For the first time in TU history a foreign MSc student has won a seat on the student council. Wawan Dhewanto pulled off a surprise victory at last week’s Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management’s (TBM) student council elections.
The first-year SEPA student from Indonesia is the first foreign MSc student to win a seat on the seven-member student council. Wawan got 35 votes.
“I was a bit surprised myself,” he said. “Some regular Dutch students must have voted for me as well, because I was only expecting 25 votes.”
Wawan’s motivation for running was to help create equal opportunities for international students. “I’ll do my best to ensure their voices are heard. I can’t guarantee that instantly everything will get better, but international students at least now know who to complain to.” Which is a view shared by one of Wawan’s classmates, Wang Yan, a Chinese student who voted for Wawan but doesn%t expect too much from him: “After all, he’s just a student, like us, so be realistic.”
Wawan says the educational process at TU Delft is better than that at his former university in Indonesia, but improvement is necessary. “I believe there’s no best way, but there’s always a better way,” he said.
Wawan is anxiously looking forward to attending the student council meetings, but he is “a bit worried about language, as my Dutch is still very limited.” According to Charlotte Woltman Elpers, a Dutch student who also won a student council seat with 53 votes, language shouldn’t be a problem: %We’ll use English in our meetings, then. MSc students are quite a big group in the faculty, so I think it’s very good that they’ve now got somebody to represent them.”
Wawan Dhewanto pulled off a surprise victory at last week’s Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management’s (TBM) student council elections. The first-year SEPA student from Indonesia is the first foreign MSc student to win a seat on the seven-member student council. Wawan got 35 votes.
“I was a bit surprised myself,” he said. “Some regular Dutch students must have voted for me as well, because I was only expecting 25 votes.”
Wawan’s motivation for running was to help create equal opportunities for international students. “I’ll do my best to ensure their voices are heard. I can’t guarantee that instantly everything will get better, but international students at least now know who to complain to.” Which is a view shared by one of Wawan’s classmates, Wang Yan, a Chinese student who voted for Wawan but doesn%t expect too much from him: “After all, he’s just a student, like us, so be realistic.”
Wawan says the educational process at TU Delft is better than that at his former university in Indonesia, but improvement is necessary. “I believe there’s no best way, but there’s always a better way,” he said.
Wawan is anxiously looking forward to attending the student council meetings, but he is “a bit worried about language, as my Dutch is still very limited.” According to Charlotte Woltman Elpers, a Dutch student who also won a student council seat with 53 votes, language shouldn’t be a problem: %We’ll use English in our meetings, then. MSc students are quite a big group in the faculty, so I think it’s very good that they’ve now got somebody to represent them.”
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