The buddies will help you out

Where do I get my keys? How do I pay for the bus? When arriving in a new country it can be hard to figure out how everything works. To help new international students out, Uppsala Student Union have designed a Buddy Programme, where experienced Uppsala University students becomes ”buddies” with new international students.

– The main aim of the buddy Programme is to introduce new international students and help them settle down properly. When you come to a new country, you get out of your comfort zone. The buddies can help their students by telling them where to go, how to get their keys or by introducing them to places on campus, says Pooja Vijaygopal, buddy coordinator.

There are also many ever day situations where a buddy can be helpful. When grocery shopping for example.

– What’s the difference between Loka and water or between ”filmjölk”, sour milk and ”mjölk”, regular milk? I had to use google translate all the time Many students don’t even know that it’s okay to drink water from the tap.

When an international student has been admitted to a programme or a course it is recommended that he or she applies for a buddy. Then it is Pooja Vijaygopal’s job to put the student in contact with an experienced student. She tries to make the match as good as possible. The aim of the Buddy Programme is not only to make new students comfortable in Sweden, but also to encourage social and cultural exchange between buddy and student.

– The matching process is tricky. I usually match a master student, with a senior master student, if the student wan’t it that way. But not from the same department, because I want them to be able to talk about other stuff than their professors and courses. It’s much more interesting when they talk about their social culture, or perhaps their drinking culture in their respective countries.

Pooja Vijaygopal had to use variuos kinds of forums on social media to recruit enough buddies. This fall semester 461 students have registered for the Buddy Programme. The number of buddys where fewer, only 154. But since many of them are quite experienced (have been buddys for several semesters), they took on more than the minimum amount of two students.

Pooja Vijaygopal started working as a buddy coordinator in August. She recently had a mid term evaluation, asking the students if their buddies were helpful. Afterwards she also had a meeting with all the buddies to make sure that they did their part. This evaluation was done by Pooja Vijaygopals initative, to make sure that every new student felt satisfied.

– I had a buddy when I came here, but he didn’t help. I wanted to avoid that situation. The buddies get a certificate after finishing their voluntary work. I want them to earn it, not just do it for the sake of getting the certificate.

Pooja Vijaygopal’s work ends in October, but the Buddy Programme will continue next semester. According to her, new buddies are always needed. nbsp; nbsp;

– You don’t have to be Swedish to be a buddy. Around 30 percent of the buddies this semester were international students. Hence we would like to se more participation from international students from different departments of Uppsala University.

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