Planning for Welcome 2022

Can you believe it? We are already talking about Welcome and October 2022!

We have been working in partnership with the Student’s Union and teams across our University to plan a better-than-ever Welcome for all our new and returning students.

This year, we’re focusing on providing a fun and vibrant on-campus experience, with new opportunities for socialising, exploring and celebrating life on campus.

An in-person, on-campus Welcome

This October we will focus on giving our students an enhanced on-campus experience. This is in line with the education delivery principles planned for 2022-23 and makes the most of our three unique campuses. Our online Welcome programme, which was developed during the pandemic, will support and strengthen the in-person activities, delivering an amazing Student Experience for those who can travel to us for the start of the new term, as well as those that can’t.

Working together to deliver an excellent Welcome

This year, we want to encourage colleagues across our University community to join us in championing the delivery of an inclusive, supportive and informative Welcome, enabling students to join or re-join our diverse community in October 2022. There’s a part for everyone to play, whether you’re in professional services, an academic department or one of our fantastic support staff, we can all help make Welcome 2022 the best yet.

A smooth transition into university life

Following such a long pandemic, many students are going to need extra support to transition into university life. Not only do they need to complete all the practical administrative tasks, like registration and navigating their way around the physical and virtual resources they need, but they will also need extra help settling in socially; understanding our values and what it means to be a member of our community. COVID has disrupted education over the past two years and it’s vital that we do more this October to ensure our students are able to explore campus life, establish a sense of belonging within their department and start their academic journey as early and smoothly, as possible.

Themes for Welcome 2022

Several themes have been identified to support the overarching aims of the Welcome programme. These include: ensuring that students are well informed and ready to succeed at university, ensuring that students have a successful academic induction, offering activities on campus and exploring campus life and ensuring students have access to wellbeing support.

What’s on

The Welcome programme will offer flexibility and enables those who cannot attend campus in person during the main Welcome events to access a range of resources and activities online. A comprehensive list of activities and events will be added to our events calendar and University website to ensure that our community members are fully aware of what is on offer.

Making a positive impact

Welcome is a great opportunity to make a positive impact on the experience of our new and returning students at the start of their journey at Essex. We will also provide further information on how you can get involved in the coming weeks.

Each department will have a key contact for Welcome who is able to provide more details but if you have any questions, please email the Student Experience Team studentexperience@essex.ac.uk.