one at the Survival Café. A welcome lunch was also held for all the new students on August 23rd, hosted by the CIO. The sightseeing itinerary was definitely enviable, a cycle tour in the outskirts of Delft, a trip to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Haag and a visit to one of the largest open-air exhibitions, Sculptuur 2013 – Russia XXL. “Some of the sessions were designated as obligatory, things such as the Library & Campus tour and team activities. A few also had a nominal attendance fee,” says Poelmann.
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