Ouders kijken mee - Sax.nu

Reader survey Sax Magazine and website Sax.nu
International
Students want more pages in
English and more articles about
Dutch culture and society
Just before the holidays international students
were asked to take part in a reader survey
about the international pages of Sax
Magazine and the English articles online
(www.sax.nu). Editor-in-chief Tim de Hullu is
asked to comment on the more striking information
to be gathered from the survey.
The most important outcome of
this survey is that international students
want more pages in English
(91 per cent of the respondents)
and more articles about Dutch culture
and society, both in the magazine
and on line. De Hullu: “It appears
that students want to read what is
going on in The Netherlands, from
politics to places to visit in Holland,
and they are eager to know what
young Dutchmen are concerned
about. News from the schools and
Saxion itself also got high scores. A
suggestion given by respondents is
to have a number of international
students as contributors to the
magazine. Actually, in the past we
have frequently tried to find student
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editors, but there was little or no
response. I am now calling on international
students who are interested
and have some journalistic talents to
contact me.”
Top
types of articles wanted:
1. culture 64%
2. news from the schools 65%
3. food (restaurants, cheap eats) 58%
4. educational developments at Saxion 55 %
5. sports/human interest both 45%
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Response
The number of international students
that responded was relatively
lower than the response from the
Dutch readers to a survey held a
few months earlier. Tim de Hullu:
“It’s true that fewer students responded
than we had hoped for, but
perhaps international students do
not read their I-notes mail as much
as Dutch students do. Another reason
might be the time we carried
out the survey, just before the holidays,
at the time that many students
are still rather busy. It’s not that students
do not know the magazine
because only 10 per cent of the respondents
replied not to know it.
The articles in English on
www.sax.nu are relatively less wellknown,
but even here seventy-one
per cent indicated that they knew
the website. Nevertheless, the students
that responded have given us
very good information, which we
can use to make improvements.”
Student appreciation
The marks given to the website and
the magazine are 6.1 and 6.4 respectively.
“We will certainly try to
improve on that. As regards the character
of the magazine it is striking
that - even more so than Dutch readers
indicated - international students
want the magazine articles to be
more intellectual, but they also indicate
that the magazine should keep
its informative and sociable character.
It should also contain articles for
them to relax with.”
Follow-up
What is Sax going to do with the
information gathered?
Editor-in-chief De Hullu: “We are
going to have meetings with international
students to discuss their
wishes. Do they opt for a separate
magazine section of translated articles
that also appear in the Dutch
section, or pages with articles more
geared to their particular situation?
Another matter is what to do with
the international part on sax.nu?
One of the alternatives is to put
more translated articles from Sax
Magazine online. We also want to
involve International Office in the
discussions about more pages in
English in the magazine and more
news on sax.nu.
So we are certainly going to extend
the magazine and the online facility,
yet how we are going about this is a
matter that has to be discussed with
students and other parties involved.
The decision will of course also
depend on available funds.”
Hannie Schipper
Sax wants
YOU!
Sax Magazine International is
looking for international students
with some journalistic talents to
join our editorial staff as student
editors. Don’t you have journalistic
talents? No worries, we’re
also looking for students for a
panel to discuss about the future
of Sax International. If you are
interested, contact Tim de Hullu,
the editor-in-chief.
E-mail: sax@saxion.nl
september 2008
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