Study Association

A study association is an organization run by a team of students from the respective bachelor’s and master’s degree programme(s). The FSE study associations organize many activities for students, including introductory camps and monthly “borrels” (informal social gatherings, often with drinks), but also more serious events such as company visits or conferences. Study associations differ from the general student associations where the degree programme is irrelevant. And study associations do not have hazing rituals.

Dear Prospective Chemistry or Chemical Engineering Student!

First and foremost, we, as the Board of De Chemische Binding (also known as ‘De CB’) would like to congratulate you on choosing one of the best degree programmes, Chemistry or Chemical Engineering! We are the study association for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering students at the University of Groningen. Our main purpose is to support and represent you as Chemistry or Chemical Engineering student. We do this by organizing study support, career events, social events and having regular contact with the faculty so we can keep them up to date on how you are doing.

In short, we are a great place to hangout, study and party with your fellow Chem. and Chem. Eng. students. While also giving you the opportunity to come in contact with interesting companies and professors/researchers. Make sure to sign up here, so you can take advantage of all of the great perks we offer.

Introduction Period

Currently we are hard at work organizing an unforgettable introduction period for you together with your degree programmes. Your introduction will start out with a Mandatory introduction day on Friday the 30th of August. Where you will be introduced to both the programme and our study association, will get a lab tour and will meet your mentor group. This day will be followed by a lovely introduction camp, which is a great opportunity to meet your fellow first year students. This camp will take place from the 30th of August till the 1st of September. Joining the camp is definitely recommended! You can find more information about this here.

Study Support

An important part of what we offer is study support, this comes in the form of support sessions and hard and soft skill workshops. Support sessions happen close to exams and are aimed at giving you that last bit of support to get you ready for the exam. They most often consist of going through a practice exam with the support of two teaching assistants. We also organize workshops and refresher sessions for programs such as Python and LaTeX. The nicest part about this is that any study support is completely free for members!

Career Events

We aim to bridge the gap between your studies and your future career, organizing excursions, company talks and guest lectures to allow you to get in contact with future employers and to allow you to orient yourself in industry and academia. We organize an annual symposium where (international) speakers are invited to give a talk, this is often attended by many and is a nice networking opportunity besides being very interesting. We also organize a multi day excursion to companies and have an annual career day, giving you many opportunities throughout the year.

Social Events

Besides study and career orientated events we also organize many social events. These events range from a gala, christmas dinner and trip, to movie nights, campus runs and game nights. We also organize weekly social drinks from 4pm every Friday at “De Luchtbrug”, our own bar on campus. These socials are attended by many of our members from different phases in their studies and also well attended by a lot of PhD students. Because of this, this is a very nice place to come in contact with older students and have the opportunity to talk about many experiences that you will encounter during your studies which they have already undergone. It is also a nice place to talk to your teaching assistants in a more informal atmosphere. So we would definitely recommend passing by!

Member’s lounge

Besides all of our events, we can also always be found at university in our lounge (NB5116.0029) or board room (NB5116.0045). Our members lounge is open every day from 08:45 till 17:00 and here you can always find a comfortable couch to sit on, a nice person to talk to and a free cup of tea or coffee. We also sell snacks and drinks here and have a microwave and sandwich maker which are always free to use. Especially in the afternoon, the lounge is also a nice place to come and join us to play some Sporcle quizzes or NYT games.

Committees

So we have talked about a lot of different activities that we organize, so you might wonder how we manage to organize all of these activities, well that would not be possible without all of our wonderful committees! Currently within our association we have 20 active committees, all focused on different things. This means that there is a committee for everyone, no matter what you would like to do. Committees are really nice to get to know fellow students and have a bit of a built in friend group. If you are interested in finding out more about our committees, you can do that here!

We look forward to seeing you around this coming year and for the rest of your studies!

Love,

The 58 th Board of De Chemische Binding