Foreign Student

1
Foreign Student Staff Arrival
La Sapienza University Seminar, June 18 2008

• Dr Robert Coelen , Vice-President International

2
Motives

• Determine to a significant extent
• The mix of activities that take place
• The rate at which aspects of internationalisation
  develop, priority setting
• Operate at different levels
• Institutional level (very powerful)
• Consortium level (less powerful, accommodating,
  similarity of institutes, e.g. Universitas21,
  LERU)
• National level (powerful, extent of dependency)
• Supranational level (e.g. EU, FP7, LLL)

3
First impressions....
4
Students as customers ?

• Education as a societal good ?
• Education as a commodity ?
• Large variation
• No tuition fees
• Very high tuition fees, with brand value cost
• Variation within one country, state vs. Private
• The product students buy
• Not a degree
• A service that allows them to study for a degree
• Education is an experience good

5
Staff

• The most valuable resource we have.....
• Often used phrase
• Do staff feel valued ?
• What is their off-shore experience with you like
  ?
• What happens on arrival ?
• What is the consistency of treatment ?
• When do you let go ?

6
The Global Race for Talent

• In search of excellent staff ?
• In search of excellent students ?
• There are an increasing number of disciplines
  that find it hard to recruit excellent students

7
Some universities
8
Leiden University

• Universitys Visitor Centre
• Open from 8am to 8 pm, 5 days, but more when
  students arrive
• Located in the Central Station
• Well sign-posted
• A place for new students and staff to go to when
  they arrive at any time
• Part of the normal arrival process during the
  intake period
• 1 fte centre manager, 1fte student assistants
• Hotel bookings, taxi bookings, congress
  assistance
• Shop with university souvenirs

9
Relationship between city and university

• Leiden is a city community of about 120,000
  people
• Impact of the University on the city is high
• Relationship between city and university is good
• Leiden has other educational institutes and a
  significant Science Park
• Nearby (Noordwijk) is the seat of the ESA
• Annual influx of about 1600 foreign employees,
  mostly related to knowledge industry

10
A new Visitor Centre

• Leiden University initiated talks about a new
  visitors centre
• Leiden Universitys Visitor Centre
• Tourist Information Centre
• Leiden City Council Information Centre
• Leiden University Medical Centre
• Bioscience Park

11
A new concept being realised

• Larger centre, better opening hours
• Located 100m from railway station
• Extremely visible
• Wide frontage, open architecture
• 7m video screen ( 1,000,000 sponsored)
• Staff from several areas brought together
• Mutual assistance
• University continues to contribute, does not
  reduce work time available for university will
  improve throughput at peak times

12
Leiden Visitors Centre

• Operational 15 October 2008
• Latest proposal
• Expat counter
• Front office and face for newly arrived staff
• To be supported by an expert back-office
• Complex bureaucratic procedures, registration,
  drivers license, place to live, etc
• Visa, taxation, pension, education for children
• SLA arrangement with other employers

13
Web interface

• Visitors centre must be supported by web
  interface
• Process of arrival also greatly facilitated by
  web interface and associated technologies

14
The Travel Buddy Podcast
15
First Orientation
16
Acculturisation

• The process by which foreign individuals become
  accustomed to the culture in which they find
  themselves
• Accelerate through explicit instruction and
  information
• Must work from understanding the issues brought
  on by the visiting cultures
• Consider plagiarism, silence in discussion
  groups, grade inflation

17
a definition of internationalisation

• For higher education
• Is a face-to-face business in which we organise
  students from different cultures to come together
  to ensure that when they meet again as graduates
  they are able to communicate with one another and
  strive to further global peace and understanding