Buddy Programme is a project that provides each foreign student with a Polish student – their individual buddy. Buddies have the task of contacting an assigned Erasmus student, picking them up from the airport or the train station, helping them to accommodate in a dorm, taking them to the AMU International Office and to the Departmental Coordinator of the Erasmus+ Programme, helping them to make a PEKA card and to establish a bank account, giving them a pre-paid starter pack, showing them around the city, and finally helping them to acclimatise to the new location.
The ESN UAM Poznań section runs a recruitment process for Buddies twice a year – the first one during summer holidays for a winter semester, and the other one in January. Recruitment information is announced each time on the ESN UAM Poznań website and as far as possible via other means of communication.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF A BUDDY
Below we present the duties you are responsible for after an Erasmus student assigned to you has arrived in Poznań. You have to:
1. Pick up an Erasmus student from the airport/ train station and help them get to the dormitory.
If you cannot pick up your Erasmus student, you should ask someone else to do that for you. If some Erasmus student arrives earlier (that is, before the official date of moving into a dormitory) you need to arrange an accommodation at a hostel or go to the administration of the dormitory and ask whether they can move into the dormitory earlier. It does not matter at what time your Erasmus student arrives, somebody is always at the reception desk in the dormitory. Depending on the time, you need to go with your Erasmus student to the dormitory’s administration, which is usually open till 3 p.m. There, the Erasmus student will get an individual bank account number, into which they will have to pay a rent each month. They have to hand in bank transfer confirmation to the administration. It is highly probable that at the beginning the Erasmus student will have to pay the rent right away within a couple of days, that is why you will have to go with them to the post office or to the bank. The dorm’s administration will make your Erasmus student a resident card, for which they will need one passport-size photo. They will have to wait approximately 7-14 days for their card – during that time they can use a temporary one which will be given to them in the administration.
2. Go with your Student to the City Hall at Libelta street 16/20. All students have to register temporary residency within 30 days of their arrival!
You have to go there within 30 days of your Erasmus student’s arrival to Poland. They will need an application form for registration of residence, which they can get in the dormitory’s administration, as well as their passport with valid visa. Date of departure on the application form should be the same as on the visa. After 3-4 weeks after applying for registration of residence, you should go with your Erasmus student back to the City Hall to collect their new PESEL number.
3. Go with an Erasmus student to the Erasmus+ Faculty Coordinator. There, an Erasmus student will set up a timetable, get a student card, and arrange all the formalities. You can find information about Faculty Coordinators on this website: https://erasmus.amu.edu.pl/erasmus/obsluga-kontakt/koordynatorzy-wydzialowi
4. Help to apply for a PEKA card. One passport-size photo will be needed.
It is possible to apply via the Internet. If your Erasmus student provides you with necessary details, you can apply for them. However, the application form is available also in English. One has to wait approximately two weeks for their PEKA card, so if an Erasmus student applies early enough, they will be able to collect the card just after their arrival in Poznań.
5. Take an Erasmus student to the Inauguration in the main AMU building in Wieniawskiego 1.
6. Go to the doctor with an Erasmus student in case of any problems with health. Clinics in Piątkowska street (near the dormitories) or in Taczaka street are recommended to Erasmus students, as the staff there can communicate in English.
7. Help an Erasmus student with the first shopping and other activities requiring knowledge of Polish.
8. Take an Erasmus student for a walk around Poznań and in the neighbourhood of the Erasmus student’s accommodation.
During the next weeks and months, the Buddy should stay in touch with the Erasmus student, make sure that everything is alright, and inform the Erasmus student about trips, projects and parties organized by ESN UAM Poznań.
PHONE NUMBERS OF THE DORMITORIES:
DS. JOWITA: (061) 829-24-00
DS. ZBYSZKO: (061) 820-16-12
DS. JAGIENKA: (061) 829-15-92
Coordinator
Filip Franowski
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