On 29 and 30 August, we had to undergo a compulsory induction programme by the School of Business and Economics (SBE).
We arrived at the SBE early on the morning of 29 Aug and registered at the counter to collect our UM card, certificate of enrolment and our assigned group number (as we have to split up into smaller groups later for the city tour).
After the coffee reception, we were all herded into a large lecture theatre where a bright orange Maastricht University messenger bag lay awaiting for us on the seats. Inside the bag, there were information about the SBE and IT stuff. The lecture was an introduction to the SBE as well as the Dutch culture (such as the Dutch directness, which I have already experienced).
They later split us up into random groupings based on the number assigned to every student. The orientation group leader then led us on a city and library tour after the sandwich lunch in the garden (FOC by the school), which personally I felt was not useful as I was just walking around following the group and not really taking in the scene. Most of the time, I was chatting to this French girl who seemed equally out of place as I was. Luckily, the tour ended early and I was able to go off and rest in the SBE lounge while I waited for my roomie to be done. We were hoping to set up our ING bank account on the same day but unfortunately the booth at the student services centre was closed by the time we arrived.
The orientation on the 29 Aug was basically an introduction to the Problem-Based Learning system in Maastricht, PBL for short. We underwent a mock PBL session (with the groupings consistent with yesterday’s) which in my opinion was also quite useless. Anyway, I left immediately after the session instead of going to the planned reception at MENSA (the SBE’s canteen) as we were making a beeline for the Jules & You shop near the SBE to buy our second-hand bikes!