You’ve made a big decision to go to university, but this decision has led to you having to travel across the seas and move away from your friends and family to study on the course that you want. According to Education.com Belgium is considered a top study destination for its quality education and its affordability. Thomas More University, located in Flanders, has 22,000 students attending, with around 2,000 of them being international students- But what are the challenges they face?
Martine Michiels who works within the university’s International Student Support believes he is busiest at the start of semester, “The first week of semester there are people coming in constantly. “He says. Within the 6 hours a day the office is open, “there will be something like 20 a day.”
Michiels and his team offer a range of all different kinds of practical support from helping people open Belgian bank accounts, housing issues and helping them find good internships. They also have people come in for their mental health, “Students come to us saying they’re not feeling well, very often homesick or they’re dealing with a different culture, and they don’t understand the way we live.” However, he did note that later in the academic year, the number of students popping in to see him drops to around two or three a day.
Thomas More University requests that their students to prove they have a level B2 in English language in order to study there. This means you are fluent and can use clear and detailed speech on a range of subjects, which helps reduce language barriers within the school. However, student support believes this doesn’t help with issues faced outside, “When they go to the shop, they’ll meet people who don’t like to speak English and will continue to speak in Dutch.” says Michiels. This combined with the stress of moving somewhere new can make being an international student even harder.
Jazmin Hulsens, former Spanish and French teacher, who now teaches ‘survival Dutch’ to exchange students, says “I think this course helps to find a little bit of a compass, so they are not lost in the city and the country they’re living in. But I think, because they all know English, they use English more here, and English helps a lot.” But with majority of the population speaking either Dutch or Flemish she believes it important to “create contact with the local people, not really young people, but to have some contact—it’s better to know some basics like greeting and asking how somebody is.”
It’s all very well hearing what the universities say they do for international students, but do they follow through with their support and promises?
Leone Guarniero is a 25-year-old student originally from Italy, who attends The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. He spoke about his firsthand experience with what life is like, and the expectations and struggles he faced as an international student.
“The Academy of Antwerp, the University of Antwerp offer like free Dutch language classes for international students, but they’re like already started and booked up. Also, the Academy offers counselling support. And yeah, they offer many kinds of help and Support if you need.”
Lenone spoke positively about his university support system and seems to see no fault in that, but it was in wider society where he could see some issues could arise.
He was asked what his expectations were of moving overseas.
“I didn’t try to find a job, but I feel like that for a lot of jobs they required to you to be a Dutch speaker.” If students are struggling to learn their new countries’ language, this other added pressure of finance can also become a dominating issue.
When we began this project, we may have assumed that every international student has struggled or had an unpleasant experience with their new life, whether socially, academically or with employability.
But it seems that support systems from universities are crucial to an international student’s success, showing why Thomas More can take in so many international students as they can successfully accommodate to their needs.
Strong support systems from universities are crucial to an international students’ success.
Rose Griffiths and Lola Kingsland-Wain