Having previously studied in Canada as an undergrad, British-Ethiopian Hannah Getachew says she was familiar with some of the challenges associated with moving to a new country. That’s why she enrolled in the buddy program at the School of Transnational Law at Peking University in China before beginning her graduate studies.

Buddy programs are organized efforts to pair incoming international students with current students. “I eagerly accepted the option of connecting with another student,” says Getachew, who is pursuing a Master of Laws degree, known as an LL.M., in transnational law.

While not all global universities have buddy programs, prospective international students may want to consider institutions that do. Among the benefits, buddies can share experiences, answer questions or address concerns and provide insight into university life.

How a Buddy Program Works

Through a buddy program, incoming international students are matched with current students prior to starting their studies. Students who are matched before the semester starts often connect with their buddy ahead of arriving on campus.

“Around 30% of students are matched pre-departure via email, allowing communication to start before they arrive in New Zealand,” Kelly Atherton, international student support manager, Victoria International at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, said via email.

Atherton says the school’s student-led international buddy program began in 2011 and has matched more than 3,000 new international students with current Victoria students. She says students are matched based on shared interests like language, course of study or specific student requests. The buddy role varies by institution, but buddies typically spend a few weeks with their matched students to show them around and help them with new-student tasks, like registering for classes.

Once accepted into Peking University’s buddy program, Getachew was matched with a buddy and first corresponded via email, WhatsApp and Facebook, but now they primarily use WeChat to keep in touch. Upon arriving, she says her buddy picked her up at the airport and helped her make a last-minute booking of a hotel near the university.

“She answered the many, many calls I made on where the closest grocery stores were, which restaurants had good vegetarian food, how much to pay for a bike etc.,” says Getachew.

Prospective international students can measure how active university buddy programs are via their Facebook pages – like the ones for Macquarie University in Australia and the University of Arizona – which highlight events and keep buddies connected.

What Buddies Can Offer

Buddies can provide a wealth of information and resources to incoming international students.

Stephanie Babb, international student associate at McGill University in Canada, says the buddy program provides international students with the opportunity to ask their buddies “for advice on living in a new place and some tips and tricks for handling the first year of university.”

Indian national Vanisha Sampat, an undergrad at Bocconi University in Italy, says her buddy helped her with “questions about the course we would be studying, subjects, notebooks and books, associations – basically every little detail about my academic and student life.”

The buddy experience can be so enriching that international students may choose to later become buddies themselves. That was the case for Chinese national Chloe Feng, an undergrad student at McGill, who now volunteers as a buddy and has helped students from Singapore, South Korea, China and the United Kingdom.

Feng says students shouldn’t be shy about asking their buddy for information and should prepare questions in advance about local food, grocery stores, weather, transportation, banks, mobile phone service, resident life, student clubs and students services on campus.

“They can also ask what documents to prepare for enrollment during the first few days and about health insurance,” says Feng. “If the questions they are asking are out of the buddy’s knowledge, buddies will refer them to someone who knows.”

Making the Most of Buddies

Prospective international students can plan ahead for ways their buddies can assist them during their first weeks on campus.

John Aycock, director of graduate and international programs at Peking University’s School of Transnational Law, said via email that buddies “serve as one of many points of contact from orientation onward.”

Getachew says her buddy attended orientation day and various registration procedures with her, helped her manage her paperwork and stood in line with her. Her buddy assisted with everything from registering for a new room to helping her purchase flights and train tickets through Chinese language apps to save money.

She says her buddy also shared “various campus life-hacks, such as when to go for lunch, the best meals at each canteen” and even wrote Getachew a note in Chinese to better explain her vegetarian dietary preferences.

Bocconi University student Sampat says the best thing about her buddy is that “he never stopped being my buddy, even after I settled in.” For example, she says her buddy helped her overcome her anxieties with the mandatory semester-abroad exchange program that her program requires.

“With every unexpected turn university life took, it was good to know that he’d already been there, so I wasn’t alone,” says Sampat.

Getachew says her buddy’s help in “navigating the logistical maze of life in China” was the least of what she’s done for her. The most fulfilling, she says, is that the buddy program “created a platform through which a friendship could blossom.”