Starting this year, international students and staff are offered free Dutch classes on campus. They pay quite a big amount at the start, but get it back once they have attended 80 percent of all classes.

‘Feel at home in the Netherlands’ and ‘Get familiar with the Dutch language and culture’ says the Radboud in’to Languages website in an overview of the Social Dutch course. International students have been asking for free Dutch classes for a while now. They want to be able to talk to Dutch students during breaks and get by in the corner shop. The free course has been launched now. For Radboud students ánd staff, but under one condition. Students are asked to pay a course fee of 137,50 euro and staff pay 295 euro upon enrollment at the reception desk. After completion of the course participants can claim a full refund of the course fee. To qualify for this refund, the student must have attended 80% of classes.

Motivated

Cat Ho (19) from Vietnam and her friend Jenny Alfaro (18) from Finland, both soon-to-be Psychology students, are enthusiastic about the Social Dutch course. ‘I really want to take the course’, says Ho. ‘Especially now that I will live in the Netherlands, I think that I will need Dutch. The course will therefore be very useful. Paying the money in advance doesn’t have any influence on that.’ ‘I do think it’s a lot of money’, Alfaro adds, ‘but I think that I’m motivated enough to do at least 80% of the course to get it back.’

Hannah Thomson (20) from the United States is not sure about taking the course yet. ‘I would first like to figure out how well I will manage my regular university classes, before taking an additional course’, says the Biology-student. ‘The money you would have to spend in advance would however push me towards not taking it. I would be worried to get sick during the course and because of that not being able to attend 80% of the classes and losing a large sum of money.’