Interaction between Dutch students and foreign students is not running smoothly in this country… It seems that both groups don’t meet and interact a lot, while that is the main goal with internationalization. This was a result of research by Bart Renties, from the University of Maastricht.
The researcher has drawn the conclusion that Dutch and foreign students live in two separate social worlds. It seems that Dutch students are more often member of a Students’ Union, while foreign stu-dents are member of an educational students’ group. Of all Dutch students who participated in the research, twenty-one per cent says to hang-out with foreign students. By contrast, seventy per cent only hangs out with Dutch fellow students.
Foreign students are not really enthusiastic about the social lives in the Netherlands. To prepare foreign students for their stay in the Netherlands, research developed the internet project www.acculturation.nl
This project was set up to help foreign students find their ways in the new cities. Bart Rienties thinks that only an introduction programme at the new school and study comes too late for the new students to join in smoothly.
