ESN Sections Activities

ESN's main objective is to ensure that every student coming for an exchange at a university where an ESN section is present is warmly welcomed, receives all the information he needs and gets rapidly involved in the local student life. To achieve this goal, ESN sections organise a number of activities and provide different kinds of services (which can vary from one section to another):

Departure and arrival

The first days of a stay abroad generally are the ones when students encounter the most difficulties. Getting information and establishing contact in advance can avoid many problems. The local ESN sections are there to provide those information and contact persons even before you leave.

Before you leave...

If you need some information that the official mobility desk hasn't or can't provide, or if you want to establish a first contact, you can get in touch with the ESN section at the destination university. If there is none, contact the National Board. If you get in contact early enough, your host ESN section may be able to organise your transfer from the airport and help directly with initial problems (lodging, public transportation, city orientation, registration, etc.)

After arriving...

Contact your local ESN section as soon as possible: ESN members can help you out if you have linguistical, administrative or any other kind of problems.

Buddy program

A mentor or buddy is a local student who, on a voluntary basis, agrees to help the exchange student through the first few weeks of their stay in the new country. In general they will help the exchange students with practical matters, such as registration with the authorities, advice on where to shop and an introduction to university premises. The extent of the relationship beyond this is determined individually, but many buddies become real friends.

How to get a buddy?

Procedures vary from section to section: some will provide you automatically with one, others will request you to ask for one several weeks in advance. Some sections do not provide buddies. Check out sections' or mobility desks' websites for more information.

Information events

During the first week of semester some ESN sections provide information events. They usually include orientation sessions organised by the mobility desk or/and the ESN section; during these sessions students are informed about university procedures, official formalities and the events planned for them during the semester. In addition, the orientation week often includes city tours, pub-crawls, one or several welcome events (official and non-official ones), guided tours of the campus, etc. The information events offers the best possibilities to get to know the city, the university, and most importantly, to meet other exchange as well as local students. Check out the sections' websites for further information. You may also be informed about these events directly by the mobility desk of your host university.

Welcome party

Welcome parties, which take place during the first weeks of the semester, are usually the first occasion for new exchange students to meet each other in a laid-back atmosphere and get involved in local student life for real. Local students will often get involved, thereby providing opportunities for exchange students to meet them and start testing their language abilities. Information about welcome parties can be found on sections' websites and are usually advertised by the mobility desk and all over campus. In some countries you may be given the opportunity to visit such parties in other cities.

Trips, Excursions & Cultural activities

Most ESN sections organise trips and excursions to other cities, cultural hotspots or natural landmarks. Moreover, sports activities, such as biking tours or skiing excursions or even ski week-ends are organised by many sections. Costs are usually kept to minimum. Events are organised all year round, varying depending on season, climate, and location. ESN sections also try to highlight local cultural or folkloric events specific to a city or a region. Information about trips, excursions and other events organised during semester by ESN sections can be found on their individual websites, or on the national website.

Tandems

Some ESN sections can provide tandem language exchange. This is a language exchange between an exchange student and a local student. Local students enroll for a specific language they want to improve or practice, and they are then matched with interested exchange students who want to improve their knowledge of the local language and speak the language requested by the local student. To participate in a tandem, you should contact your local ESN sections once you arrive in your destination country.