By Rikke Carlsen
rc@adm.au.dk
They’re here! The international students. August is the month when the new exchange students arrive, and they come from all over the world – all the way from Asia to America. No fewer than 846 international students will be arriving at Aarhus University this month.
One of the new arrivals is Nam Nguyen, who is going to study bioinformatics this year. He’s half French and half Vietnamese. Before leaving home he found out a few things about Denmark and says there were many reasons for choosing Århus. One of the main reasons was that he heard that the Danes were regarded as the happiest people in the world.
"Lots of my friends have asked me why I chose Denmark instead of the UK, Italy or Spain. But I wanted to see something completely different. And Denmark has some great courses taught in English," he explains.
Like most of his fellow exchange students, Nam Nguyen looks forward to finding out whether the time he spends at Aarhus University lives up to his expectations.
International coordinator Charlotte Skov Kristensen is delighted to see so many new faces. "The exchange students give an extra boost to Aarhus University – which wants to be an international university, and which is already well on the way to becoming one. They also add a new perspective for the Danish students and probably make the Danes more motivated for going abroad themselves," she says.
In August there are a number of activities for exchange students, including “Destination DK”, which is an intensive Danish course run by Aarhus University in collaboration with Lærdansk Århus.
There are also two separate introductory weeks giving the students information about the university and city.
