The new Master students come from countries in Europe, Africa, Latin-America, and Asia, but most of them are from China, Turkey, and India. The number of students from China and Turkey is growing the fastest. This year there are 27 new Master students from China, up from 18 in 2006, and there are 15 new Master students from Turkey, up from 8 in 2006. According to Marleen van Heusden of the Education and Student Service Center (STU) this is due mostly to the cooperations the TU/e has set up with universities in these countries. Mehmet Çubuk, who studies Computer Science, is one of the students from Turkey: “I came to Eindhoven because it has the reputation of being one of the best universities in Europe, and because I got a scholarship.”
The majority of the 104 new Master students, 51 in total, are enrolled with the department of Mathematics and Computer Science. Mechanical Engineering is next in popularity, with eighteen students. Electrical Engineering welcomed sixteen new international Master students. Technology Management welcomed eleven, Biomedical Engineering five, Architecture, Building and Planning two, and Chemical Engineering and Chemistry one. There are no new Master students from abroad at Industrial Design, which only recently launched its Master program, and at Applied Physics.

Summer course
New this year was a summer course for students from the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in India, with which the TU/e has set up a dual-degree Master program in Software Engineering, and Zhejiang University in China, with which the TU/e has set up the Brainbridge program. The students from these universities arrived at the end of July, a month before the start of the annual Master Intro, to be introduced to education at the TU/e. The fifteen Chinese students also participated in an English course. “It takes time to adjust to a new country”, says Karen Ali, head of STU and the International Office (IO). “By having them arrive early and offering them this program, we want to give these students a head start.”
“The program was very useful”, says Kopal Gakkhar, one of the eight Indian participants. “We had workshops on decision making, teamwork, intercultural communication, and presentation skills.” Bhawna Mallick, another participant, is happy that she arrived early. “It is good that we got a whole month and not just one week. During the first week I was still very confused. I didn’t know where to go to buy food, for example. Now I am really settled in.” By the time the other international students arrived for the Master Intro Gakkhar and Mallick were able to tell them how to buy a bike and where to buy Indian food./.