Some 3,850 intro participants will flood the campus and Nijmegen city centre from this afternoon. Among them a striking number of Sophies and Daans.

With registration at the Radboud Sports Centre, the introduction week officially kicks off today. By the end of the week, the new first-year students will know not only where the Berchmanianum stands, but also who their fellow students — and perhaps their housemates — are.

This year’s introduction has roughly as many participants as last year, the organisers report. Last year there were 3,855 intro participants.

Sophie and Daan

Women rule the week ahead: 60.5 percent of intro participants are women, 39 percent men and just under 0.5 percent non-binary. A further 1,117 mentors are taking part — more than last year, according to the organisers. The youngest participant is 16 years old, the oldest 55: possibly older than most of the lecturers she will meet this week.

Put all the Sophies taking part in the introduction together and you could fill a small lecture hall: with 25 first-years, it is the most popular girls’ name. Call out ‘Roos’, ‘Floor’ or ‘Anna’ across campus this week and twenty women will turn around. For ‘Sarah’ and ‘Julia’ it is one fewer. Among the boys, Daan (20) is the most common name, followed by Thijs (18) and Thomas (14).

75 countries

Participants in the introduction come from 75 different countries. 3,902 (92 percent) of them are Dutch. Also taking part are 73 Germans, 17 Slovaks, 16 Belgians and the same number of Poles, 15 Hungarians and 15 Turks, 14 Chinese, 11 Romanians and 11 Americans, 10 Ukrainians, 9 Lithuanians, 8 Brazilians and 8 Greeks.

Most intro participants (31 percent) will study at the Faculty of Social Sciences, followed by the Nijmegen School of Management (18 percent), the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Science (both 13 percent), the Faculty of Arts (12 percent), the Faculty of Law (11 percent) and, finally, the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies (2 percent).

After registration at the Radboud Sports Centre, the first-years fan out across the city in intro groups to get to know one another. The introduction closes on Saturday with a festival in Park Brakkenstein.