After the initial arrival to Leeuwarden, there are a number of forms and applications to be taken care of in the process of settling down. In other words, doing the administration we all love... This includes things such as registering to the municipality or applying for certain financial benefits. This can all feel quite overwhelming and many new students struggle with it. For the internationals this is mainly because most of the paperwork and websites are in Dutch. But the SIS committee is here to help and make the transition to Leeuwarden as smooth as possible for everyone; Dutch and non-Dutch, new and old students, so basically everyone! We are doing our best to provide new students help with translating forms, advise on how to fill in certain forms and to answer any question students might have. We are there during the introduction week to guide new students through the most important steps. However, some might already need to know a few things before the introduction week, or even before coming to Leeuwarden. Since this is really dependent on everyone’s situation, it is hard to provide guidelines for this. But, the university already provides some checklists for new students, so also keep an eye out for those! Remember that you are always welcome to send us an email if there is something you would like to know or ask, or think something is unclear and need assistance. If we cannot help, we will do our best to find someone who can.

At the moment, the SIS committee is busy making tutorial videos on how to apply for housing allowance and on how to apply for exemption (kwijtschelding) for certain taxes. When we have finished these videos, students will be given access to them, so they can use them for their own benefit. 

This committee is fairly new and we are just starting to shape our role in the student community. Our goal is to help others by sharing our own experiences. We do this through meeting up with our fun team and discuss how far along our running projects are and what new ideas there are! We saw, together with other students, a need for assistance with these official documents. A lot of students were missing out on exemptions for payments or missing important deadlines due to either trouble with the Dutch language, the complex language used in the documents or certain, unclear rules. But now we are here to help!

The SIS committee is part of the Study Association Nobis Cura Futuri of Campus Fryslan. Our committee is a group of students, so this is peer to peer help and support. Students who are part of our community can also join our committee and help others out! The SIS committee would love to have your input, and especially the non-European students who have another view on certain issues they faced whilst applying for all the documents are welcome! However, some Dutch people are always needed to help with translating all the documents. All in all, everyone is welcome to join this committee! Let's try to make administration as easy as possible for everyone!