Vanessa Restrepo Uribe (a Master student of Business Information Systems) from Colombia would like to know why many Dutch students prefer to choose other Dutch students when a project group needs to be formed. According to Vanessa, this is sometimes taken to a point where it is explicitly stated as follows in e-mail messages: “We are looking for a group member, preferably Dutch.”

Melle Boersma is also a Master student of Business Information Systems. As more than fifty percent of the students there are international, he is quite used to cooperating with other nationalities. Usually this goes well. Nonetheless he can come up with a number of reasons why Dutch students prefer to cooperate with fellow countrymen: “One: there is no language barrier, and two: you know exactly what kind of foreknowledge someone possesses. It just makes the work easier.”

Dr. ir. Danny Holten works with many PhD candidates of different nationalities at Computer Science. He suspects that, apart from the language barrier, the Dutch like to work together because they do not need to worry about their ‘politically incorrect’ humor and their direct and assertive way of communicating, which he thinks may appear a touch aggressive in foreign eyes.

In the Cursor to be published on 1st July extensive attention will be given to the social integration of international students and staff members at TU/e. (SK)