How do you handle late applicants- no matter whether German students or internationals?
The TU-experienced students receive a mail and have the chance to make an appointment with us to talk about the tasks of a buddy. Sometimes, we even send them suggestions, but that depends on the time they apply. If it is the first two months of the semester, we can try to find a match. When it is later than that we do not match them. They have to wait until the new internationals arrive.
We usually have no late international applicants. If they apply in the first month of the new semester, we are sometimes able to match them, too. Yet, we usually send out a mail with all new incomings and all buddies receive this list and can decide whether they want to support someone. First come, first serve. The first buddy that answers this mail and wishes to support someone will be matched with that international student.
How is the support by the student buddies? Do you wish for more help and involvement?
The buddies support, first of all, before the arrival via mail and answer all the questions of their student. We ask our buddies to pick up their student from the train station and take them to the dorms, hotel or flat. In order to get enrolled at the university, the international has to collect many documents. The buddy accompanies his or her student and translates for him or her. They have to go to the city registration, a German bank, an insurance company and, last but not least, the international student admission office. Those are the main tasks. If the buddy and the
The main problem is that new buddies wish for countries we do not have at our university, like the USA or Canada. Some students only stick to their wishes, so it is really hard to find someone for them. Moreover, it is difficult to match an international if buddies do not update their profile. Yet, we always have less TU-experienced students than new international incomings. Thus, it is not possible to match everyone, even if a buddy takes care of more than one newcomer. We matched over 90% of the incoming students in summer semester 2015.
Is your work done after you found a “matching pair”? Or is there a lot more to it than just distributing?
In most cases we are done after the matching. However, if there are questions, we are always there to help out. We usually send a survey to our internationals and ask them to give us feedback on our program and on the buddy. However, this is anonymous and thus, we do not get names. It focuses on how to improve our program rather than finding out who is a bad or good buddy.
Picture: International and German Buddies at British Irish Night at Club der Kulturen. Anne Klante
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