The first foreign employees came trickling into the University Club around 8.45 hours, to witness the start of the introductory day. The doctoral candidates, postdocs and professors hailed from almost a dozen different countries, such as China, Japan and Australia, but also Germany and Portugal.
Those present faced a tight schedule. After an introductory round ir. Harry Roumen, secretary of the university, gave a brief intro about the history of Eindhoven and the TU/e. Then some light was shed on more practical matters: Jolanda van der Sande from the Personnel and Organization Department (DPO) talked about insurances, day care centers and taxes, among other things. It turned out that many of the international employees had already contacted Marleen van Heusden, the next speaker, about the subject of accommodation.
Before the first part of the day was closed with a coffee break and the Dutch ‘delicacy’ ‘biscuits with mice’, Willem van Hoorn (DPO) enlightened the audience about the Dutch form of government and the monarchy.
The day continued with a tour of the campus, after which the international employees had a look in De Hal, where they received an explanation about the various facilities in the library and the Communication, Linguistics & Technology Center (CTT). Next the participants were shown around the TU/e Sports Center. A lunch in the ‘TUreluur’ on the top floor of the Hoofdgebouw concluded the day.

Organization
The persons who attended commended the introductory day, but also repeatedly mentioned a drawback: for many of them it occurred rather late. Indeed, most of them have worked at the TU/e for two or three months now, so they have had to find their way around the campus and Eindhoven all by themselves.
Ellen Konijnenberg, the hostess for the introductory day who works for DPO, attributes this primarily to an organizational cause: “Every year four introductory days are held, spread throughout the year. As a result, it is quite possible that new employees have just missed one of those days and have to wait for the next one.”
Although for many the introductory day is not an ‘introduction’ to the TU/e anymore, no such extra days will be added in the near future. Konijnenberg: “We now have twenty registrations on average for a day. Our expectation is that more days would not immediately result in more registrations.”
Considering that on an annual basis we get about three hundred new international TU/e employees (28 percent of the scientific staff does not come from the Netherlands), there is in fact only a small group taking part in the introductory days. One of the reasons might be that these employees do not grant themselves any time to participate, according to Konijnenberg: “The employees are too busy, they rather spend their stay at the TU/e on their activities than on such a day.”
DPO employees are working hard to generate more interest among international employees, and have now adopted a proactive policy. Van Hoorn: “We have recently started using e-mail to approach people coming to the TU/e before long.” Van Hoorn would like the welcoming policy for new international employees to encompass more than ‘just’ an introductory day. “DPO is studying ways to help new colleagues to information faster, for instance by providing specific information through e-mail and via the web or through meetings devoted to specific subjects. We are also considering activities of a more social nature such as excursions to typical places in the Netherlands.”/.