Throughout the week, the Mobility and International Cooperation Office (NMCI) and the Student Support Unit (NAPE) are joining forces to welcome the hundreds of international mobility students who have chosen Técnico as their study destination. These students have specific welcoming activities and will have the opportunity to attend the Orientation Week – an initiative that includes Lisbon tours, a welcoming dinner, a peddy-paper at Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra and a surf baptism in Carcavelos, from September 8 and 10, to facilitate interaction between students and with the city where they will be living for the next few months (or years).
Like the national students who enter Técnico for the first time, the international mobility students will be assigned a mentor, who volunteers to help students adapt and integrate into the new university life. The language barrier is quickly overcome once they all speak English and quickly feel more comfortable introducing themselves to the rest of the group and starting to talk as they start their tour at Alameda campus.
Håkon is one of those students. He comes from Trondheim, Norway, and he will be staying one semester to study Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering and says “employers value studying abroad, as it shows that you are willing to learn more about other cultures”. Bauke, a Belgian Bioengineering student, came to do isolated curricular units and seems pleased with the Portuguese culture. “I think everyone is very nice here”, she says smiling and praising the Técnico’s website accessibility for foreign students.
During the welcoming visit, these students collect their student and meal cards, and learn more about the academic insurance, means of transport to access the Técnico campi and clarify other questions, in person, at the NMCI. They also had the opportunity to buy the Orientation Week pack, which will allow them to register for the social activities mentioned above.
Aviya had already done a semester in the Czech Republic within the Erasmus programme. Now, she chose Técnico to do the first year of the Biomedical Engineering double degree programme. The Israeli student says she’s excited about the opportunity to “learn new things”, like Koan, from the Netherlands, who chose to spend a semester studying Chemical Engineering subjects, “in more detail”, at Técnico. Irene, a Mechanical Engineering student from Spain, says “I will be able to learn a lot because Técnico provides its students with excellence in teaching”.
Like these students, many other international mobility students have trusted Técnico to provide them with a quality teaching experience and, in return, they will make the student community a more culturally vibrant and enriching place for everyone over the coming months.
