Dennis Baas, strategic advisor international marketing at TU/e, provided the international students with the basic knowledge about their studies and Eindhoven during a presentation in Teams. There were nearly 500 participants in the virtual lecture hall, all of whom were busy posting their questions in the chat. Many of these questions related to housing. TU/e stressed that it’s important to properly arrange your housing situation before you travel to Eindhoven, and that the housing market in the Netherlands is overheated. Students without a student room were advised to book a hotel room or a temporary accommodation via Airbnb. Students wondered whether TU/e also offers housing, but this is not the case. The university does however have contacts with housing corporations and offers students tips when accommodations become available. But Baas warned them not to wait for that, because demand exceeds supply. Students who decided to rent an unfurnished apartment were advised to also book a hotel room during the first weeks in case they are required to go into quarantine because of the situation in their country of origin. You can’t furnish an empty apartment while in quarantine.

Alternatives outside Eindhoven

The housing challenge is a nationwide problem, according to director of Education and Student Affairs (ESA) Patrick Groothuis. “The student housing covenant that was signed recently by parties in Eindhoven, including TU/e, needs to lead to a significant production of 2840 extra housing units and rooms for students by 2028, which would somewhat normalize the pressure. If all goes according to plan, we will have a student village on our campus in mid-2023 with 735 extra units constructed by Vestide. In the short term however, we’re dealing with the current (increased) pressure on the housing market. We also see a significant increase in the number of international students who want to come to Eindhoven for the coming academic year. The short-term impact is that finding accommodation has become even more difficult. TU/e has just under 400 rooms available for all first-year and exchange students. Many students usually find a suitable accommodation on their own. And students can of course also choose to look for accommodation outside Eindhoven,” Groothuis says.

Looking for fellow countrymen

Apart from housing, many of the questions raised during the chat also dealt with WhatsApp groups for programs where people can come into contact with one another. Participants were also busy trying to determine, sometimes in their native tongues, whether there were other Bulgarians, Spaniards and Chinese present in the chat. At the end of the presentation, various TU/e employees went over the chat and tried to answer the questions from the internationals to the best of their abilities with their own expertise. Many questions dealt with practical issues involving paperwork: how do you open a bank account? Is there a bank that offers an account to underage students? (Yes, ABN AMRO). How do I get a citizen service number? (When you register with your municipality). And do EU students need Dutch health insurance when they already have an EU insurance card? Yes, says Johanna Mavromichalis, who works at the International Office. The insurance card doesn’t cover all costs, only emergency care. It doesn’t cover follow-up care. That’s why it would be wise to take out a health insurance that also covers additional care. Students can do so via partner AON. The issue of vaccination was also addressed: this is free of charge for all citizens, and students can still get vaccinated if they didn’t already get vaccinated in their country of origin.

Intro

The students also wanted to know more about the Intro, but the university wasn’t able to provide any information at this point, unfortunately. Students were advised to download the Intro app and to keep an eye on it. Did you miss the webinar but do you still have questions? You can ask them via email or WhatsApp: 0641683406.