the registration process. We do the registration according to the mail. The next step is that we send out a reminder to everyone about the meeting point and time. Finally, we go on our trip or event.
Another point on our “To-Do-List” is the matching point. One month before the new students will arrive; we match international students with TU-experienced students who will help them out during the first weeks. The main arguments for the final matching are arrival time and field of study. If one or even both match, we can suggest an international student to a TU-experienced student. He or she can decide whether he or she wants to support this new international student or not.
Every semester, no matter whether summer or winter term, there is an Orientation Week scheduled. What is the purpose? What is on the agenda?
We usually start off with the first part of our “Learn, Live and Laugh”- presentation. “Learn” introduces the most important facts about studying in Chemnitz. In the afternoon, we go on a city hall and tower tour. The newcomers will learn about Chemnitz´s history and see the city from above the roofs of the city center.
The city rally is the first event of the second day. We hand out a quiz about the city, which the students have to fill in during a walk through Chemnitz. Later on, we present part two of our “Learn, Live and Laugh”- presentation.
Another important event is our campus tour. We walk around the Reichenhainer Straße campus and explain and show the most important buildings, including student clubs, Examination Office, Library and StuRa (student’s union representing the student body’s interests). In the evening, we go out on a pub tour.
The main and last event of the week is our International Welcome Dinner at Club der Kulturen. The newcomers are asked to bring food from their home country and create a big international buffet. The student buddy program provides some dishes, as well. After the dinner, we have a nice party with the new and older students.
The main purpose of the orientation week is to get an overview of all the important facts concerning studying at TUC. Furthermore, students should get to know each other during that week. It is important to make friends. Friends can cheer you up or go party with you. They might have the same problems and thus, support you during our downs. We like to think of the orientation week as a platform to make new friends.
Students, who are interested in participating in the student buddy program, can register online. What happens then? How do you distribute Internationals and student buddies?
After your registration you will receive an email with the checklist. The checklist is a list of all important steps buddies have to follow in order to get their international newcomer enrolled at the university. We always host a meeting where all buddies are invited. We inform them about changes or to just give the students hints on how to deal with all the bureaucratic institutions.
We usually match student buddies and internationals in February and August. In the application form TU students are asked to give us the following information: field of study, availability, preferred nations, spoken languages and hobbies. According to that, we try to match them with a student buddy. The TU-experienced student will receive a mail with a suggestion that will tell him or her: the name, country, hobbies and date of arrival of the international student. If he or she agrees to support the student we give the email address of the student. Moreover, the newcomer will receive an email with name, email address, field of study and hobbies of their buddy.
What do you consider most challenging in distributing students? Are all nationalities easy to distribute? Why/ Why not?
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