- Intro
- 20/08/2025
Vladivostok? New students are coming from all over the world
That the TU/e community represents dozens of different nationalities is well known. But where exactly are the new students coming from? Time for a small investigation. Cursor set up a world map on campus and asked the Intro participants: Pin down your hometown.
Lagos, Tehran, Hanoi, Surabaya, Perth, Lima, Dallas, Vladivostok, and even Novaya Zemlya. The new students truly come from every corner of the globe. Dutch is rarely heard on campus this week. What stands out right away is how Europe is dotted with pins, spreading outward across the world.
A curious group of Intro students steps closer. They each stick a pin into Turkey. A few of them already know each other; the rest only just met. Their reasons for coming to Eindhoven vary. One student says she was inspired by someone who had gone before her. Another has family in the Netherlands. The only Romanian in the group explains that Dutch universities are much better than higher education in his home country.
Fellow countrymen
That sentiment is echoed by David-Ioan Popescu from Romania. “The logistics, the opportunities, the research groups—everything here is so up-to-date.” He was encouraged to study in the Netherlands by friends, and he’s not the only one. “Everywhere I go on campus, I meet fellow Romanians. There’s even one in my Intro group.” He’s surprised, since he thought he was the only one making the journey from Romania to Eindhoven. A Bulgarian student reacts with similar amazement when he notices a pin already stuck in Sofia, the capital of his home country.
Not every student has an immediate answer when asked where they come from. Lorraine Gruz presses her finger against her cheek and rolls her eyes upward, thinking hard about where to place her pin. “I’m having an identity crisis,” she says with a laugh. “I’m both French and Canadian through my parents, but I was born and raised in Germany. I’ve lived in Canada with my father, and I also have family in France.” Her explanation doesn’t exactly make the decision easier. Eventually, she chooses Germany.
Rain
Angie Ying also finds it tricky to point to a single home country. “I was born in Hungary, but when I was two, I moved back to China, where my grandmother took care of me because my mother couldn’t at the time. After a few years, I returned to Hungary,” says the first-year Electrical Engineering student.
When asked why she chose the Netherlands, she doesn’t hesitate for a second: “Because of the rainy weather!” she says enthusiastically. “I love rain—the smell, the sound, everything about it. It’s so refreshing.” She admits that after a few years she might get used to it and find it less special, but for now she’s thoroughly enjoying life here.
A sustainable future
Janelle Dmello traveled eight hours by plane from India. That’s not so bad, she realizes, when she sees on the map how far the distance to the Netherlands really is. She is about to start her studies in Chemical Engineering & Chemistry, because she loves math and physics. She already has a clear goal: “I want to become an excellent engineer and help create a sustainable future.”
The ambitious 18-year-old is here completely on her own, for the very first time. Quite exciting, she admits. But above all, she’s looking forward to meeting new people and discovering Dutch culture. Dmello already knows she would like to stay in the Netherlands after graduation, most likely in the Eindhoven region. “There are so many opportunities here in my field.”
This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.
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