A warm welcome for RU‘s international students
Last week RU welcomed 184 international students, both exchange students and degree-seeking students. The International Office of RU had orientation for the students 16th-18th of August.
The first day of orientation started with breakfast and a reception with a welcome from RU‘s president and representatives from the International Office.
Orientation game in the city center and barbecue
Then the International Office, together with a group of RU mentors, ran a presentation program where the students attended department presentations, crash courses in Icelandic, presentations from student counselling and got good advice on green living in Iceland from the Environtment Agency of Iceland.
The students also played an orientation game in Reykjavík's city center and attended a grill party at RU that was hosted for all the students starting their studies this fall.
RU mentors are students at RU. Their participation during orientation for international students is invaluable and an important part of welcoming the students to RU. The role of mentors is, among other things, to promote inclusion of new students who come from abroad. 
The group in numbers
The 157 exchange students this fall come from 18 countries. Most of them come from Germany, France and Italy and there is a fairly even division between undergraduate and graduate students.
In addition to the exchange students 27 international students started their graduate studies. 15 of them started their studies at the Iceland School of Energy this summer.
Exchange students:
Austria 3
USA 7
Denmark 14
Finland 6
France 18
The Netherlands 9
Italy 18
Jordan 1
Norway 1
Poland 1
Slovenia 1
Spain 8
Switzerland 2
Sweden 3
Taiwan 1
Czech Republic 4
Germany 40
Graduate international students:
China 3
India 2
Australia 1
Finland 2
USA 7
UK 1
Turkey 1
The State of Palestine 1
Peru 1
Pakistan 1
Romania 3
El Salvador 1
Kenya 1
Iran 1
France 1
