Vibrant mix of dance, food and cultural exchange at International Day
On Wednesday, the annual event International Day took place on campus. Students from all over the world shared their cultures with other students and staff. There were desserts, snacks, dancing, singing and a lot of laughter.
“International Day highlights the strong internationalisation that takes place at Halmstad University every day. Both students and staff have great opportunities to collaborate with people from all over the world.”
Simon Holmesson, Director of International Relations
International Day has been a tradition at Halmstad University for many years and is an appreciated event, both by students and staff. Just like previous years there was a large fair and several student performances.
Mix of participants
International students, national students and exchange students participated in this year’s event. Some represented their country, some their culture and some their home university. Two of the participating students were Nico Knecht and Pablo Rouanet.
“My home university encouraged me to participate today. I’m here with some friends from my home university, as well as friends I met here. We thought it would be fun to join, and it really is!”, said Nico Knecht, exchange student from Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe in Germany.
Pablo Rouanet, exchange student from Université de Limoges in France agreed:
“There are a lot of cool parts to being an exchange student. The courses are really interesting, and we can also discover a new country. It is really interesting to discover people and places like Sri Lanka and people from Africa, like we do today.”
At this year’s International Day there were also Erasmus ambassadors, Swedish students who have been on exchange, present to answer questions and inspire students to go abroad. The Student Healthcare Centre participated, as well as representatives from Europa Direkt.
At the fair visitors were able to taste traditional snacks. For example fish cutlets from Sri Lanka, snowflake crisp from China, dates from the Middle East and tapas from Spain. Several of the participating students also performed for the audience by dancing and singing.
Internationalisation important
Halmstad University has in the past years worked a lot with internationalisation. Director of International Relations, Simon Holmesson, spoke of its importance when visiting International Day:
“International Day highlights the strong internationalisation that takes place at Halmstad University every day. Both students and staff have great opportunities to collaborate with people from all over the world, providing insights and perspectives that strengthen our education and research.”
Saga Mattson, Student Union Vice President with responsibility for internationalisation, and Projekt Leader for International Day, also highlighted the importance of bringing in international perspectives into education.
“International Day is an opportunity to talk about international exchanges and to learn about different cultures. It is important that students feel they can express themselves and participate in international contexts.”
