More people than last year will attend the orientation week next week. The number of women and international students has increased. Another new thing is that this year, the end party will be in Doornroosje.

Yesterday, the number of applicants for the orientation week (which starts on Sunday) was 2747. Traditionally, a few hundreds of late applicants will still come forward between now and the start of orientation. The university expects around 3000 soon-to-be first year students during the week. Last year, there were 2871. ‘Of course we hope that as many first years as possible join the activities’, says Rob Vaessen, the orientation week’s coordinator. ‘But organizationally, 3000 is a number we can handle well.’ In 2013, 3312 students joined, and that caused some growing pains here and there. For example, not all mentors could come on the weekend trips.

The higher number of women who come to orientation is notable. 61 percent of the applicants is female – last year that was 57 percent. The most common names under the applicants are Anne and Daan. Because of the new English bachelors, around ten percent of applicants do not have the Dutch nationality. In total, the applicants come from forty different countries.

Doornroosje
This year, the end party will be in Doornroosje. ‘This is a location to be proud of’, says Vaessen. ‘We think that students should have been there during orientation. They will see the Molenstraat anyway. On top of that, Doornroosje offers more space to book music acts.’

Radboud Downtown, the part of the programme that has not been too popular in the past years, will also be different. The first years and around five hundred exchange students will find their way through the city with a GPS game.