Become a buddy for new international students

Source: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/study/student-life/civic-engagement-and-volunteering/become-buddy-new-international-students Parent: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/

Are you excited about connecting with students from around the world and helping them feel at home in Maastricht? As a buddy in our International Student Ambassador Programme (ISAP), you’ll have the chance to guide new students through their journey, offering support as they adjust to a new culture and environment.

Are you an international student looking for information on how to sign up for a buddy? Visit our page Buddy programme for new international students.

Why become an international student ambassador?

As an ambassador, you'll connect with new students from diverse cultures, serving as their primary point of contact for any questions. This role promises significant personal growth and comes with the following benefits, as you will: 

• connect and exchange experiences with students from different cultures and backgrounds, developing significant cross-cultural skills,
• receive professional coaching in communication, intercultural awareness and student psychology,
• be awarded an official certificate signed by the Maastricht University Executive Board, which can serve as proof of participation for potential employers,
• have many opportunities to participate in fun and exciting events at no cost to you,
• qualify to apply for an Edubadge Global Citizenship.

Time commitment

vThe ISAP buddy programme runs from the end of August to the end of March. It is divided into three blocks, each spanning five weeks. You will have a different group of newcomers in each block:  

• first block: end of August to end of September
• second block: November to December
• third block: February to March

Ambassadors need to be available for all three blocks.

Your duties

As an ambassador, you will assist the international students assigned to you in each block by doing the following: 

• Foster a safe feeling of belonging to the ISAP community, making it easier for friendships to be formed within your group.
• Share your experiences and answer questions they may have about studying at UM and living in Maastricht.
• Communicate with them before they arrive in the Netherlands. You will most likely be their first familiar face upon arrival.
• Make them feel welcome into Maastricht. Remember how lonely it can feel?
• Help them find their way in and around the university.
• Introduce them to Dutch culture and traditions.
• Attend the ISAP Welcome Event with them for each block as well as attend at least one or two ISAP activities for each block.
• Organise at least one social gathering for your group for each block, separate from the ISAP-organised activities for all of the groups.

How to apply

Applications for academic year 2025-2026 are now closed. 

Have a look at what being an ISAP ambassador/buddy looks like and hope you will feel excited to join our community. \  \ Interested in reading testimonials? Head to our Instagram and have a look at the experiences of our former ambassadors. If you have questions before applying also feel free to reach out to us at info-isap@maastrichtuniversity.nl

If you’re interested in joining the ISAP Community as an ambassador for academic year 2026-2027, applications will open in April 2026.

Yutaro – FASOS

ISAP is a fantastic international community. You can meet so many people from all over the world and they are all internationals and Dutch students as well. So you can get in touch with so many people. That’s why I would say it’s fantastic! When I came to the Netherlands I struggled with making friends at that time, so if you want to make friends, ISAP is the best community ever.

Christi - Law

ISAP is engaging, life changing and lots of fun. A lot of my friends that I speak to on the daily come from ISAP, so I would really recommend it to newly incoming students. There are fun events as well!

Lara – FASOS

As an ambassador I got to meet a lot of really cool people, that I would not have gotten to know otherwise, and then having the chance to actually do stuff with them outside of ISAP as well. So, we met up and we talked, it was really nice and I think I made some very good friendships out of this as well.