This summer DTU welcomes more than 1,000 new exchange and MSc students from over 60 different countries.
The official welcome by Martin P. Bendsøe, Dean of Graduate Studies and International Affairs, marked the beginning of four days (23 – 26 August) of introductions, sightseeing, social events, and teambuilding.
The Dean reminded the students that academic excellence is of the utmost importance to DTU and that our state-of-the-art facilities, laboratories, and study environments are key to the high quality education they will experience at DTU. They will also experience friendly and accessible professors and a learning environment and teaching methods that might differ markedly from those of their home country or home institution. At DTU, Danish and international students often work in teams and solve problems together because team work not only increases the students’ interpersonal and problem-solving skills, but also allow them to gain a valuable network of future colleagues from all over the globe.
Remember to have fun
The Dean concluded by reminding the students that although they have come to DTU to learn, they must remember to explore, to profit from all the exciting opportunities that DTU has to offer, and to have fun with their study-mates.
The buddy system
Some of the fun is provided by DTU buddies, who are students volunteering their time to help and assist new students during the first semester at the University. Many have studied abroad and some are themselves current international students at the University who have first-hand knowledge of how exciting it is to arrive in a new country and how daunting it can be.