Introduction

All universities organize orientation days for newcomers, although these tend to go by different names in different places. The Tilburg orientation days, which used to be called just “introduction” and were then called “TIK week,” have been renamed [TOP week] since 2012. This orientation period serves to introduce all students to their programs, to the University and to the town in an organized fashion.

Not compulsory, almost everyone there

Until the seventies, the introduction was a mostly program-oriented affair, a couple of days to guide students around the programs of their choice by means of introductions, brochures and leaflets. It was not compulsory, but no-show was the exception. This has not changed much in the present day: participation in TOP week is recommended but it is not compulsory. Nevertheless, with 3,000 students in 2017, freshmen participation is near total. There are additional and separate introductions for (international or pre-) Master’s students, for language reasons and because programs may have different commencement dates.

From 1978 onwards, the Tilburg Introduction Committee (TIK) prolonged the introduction period from three to five days. The program was thoroughly revised, refocusing on Tilburg as the students’ new living environment. In the 1986 TIK week, for instance, 700 university and 250 higher professional students were introduced to the worlds of higher education and student life in Tilburg. The program kicked off on Wednesday with a word of welcome by the Executive board and then proceeded with an information market with stalls and presentations, Just Do It Day, gigs, parties and ‒ celebrated at the time ‒ Pendragon Night, blending sports and revelry. The Sunday was then set aside for contemplation with the involvement of the Maranatha student church. TIK week was funded by the University, Fontys, the local council, businesses and local pubs and clubs.

Full service event

After 1990, first-year orientation turned into full-service one-week event, including accommodation, meals and mentors to guide groups of about fifteen fellow students around. This is how more than 3,000 students took part in the 2017 TOP week, which also included their being introduced to student associations, of which Tilburg has four: TSC Sint Olof, Plato, TSR Vidar and I*ESN - with mainly students from abroad. . These associations then stage their own introductions, with Olof and Vidar engaging in hazing rituals, involving activities that freshmen and -women (also called rookies or novices) have to endure before their official initiation into the fraternity. Hazing often involves forms of submission, possibly by undergoing humiliations, as in getting your head shaved, which is now fairly obsolete. In university towns, there has been considerable debate about the very phenomenon of hazing and its apparent ethos, particularly if it involves excesses, as it did in Groningen in 2016 when a young person suffered brain injury in the Vindicat hazing procedures. To the best of our knowledge, the Tilburg associations were never discredited for hazing incidents.

Students in the 1997 TIK week