Education

There’s no possibility to interact”

Outside of the university, what are your chances of integrating with the Dutch at home? In the third instalment of Page 4’s integration series, we look at how student housing influences the integration process.

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Arriving in Delft, hundreds of students, Dutch and international, search for a room. Many student houses organise instemmingen, in which, to select a new housemate, they invite prospective student housemates for a drink and a chat. Careful selection is vital: ”Since housemates live very close together, like a family, and rooms are offered for a long time period, we want to find a new friend that fits the family,” explains Marieke de Groot, a Dutch student at Technology, Policy and Management who lives with nine other students.

International students generally stay in Delft short-term, unless they’re following the regular five-year courses. Because these MSc, Erasmus, and Unitech students follow much shorter programs, they usually live in short-term housing, often owned by Duwo. Erasmus students can request rooms in advance from Duwo, but they can also find accommodation themselves. Duwo provides rooms for Unitech and MSc students. Rik van Leeuwen of the MSc Office explains: ”A key issue is providing furnished rooms for MSc students upon their arrival in Delft.”

Almost all MSc students are given rooms at Roland Holstlaan (RH). ”It’s specially designed for short-term housing with individual rooms. By housing MSc students in RH, the MSc Office can offer everyone the same housing conditions,” Van Leeuwen says.

Rola Hola

Living in RH doesn’t really encourage interaction between Dutch and international students, however. ”RH is full of foreigners. There’s no possibility to interact with Dutch people,” says a first-year MSc student in Page 4’s e-mail survey. Another claims: ”I don’t know any Dutch people in this building.” Enrico Massaro, an Italian Unitech student, comments: ”RH is frustrating; it’s not a student house, it’s too individual. There aren’t many chances to experience communal living or meet others.” De Groot says foreign students should be more strongly encouraged to live in Delft centre and meet Dutch students: ”RH is too far away. It’s like separating foreign students from Dutch students.”

Half of the nineteen MSc respondents to Page 4’s survey didn’t like ‘Rola Hola’ either. Many students moved out of RH after arriving in Delft. By doing so, three of them met Dutch students, as they went to live with them. The other surveyed MSc students hardly integrate with Dutch colleagues outside of their study.

Van Leeuwen: ”Living with Dutch students helps international and Dutch students integrate, but it’s no guarantee. Not all foreign students want the same thing and we don’t know how Dutch students will react if they must accept foreign students in their student houses just like that. They have their own instemming.” And not every foreign student likes to participate. ”Instemmingen aren’t nice. Usually, people just use them as chance to make fun of the people being interviewed,” says Pietro Micheli from Italy.

Cool

Although it’s difficult to place foreign students in student houses, owing to their often short-term stays here, it is possible. De Groot: ”We decided to offer an empty room to foreign students, because it was vacant from March and there weren’t many students looking for a room then. We wanted to rent the room until September.” Another problem, according to De Groot, is the student houses that only accept students from certain student societies. ”You’ve got to become a member of the student society before you can get a room in these student houses.” And, as revealed on Page 4 two weeks ago, most MSc students don’t want to join these societies.

Nevertheless, when mixing occurs, it’s usually successful. Fabio Zeppelini, an Italian Architecture MSc student living in a ‘mixed’ student house in the centre: ”It’s certainly different from living at Roland Holstlaan. My Dutch housemates are really cool!” Zeppelini’s didn’t get his room through an instemming: ”I got it from a friend following a mixed-module course between MSc, Erasmus and Dutch students in my faculty. I already knew the people living in this house before I moved in.” So, there’s hope: perhaps integration at the faculties will eventually help integration at home.

Outside of the university, what are your chances of integrating with the Dutch at home? In the third instalment of Page 4’s integration series, we look at how student housing influences the integration process.

Arriving in Delft, hundreds of students, Dutch and international, search for a room. Many student houses organise instemmingen, in which, to select a new housemate, they invite prospective student housemates for a drink and a chat. Careful selection is vital: ”Since housemates live very close together, like a family, and rooms are offered for a long time period, we want to find a new friend that fits the family,” explains Marieke de Groot, a Dutch student at Technology, Policy and Management who lives with nine other students.

International students generally stay in Delft short-term, unless they’re following the regular five-year courses. Because these MSc, Erasmus, and Unitech students follow much shorter programs, they usually live in short-term housing, often owned by Duwo. Erasmus students can request rooms in advance from Duwo, but they can also find accommodation themselves. Duwo provides rooms for Unitech and MSc students. Rik van Leeuwen of the MSc Office explains: ”A key issue is providing furnished rooms for MSc students upon their arrival in Delft.”

Almost all MSc students are given rooms at Roland Holstlaan (RH). ”It’s specially designed for short-term housing with individual rooms. By housing MSc students in RH, the MSc Office can offer everyone the same housing conditions,” Van Leeuwen says.

Rola Hola

Living in RH doesn’t really encourage interaction between Dutch and international students, however. ”RH is full of foreigners. There’s no possibility to interact with Dutch people,” says a first-year MSc student in Page 4’s e-mail survey. Another claims: ”I don’t know any Dutch people in this building.” Enrico Massaro, an Italian Unitech student, comments: ”RH is frustrating; it’s not a student house, it’s too individual. There aren’t many chances to experience communal living or meet others.” De Groot says foreign students should be more strongly encouraged to live in Delft centre and meet Dutch students: ”RH is too far away. It’s like separating foreign students from Dutch students.”

Half of the nineteen MSc respondents to Page 4’s survey didn’t like ‘Rola Hola’ either. Many students moved out of RH after arriving in Delft. By doing so, three of them met Dutch students, as they went to live with them. The other surveyed MSc students hardly integrate with Dutch colleagues outside of their study.

Van Leeuwen: ”Living with Dutch students helps international and Dutch students integrate, but it’s no guarantee. Not all foreign students want the same thing and we don’t know how Dutch students will react if they must accept foreign students in their student houses just like that. They have their own instemming.” And not every foreign student likes to participate. ”Instemmingen aren’t nice. Usually, people just use them as chance to make fun of the people being interviewed,” says Pietro Micheli from Italy.

Cool

Although it’s difficult to place foreign students in student houses, owing to their often short-term stays here, it is possible. De Groot: ”We decided to offer an empty room to foreign students, because it was vacant from March and there weren’t many students looking for a room then. We wanted to rent the room until September.” Another problem, according to De Groot, is the student houses that only accept students from certain student societies. ”You’ve got to become a member of the student society before you can get a room in these student houses.” And, as revealed on Page 4 two weeks ago, most MSc students don’t want to join these societies.

Nevertheless, when mixing occurs, it’s usually successful. Fabio Zeppelini, an Italian Architecture MSc student living in a ‘mixed’ student house in the centre: ”It’s certainly different from living at Roland Holstlaan. My Dutch housemates are really cool!” Zeppelini’s didn’t get his room through an instemming: ”I got it from a friend following a mixed-module course between MSc, Erasmus and Dutch students in my faculty. I already knew the people living in this house before I moved in.” So, there’s hope: perhaps integration at the faculties will eventually help integration at home.

Editor Redactie

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