`It's not a big deal'
Michael Stekkingër, a native of The Hague, holds the position of vice chairman on the University Council and studies psychology. Part of his role in the council concentrates on examining internationalization policies and practices at the university.
`The symposium topic is very interesting, especially with the merger of the ITC as our sixth faculty and the whole goal of the university to become more international as a community and as a place for higher education. People kept saying that English was the language for communication in education. Personally, for me it's not a big deal. I'm very internationally minded. Here in Holland, you get a nice, safe view and you can speak Dutch. Everything is in Dutch. The only thing you need to do is maybe read English books and make an exam that ninety percent of the time is in Dutch. It's all very safe and very natural, but what people kept saying today is that the whole international market, the rest of the world, where indeed most students will get their jobs in the future is dominated by the English language.'
Mixing cultures at introduction week
Elske Olthof is a master's student in Civil Engineering and former president of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), a non-profit international student organization, which aims to foster student mobility in Higher Education under the principle of `Students Helping Students.'
`I think, indeed, what everyone at the symposium was saying is that everything needs to be in English so that even Dutch students are used to speaking in English because if they are more familiar with it then it is easier for them to communicate with the international students. It should be in the introduction week where you mix the groups, and the Dutch students are aware this is an international campus, and we have to speak English here and why not start now. The introduction is really divided into separate groups: the Dutch side and the English side. If you try to mix these groups then you might have success. There are some small efforts that are showing success like Dine with the Dutch and the language project, where Dutch students are mixed with international students, but these are still quite small.'
