No more big welcome meeting for new exchange students

Every semester, crowds of excited new students meet in one large lecture hall for a big overall welcome to the University of Copenhagen. This tradition is now to be stopped, according to a notification from the University Education Services organisers, citing a drop in attendance and student feedback.

The general welcome meeting, has up to this point occurred during the first few days of the arrival of incoming exchange students each semester, and involved a series of five minute briefings by representatives from Danish courses, the Studenterhuset, the Erasmus Student Network and others, including the University Post.

”This is a decision taken on the basis of a declining number of participants as well as feedback from students seeking an orientation which is rooted in their academic environment,” says Anne Bruun, consultant at University Education Services.

Overlap with other meetings

Students looking for information about the university’s environment and procedure will instead attend separate meetings at each of the six faculties on campus.

Students “have been very satisfied with the event, but the central and faculty-specific meetings overlap somewhat in content,” says Anne.

”When students choose which meeting they will go to (if they do not have time to attend both) they emphasized the importance of the connection to the academic environment,” she says.

Students: I met friends at this meeting

The exchange students that the University Post interviewed are sorry that the central orientation has been scrapped.

”I think it’s a bad idea for them to cancel the overall orientation because even if the information was kind of redundant, it’s what allowed us to meet people from all different faculties, and I met people on that first day who I’m still friends with today,” says Caitlin, an exchange student from Australia.

Many exchange students take courses in more than one area of studies, or specifically within Danish language and culture courses, leaving them feeling less connected to one specific faculty, says another. Kelsey, from Canada, remembers the main orientation most clearly. ”It was nice to get all the exchange students together at once,” Kelsey says.

universitypost@adm.ku.dk

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