Board dinner about internationalization

Student associations at Tilburg don’t put much effort into internalization. A lack of knowledge of the Dutch language stands in the way of integration. This conclusion could be drawn after the debate about internationalization at the board dinner, organized by I*ESN.

Bar owners, board members of the University and board members of TSV Plato, TSC Olof, TSR Vidar, TUC and the TOP were present at the dinner. They discussed three statements,  such as “Student associations should do more for and with international students”.

Some quotes from the discussions:
TSC Olof: “We are open-minded, but we do not focus on international students.”

TSR Vidar: “We choose the best rowers, whether they are international or not. Rowing  is the ‘glue’ in our association. For example, a Turkish student rows in the men’s eight. Not everything is English, which makes it difficult. We are thinking about how to support international students better, so we can retain them.”

TSV Plato: ” We have about ten international students, but we don’t see them often in our association building. Our association consists of  societies and committees. The international students don’t speak Dutch. We do translate for them, but not consistently, our news letters are not in English. The number of international students  regarding to the total number of members is too small. Therefore international students do not know everything that is going on, which reduces their connection with the association.”

TUC: ” International students are welcome to come to the Tilburg University Cantus. Last year there were 1800 students of whom 20 were international. We do not do anything special for them. They can drink beer and sing (Dutch) songs.”

Earlier that evening Lex Meijdam, dean at TiSEM,  explained why internationalization is so important to the University. About 280 international bachelor students and about 450 international master students study at TiSEM. About 170 employees at TiSEM are international (of 40 different nationalities). “Internationalization is not only important when you want to find a job. Because of the international class room, students can learn from other cultures. Also the international students are being looked at as role models. Dutch students sometimes settle for sufficient grades. International students are extremely motivated. You do not come from China to party in the Netherlands. They have a different mentality, hopefully the Dutch students will take up on that”.

Watch pictures of the dinner here.
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