Orientation Days for Incoming Students

From 6 to 11 September, the Orientation Days for incoming students could be finally held on site again — at the new Campus St. Pölten. A total of 37 students started their exchange semester at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences last week. The current easing of restrictions allowed for an orientation week with a diverse programme to facilitate the students’ onboarding process at the UAS and their integration in St. Pölten.

Orientation week with a diverse programme

On the first day, the new semester was kicked off in a festive atmosphere with the traditional welcome address and the subsequent “Heurigenbuffet”. Onboarding workshops, a campus tour, and visits to the Campus Radio and the library gave the students the chance to get to know the UAS.

There was plenty of time for networking during a teambuilding evening, a bowling event and a morning yoga session on campus. The incoming students explored the city of St. Pölten together with the International Student Network (ISN) at a guided tour of the city and visited the city museum and the St. Pölten Festival Hall. On Saturday, the students went on a day trip to Vienna together.

Morning yoga | Copyright: St. Pölten UAS

Incomings from 21 partner universities

The incoming students of winter semester 2021/22 come from 21 partner universities in Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Romania, the Czech Republic, Italy, Finland and Norway. Among this semester’s exchange students, there are also two students from the E³UDRES² partner Leuven-Limburg. Just as last year, the iLab enjoys great popularity among this semester’s incoming students. After a break of one semester due to COVID-19, the EPS will be able to welcome Erasmus students once again with a total of five international participants in the upcoming project semester.

A particularly high number of students will spend their exchange semester at the Department of Digital Business & Innovation with record registration numbers for the “Spotlight on Digital Business” module. At the Department of Computer Science and Security, the Erasmus students signed up for the ICT module and courses of the bachelor degree programme IT Security, whereas the bachelor degree programme Creative Computing at the Department of Media and Digital Technologies will have its first incoming student since the launch of the study programme.

At the department of Social Sciences, a successful cooperation between the study programme Social Work and a local partner organisation will enable already the third student of the University College Leuven-Limburg to complete an Erasmus internship in St. Pölten, thereby making an important contribution to the strengthening the collaboration within the European University Alliance E³UDRES².

Exchange with buddies

All Erasmus students were allocated buddies — student volunteers of the St. Pölten UAS — who are committed to supporting them during their stay in St. Pölten. During the semester, the buddies and the ISN organise activities for the Erasmus students and the other buddies to enable incoming students to participate in Austrian student life and St. Pölten UAS students to engage in international exchange at their home university.