EXPERIENCES AS A FOREIGN


STUDENT IN THE NETHERLANDS By George Lake


Last year in the UK around 27,000 students dropped out of university in the first 12 months, many because they started studies that just weren’t right for them. Six years ago, I could have been in the same position. Back then I was restless. I didn’t want to be pushed on to a university course that I wasn’t fully committed to but I knew that I wanted to continue my studies. At the same time I had a nagging feeling that I wanted to go on an adventure. I wanted to learn a new language (something I had not really achieved at secondary school) and I wanted to experience a different culture.


After looking at the course provisions at many universities in various European countries I came across the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. They were just about to start a new multidisciplinary programme called Liberal Arts which included social sciences, law, history, economics and much more. Importantly, it would satiate my many interests while allowing me to avoid putting all my eggs in one basket before I really had a chance to decide what I wanted to do in the future. I applied and, before I knew it, I had been accepted and was one of the very first students on the course.


As I stepped off of the plane at Eindhoven airport for the first time I was struck by the landscape. Apart from a few undulations of earth around some of the edges of the country, it is extremely flat. This is the perfect environment for cycling and the number of bikes in the Netherlands is staggering. At all of the train stations there are literally thousands of bikes propped up waiting for their owners to return and in every city and village, people can be seen


cycling at any time of day. At first, the class of about 50 split in half, one group comprised of the Dutch students and the other the international students. Very quickly this division wore down and the Dutch students proved to be very friendly and eager to show us all what their country had to offer. They showed us the sights (in Tilburg, this consisted of the nightlife), how best to enjoy typically Dutch activities such as the Kermis (funfair) and Carnaval, which is a four day festival of fancy dress, parades and drinking.


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