Excess Baggage

Luxury Transport for Students Lots of coverage in the media for this new service offering Luxury Transport for Students. New students are urged to become VIFs – or Very Important Freshers – and take advantage of these new ways of getting to university: We are stepping up the game, we are changing the way students …

Good discipline?

Universities' disciplinary records under scrutiny. Some entertaining reactions to a piece in the Guardian which reported that university students had paid over £0.5m in fines in a year: Universities across the UK issued disciplinary and administrative fines totalling more than £550,000 to students last year. Freedom of information requests from the Guardian have shown students …

A checkup call from the top

Valuable student support measure or a bit of a gesture? In addition to spending what must be a huge amount over the past few months on advertising in the trade press, Boston University has undertaken another big investment, according to The Boston Globe, checking up on new students: With new students wrapping up their first …

True Crime on Campus §15: Freshen up!

For the new arrivals The start of the new session and the arrival of thousands of eager freshers brings with it additional challenges for our ever-responsive and capable Security Team. All of the following are freshly reported incidents from the first week or so of the new academic year here at Nottingham. Let's hope things …

Freshers’ week: just a drunken scam?

An interesting view on freshers' week Libby Purves, writing in The Times, argues that freshers' week is not quite what it seems and has to stop. The new fees regime, she suggests, may put an end to this "ghastly scam". These festivals are now in progress or revving up at most British universities; a weird, …

A “hyperwired” freshers’ week?

Freshers! Come and try a new kind of learning laboratory The Chronicle of Higher Education has a fascinating freshers' week piece on a very different kind of learning lab, within the setting of a student dorm: Students moving into a newly renovated dormitory at the University of Kentucky signed up for a hyperwired college experience: …

THOSE A level pictures

There is only one place to go for the A level pictures everyone expects, namely It's Sexy A-Levels!: A blog exploring the hypothesis that UK newspapers believe that only attractive girls in low cut tops do A-Levels. It is truly entertaining. But there is one pic of a boy, reproduced here for a reminder of …

Free books for freshers

Persuading freshers to read Last year St Andrews gave a novel to all freshers to get them reading, discussing and engaging with each other. This year, according to theBookseller.com, the scheme seems to have expanded: Nearly 18,000 freshers across five UK universities have been given copies of a winning or shortlisted Man Booker novel for …

Admission Officials’ Tweets – Students Not Interested

Another social media disconnect? According to a report in The Chronicle, Admission Officials' Tweets are not being noticed by prospective students: Colleges are ramping up efforts to connect with prospective students through Twitter—but students aren’t interested, a new study says. Evidence has shown that teenagers rely on college visits and Web sites to learn about …

Preparing for university: “we call this a washing machine”

Some new students need 'life skills' it seems According to the Times "pampered pupils" are receiving lessons in life skills to enable them to cope at university: Increasing numbers of privileged students are arriving at university unable to use a washing machine, cook a simple meal or look after themselves, according to head teachers and …

Students to learn how to protest

Innovative teaching and learning approaches at Sheffield Hallam At one time student protest was as much a part of university life as getting drunk on Freshers' Week. Now a university is giving some of its politics students lessons in how to campaign and take direct action. The Sheffield Hallam students will have to conduct an …

Freshers’ week commercialism

According to the Guardian "Freshers' week is an education in commercialism": ...freshers' fairs have come a long way from the commercial innocence of earlier years. They offer Britain's businesses "the perfect opportunity for you to enlighten students to your products and services", according to BAM Student Marketing. "Get face to face with your potential customers …

Will swine flu end freshers’ week?

The Guardian is reporting that universities may cancel freshers' week because of swine flu concerns: Universities are working on emergency plans to postpone freshers' week activities and shut down parts of their campuses if the swine flu pandemic peaks when students return in September. Contingency plans to slow the spread of the virus, or to …

Getting Freshers to read, discuss and engage

THE reports on a really rather creative initiative at St Andrews Every new student enrolling at the University of St Andrews this autumn will be sent a novel during the summer and will be encouraged to discuss it with other freshers when they arrive on campus in September. The university is distributing Mohsin Hamid's novel …

Hello Freshers: welcoming new students to university

Welcoming new students... Universities seems to have got an awful lot better at induction in recent years. Judging though by the Cornell University New Students site, UK institutions have quite a long way yet to go. Although the volume of support material does look a bit overwhelming, it is well organised and accessible. From a …