Master’s Introduction Day at SBE

Wednesday, 31^st August 2011 – University – permalink

Today is the last day of August and my first official day at School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University. Let's talk about how was my first impression of the Faculty, PBL system and the people I met today.

Slide from welcoming presentation, source: my picture

First I have to mention that I am an exchange student, but quite an active one. I took part at , which is more for regular students and also today – it's introduction prepared for regular master students, as will be tomorrow But I've already signed in and it's better to have more information and see the school from different points of view, don't you think?

The whole day was great, ideal introduction to the university and also to the city. Great thing is, that you are the whole day in a small group where are also your future fellow students – ideal for getting know each other a bit. You get the information about the most important things and also how to get along. If you still have any problems with the student card, missing documents or are you just not sure about something and do not know where to ask, than Introduction day will help you! Well, I had a great tutor so I can only give a very positive feedback and I hope that also other students had the same experience.

Introduction days at Maastricht University

Introduction day is different for master, bachelor and exchange students. How to register and more actual information can be found on official sources like on facebook page of SBE Introduction days or by visiting the official Introduction Days page at UM website. Regular students do need to register as this is only for volunteers but highly recommended.

SBE Introduction Day – Programme

Master's introduction day at School of business end economics

Our group by SBE Introduction days, Source: www.unimaas.nl

I printed out the e-mail they send to us with my group number, so I just passed the "registration" and went for a cup of tee. Group number was very important so that is the reason why the registration desk was providing people with their group numbers. I finished my tee and continued to the aula for the opening lecture. I look around and didn't saw anyone familiar, so I just sat near some people and we talked a bit. It's a pity that I didn't get to know more people from SBE during INKOM.

Opening lecture was interesting as well the people who presented the Maastricht university. They pointed out that for international school like this, English is the official language even if there are some classes where all students and tutor are German speakers. Further explanation followed, that there are a lot of German people here – around 60%. Sitting there among master students who just started and will be finished in one year is a bit strange. But I didn't have enough time for secondary thoughts as I had to pay attention to the presentation not to miss something important.

Getting to know University Maastricht

After the presentation we started to leave the aula according to our group numbers. When we got out, there were a lot of tutors with numbers waiting for their group member to come. Mine group was number 5 – Infonomics students (Julian and Sijing alias Cece) and also two people from Information management (Gergely and ? damn, how could I forget her name so fast?). We were only group of five people – one guy was missing. Hm, so there are only 3 Infonomics students? Interesting. Well, there will be probably more, because Maastricht university has also Infonomics bachelor programme and for such students it does not make much sense to visit Introduction day as they already know the school and the city. But they could have gotten a free coffee and lunch

We went into one of the tutorial rooms where we introduced ourselves to others and to our gorgeous tutor – Julie Schreinemacher After a short introduction we also discussed the plan for today and we got coins for lunch and free drink in the city. Nice Julie guided us though the university presentation and instructed us into details how to use school systems like My Portal, EleUM and official university WebMail. Especially EleUM is really needed as all the study materials are there. We also got a chance to register for library training. I signed as I was interested what it would be. We decided to leave for lunch in Mensa a bit sooner, but obviously most other group did that as well – some kinds of sandwiches were already gone. Never mind, I took chicken one We also had a chocolate bar, a piece of fruit and a small juice inside the lunch package.

After the refreshment we moved to Ad Fundum for Information fair. Well, nothing new there as every organization there was already presented during INKOM, so we took the free cake and coffee Free food again We left the building to see the Student service centre (SSC) where a lot of students were waiting to get their student cards. As we saw all the important of SBE and around, time to explore the city!

Drink in Maastricht

As we agreed, we started in pub with a drink and then we will move further to the city. We used our coins for a free drink (beer) in one of the bars in the famous Platielstraat next to Vrijthof. We discussed why we came to Maastricht and also PBL and the role of a tutor in a class. I think that some subjects needs to be tough and explained by the teacher during lectures that self-reading and discussion is not that effective. This opinion was obviously not of others. Hm, well, than why the hell you go to school? Just to get a paper? If so, why also the woman who really opposed me (in her forties with a long working experience). I didn't understand that. There are some topics where you try to learn by solving case and these cases do not have only one solution. I agree than for that learning by discussion is fine. On the other hand I really do not know how this would help me when I had Mathematics courses. I needed the lectures so the proofs were shown and explained to me and than I could discuss them with others. But the first step had to be done in the lectures, therefore I also visited them even if I it was not obligatory. It may also be determined by different system end expectations – I expect from the tutor to guide me and show me what is important to know. If he only watches the discussion that is going on and interrupts it only if it's going to far from the topic, than the tutor doesn't pass his knowledge. And as side-effect all students wasted their time with unusable crap, because they focused on something really unimportant but got to know after they prepared it. If you sum this all up, than you get a huge amount of wasted resources. That's strange. I will see if I am to critical now or not.

We walked to Markt and said goodbye to each other and separated our ways. I was shown the municipality where I should register (well, as Erasmus for one semester I do not need to). I returned to school to use the computers as I had nothing to do until the evening and BBQ. Also more people wanted to meet in front of SBE to go there together as they didn't know where it was.

BBQ and end of the day

BBQ was great – good food and one free drink. I met there new people, this time everybody from SBE so not as during INKOM. I hoped that I will find somebody from the Czech Republic, which would be awesome, but obviously I am the only Czech speaking master student at SBE. Well, there is also my friend Zuzka on Erasmus exchange and Rado is finishing his master here at SBE and there will definitely be some exchange students at other faculties. Never mind, I may get lucky later on. Most of the people I met study International Business (IB), but I also got to know a few people from Economics studies. I wonder who I will also see later at school.

Later in the evening I realized that I got so busy that I didn't make any pictures! At least some pictures from the Introduction day at SBE at Maastricht University are on-line on Facebook. Master Introduction Day September 2011. I really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to next Introduction day – for exchange students at SBE