Huzaifa: ‘ We organized a cricket workshop for all international and Dutch students in CE. We do not have many international students at CE this year, nevertheless we organize periodic meetings in English for all Master students.’ Elana and Huzaifa think that student bodies and the activities they organize are a fantastic way for a new, international student to integrate with university life: ‘Student bodies have an important, often overlooked function of facilitators, which can help ease the transition for any foreign student.’

Huzaifa Das. Photo: Bart van Overbeeke

Activities in Dutch
They add that things are not perfect. ‘Most of the information and activities put up by the student associations are in Dutch.’ Huzaifa: ‘Couple that with the cultural misunderstanding that student boards feel the international students should come to them, while the international students feel that the student boards should take the initiative and you have a situation where most foreign students don’t think it’s worth the effort to involve themselves in student activities.’

Studium Generale
They think that what is needed is some sort of emphasis - on the student bodies and associations like Studium Generale, which should have their excellent workshops and lectures not only in Dutch, to arrange events attractive to both foreign and Dutch students - and for the foreign students to be made more aware of the benefits of these extracurricular activities./.