MSc students talk about how they galvanised cross-cultural student interaction.
With close to 1,000 international students joining TU Delft every year, the institute is a veritable melting pot. Sometimes though, it takes an extra nudge to get international students and their Dutch counterparts to break the ice outside the classroom.
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Ready with that extra impetus in the Delft Centre for Systems and Control is a student study association called Out of Control (OOC). In theory, the group started five years ago, but it was revived last year by four MSc students; three Dutch students – Django van Amstel, Paul van Tricht, Werner van Westering – and one Indian student, Rishabh Dev Sharma. Their aim was to get students of all nationalities together for fun and academic exchange.
Charm of studying
“We believe that being able to share your ideas and knowledge with people from the world over is part of the charm of studying at TU Delft. Social cohesion makes a better Master’s environment,” says Van Westering, who is currently doing his thesis project with TNO.
They agree that making friends across nationalities may be a daunting task, but it’s something they highly recommend. “I think the initiative should lie with the Dutch person. It’s more difficult for international students to approach someone Dutch as we are ‘at home’. My experience is that international students are open and keen on making new friends,” says Van Amstel, who is currently on an exchange programme with KTH in Sweden. “Getting acquainted with the students you usually don’t hang out with is not only fun but will ultimately become an asset for everyone in their future careers.”
Beers and barbecues
With this in mind, Out of Control has organised informal and formal sessions, from ice-breaking beers and barbecues to workshops on software used in the course. The members say the faculty has been very supportive of the initiative. “The course is really tough and you cannot give it a 100 % if you exist in a vacuum,” says Dev Sharma, who is doing his thesis on wind energy. “Of course we cannot force people to become friends, but if we create enough avenues for people to come together, we hope that they’ll find the cultural exchange stimulating.”
Excursions to companies
Even though all the members are busy with their thesis projects, Out of Control’s agenda for next year is looking packed. “We recently gave a presentation to the first-year students about what to expect from OOC. One of the initial events we’ve organised is a session on Matlab, Simulink and Latex, which will be conducted by students who are experts on them,” Dev Sharma says. Another important activity OOC has planned for the year is excursions to companies across the Netherlands, so that students get an idea about what to expect after the MSc is over.
“In fact,” Van Westering says, “OOC works as a model for what we hope to achieve. All four of us were looking for better social and academic interaction with our classmates, and that’s where OOC came from.”
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