How can universities ensure all new students feel welcome?

Starting university can be an intimidating experience – and it can feel even more overwhelming for students from less-represented or “non-traditional” backgrounds. Ensuring that all students not only feel welcomed but empowered and excited to succeed and enjoy themselves at university, with tangible and approachable support throughout, is imperative. It is highly valuable, therefore, to devote time, care and attention to meaningful and targeted welcome initiatives for the students who might need it the most.

St Mary’s University has been running Get Set for Success for a little over a decade now. This annual initiative has evolved over the years and is now a hybrid programme comprised of one online day followed by two face-to-face days of various workshops and activities, including a residential stay on campus. It is based on research into student access, retention and success which suggests that students in certain categories benefit from opportunities to attend short pre-induction programmes or events. These categories include students with academic backgrounds other than A levels, students with disabilities, care leavers, carers, mature students and students from neighbourhoods where a small proportion of people go to university. The primary goal is belonging: to give students a “head start” at university through a fun and informative residential, where they can connect with their programmes and key support services ­– and, most importantly, with each other.

Here are 10 tips from us for running a successful and inclusive welcome transition programme:

1. Get the invites right: Work out exactly which new students you want to invite and why, based on your access and participation plan, then get the teams who can give you exactly the right data sets involved early on. Send physical invites, as well as emails, so your initiative is seen by family members, too. Ensure you include a contact number as well as an email for informal queries – and get ready to chat with a few parents!
2. Grab participants’ data from the get-go! Think about impact evaluation from the start, so use your applications to get baseline data from the outset. For example, we measure and compare students’ confidence levels in different areas, so our application forms include a series of relevant questions that are duplicated in the exit survey. These have allowed us to demonstrate that our initiative has provided a 63 percentage point increase (from 30 per cent to 93 per cent) in students feeling “confident” or “very confident” about university after attending our welcome initiative.
3. Keep it cosy: The purpose is to provide a personal and non-intimidating introduction to university. It thus requires small numbers overall, so students are not lost in the crowd. Make it small enough that personal touches are felt and appreciated. (We cap Get Set at about 120 students, with the understanding that there is always some attrition, so expect up to 100 in total). 
4. Use your comms and social media: In the lead-up to your event, send friendly comms with key information and advice, encouraging informal questions and conversation. We run an Instagram page, where students can ask questions, engage with each other and take polls on topics such as what they’re excited about in the programme. Follow up afterwards with timed messages (for example, “Good luck to those of you moving into halls this weekend!”, “Look out for our buddy scheme for these events from the SU this week”).
5. Make the most of student ambassadors: Getting students centrally involved, from design to delivery, is hugely valuable. Ensure current students are present and enthusiastic throughout your event. For Get Set, we used one large hall as our base, divided students into teams of about 10 to 12 at different tables and employed about 20 student ambassadors to work in pairs to support them. The ambassadors were crucial social facilitators, meeting students at train stations and at entrances to campus, introducing students to each other, and keeping the conversations going throughout the event.
6. Lecturers are key! The opportunity for students to meet their lecturers in small, more informal groups, is invaluable – and gives them a chance to get to know other students on their courses early on. This is always warmly supported by our academics, who are often keen themselves to meet early on with students who might require additional support.
7. Get cross-university involvement: We aim for students to walk away with a meaningful understanding of the support services and opportunities available to them, so these feel approachable, inviting and familiar. It is key therefore to get different services and departments represented – not only delivering information but running activities to start building connections with the students.
8. Mix up the programme: To make it inclusive and engaging, keep it varied and interactive. Ensure you have a diversity of speakers and topics – and change up the spaces, getting students moving and outside wherever possible. Avoid presumptions about one “type” of student. For example, our “Living on campus” session runs in parallel with our “What if I don’t live on campus?” session for commuter students. Consider a mix of online and face-to-face sessions. Running one day online enhances inclusion for those unable to attend in person and can make the face-to-face elements less intimidating, as students already recognise each other from meeting on Zoom. You can find an example of our 2021 full programme booklet here for ideas.
9. Normalise nerves: Remind students that nerves are normal – and help them overcome them. Every year, we hear students say they are the “only one” who is feeling lost and that “everyone else gets it”. Warm-up exercises, using tools such as Mentimeter, where students can share their worries anonymously on screen at the beginning, can go a long way in reassuring them. Additionally, linking to future events – for example, if your university runs a Wobble Week – is key in emphasising continued support and further opportunities for making friends.
10. Celebrate! Inspire excitement and a tone of celebration throughout: for students coming to your initiative, for them meeting each other, and for them coming to your university. We do a mini awards session on the final day of Get Set, where our student ambassadors nominate several students in their team for their engagement throughout the residential. And we as the organisers nominate ambassadors, with prize vouchers for all our winners. Seeing students win for things such as their progress from being silent on Day 1 to getting involved and asking questions on Day 3 is inspiring for everyone.

It’s about empowering students to feel they belong early on. It’s about showing them that their campus, peers, lecturers and support services are familiar, friendly, and all there specifically for them. It’s about getting them to feel excited and entitled to thrive at university.

Nikki Anghileri is head of widening participation across the student life cycle, and Elizabeth Parker is student engagement manager in widening participation, both at St Mary’s University Twickenham.

The Get Set for Success: Student Transition Programme at St Mary’s University Twickenham was shortlisted for Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards 2022. A full shortlist for all categories can be found here.

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