Promoting an international student life in Maastricht

For many highschool graduates, the decision to pursue higher education means leaving their long time friends, family, even pets, and naturally one of the questions they ask themselves is: “How will I build myself a new social life?”

In the Netherlands, just like in many others countries, student associations aim at helping students do just that.

Student at Maastricht University

Being a student is not only about studying
Already back in the beginning of the 19th century, students grouped together to form associations. These associations also allowed students to stay in touch with one another even after graduation.

Over the years, the structures within these associations were subject to changes and developments, leading to the present day forms of student associations.

AEGEE student association

Student associations exist in the first place to bring students together, as a platform for social contact. Sometimes, a specific activity is used as unifying factor. This activity differs per association and can be related to sports, a philosophical or religious orientation, or just the idea of having fun. Some associations are more academically inclined than others and choose to focus on one or more fields of study.

Yet, becoming a member of a sometimes very large association can be overwhelming. That’s where year clubs come in. These year clubs are made up of students who join an association during the same study year, making it easier for members to feel comfortable within the association. They fulfill newcomers’ need to interact within a smaller group of people with whom they can bond and become friends. A year club usually consists of a group of 5 to 15 people – there are no strict rules for this – and each year club is unique, with its own name and t-shirt, and its own identity, defined by its binding philosophy and the type of activities its members choose to organise that year. Year clubs members establish their own rules on how to spend time together.

Silenus Fraternity

As the structure of student associations evolved, another form of group came into existence in the Netherlands, known as a “a “dispuut” in Dutch. A “dispuut” consists of about 10 to 20 members and is usually single-sex, but can be mixed in rare situations. They are the equivalent of the American “fraternities” for boys or “sororities” for girls. Every year new members are added to the group, making it a “vertical” mixture of people from different study years.

This structure of large student associations, split up into year clubs, fraternities and sororities, is found everywhere in the Netherlands, especially in cities hosting a big student population.

Circumflex student association

INKOM Maastricht
Maastricht is a relatively “young” university city, compared to other university cities in the Netherlands, and features another type of student group, known as the “onafhankelijk dispuut” (“independent fraternity/sorority”). This is not a traditional type of group and it is quite unique in the Netherlands, since it isn’t linked to any larger student association. An independent “dispuut” has it own identity, views and rules. Although there are many of these independent sororities and fraternities here in Maastricht, each and every one of them is unique.

Every year in August, right before the start of the new academic year, new students are invited to attend a full week of activities, parties and lots of fun called the INKOM in Maastricht. Every university city in the Netherlands uses its own name to describe this event, also more generally known as “orientation week”.

INKOM 2008 in Maastricht

This is when new students get introduced to Maastricht and its student life. It is a week full of impressions and many associations, fraternities and sororities take this opportunity to hand out flyers and promote their organisations.

SV Tragos, SV Circumflex and SV KoKo are the biggest student associations in Maastricht. All three are traditional organisations with their own year clubs and sororities/fraternities. Although they all have the same structure, their ideologies differ.

Kokos student association

Three other associations are also worth mentioning: Saurus, a sporting organisation specialised in rowing activities, Amphitryon, which is connected to Maastricht’s Hotel School, and Aegee, an association for internationally orientated students with branches all over the world.

Maastricht University’ s international orientation
Maastricht University hosts an increasingly larger number of foreign students coming from all over the world. This has resulted in a growing need for English speaking international associations, which would suit international students better and help them feel more at home in Maastricht.

Foreign students often complain that they feel excluded by the main core of Dutch students and their associations, and prefer getting together in their own multilingual settings. Dutch students on the other side feel threatened by the potentially huge overflow of English vocabulary.

International Night

However, there is no antagonism or envy present… but rather curiosity towards the “other one”. There have been many discussions about the further growing apart between foreign and Dutch students and everyone seems to agree that the keyword should be integration.

For this reason, the INKOM week for the new academic year 2009-2010 at Maastricht University has decided to launch a campaign to promote integration.

This means that events will no longer be held separately according to language. All new students will be divided into groups, no matter where they come from, so that English will be spoken in every group.

INKOM Parade in Maastricht

It is hoped that this form of integration will foster close friendships right from the start of the academic year, since people tend to bond quicker when they share the same first impressions and experiences together.

INKOM 2008

Also, the presence of mixed nationality groups during INKOM will make it easier for non-Dutch students to join a student association. These associations exist for everyone and hope that students will be more likely to join if they can do it together with their new best friend.

By Francis ten Broeke

Francis ten Broeke (20, Dutch) is a third year student at Maastricht University’s European Law School.

Maastricht University students

Photos: INKOM.nl