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Let’s face it: freshers’ is probably the moment you look forward to the
most when it comes to starting university. After all the chore of packing
your life away into boxes and swotting for exams, meeting new people and
letting loose in pub crawls or club nights is a good way to start anew, and
celebrate too.
It’s clear with recent events that freshers’ isn’t going to be the same
this year, if ever again, but that doesn’t mean the good times have to
stop. Universities are ever adapting and with it brings a new and improved
freshers, tailored to bringing the good experiences in safer and more novel
ways. Here are the 20 best examples from around the UK, and I’ve even
ranked them for you:
20th-Virtual Games night
Nottingham Trent makes the 20th entry on this list, having announced a
virtual games night amongst other ranked activities to keep freshers’
entertaining without drawing a crowd. Kings College London have also
announced virtual games night as part of their line up, but it was quirky
takes on your traditional online games that pushes other events further up
the rankings for the rest of the list…
19th-Afternoon Tea
Virtual Afternoon tea is another digital event designed to get the best of
a cafe crawl or a brunch meeting without braving the crowds of a real life
cafe crawl. Nottingham Trent makes the ranking once again with this digital
tea.
18th-Socially distanced Revs night
Cardiff takes 18th place with the steadfast plan to continue with
traditional freshers’ events but in a limited capacity. This is a planned
socially distanced night at Revs in a bid to keep ‘The number one student
night’ in Cardiff up and running.
17th-Virtual Golf
Bath university’s video game society scored 17th with the idea to
host…virtual golf! The idea is brilliant in terms of allowing many people
to play at once without close contact and make friendships through teams,
but how exactly you play golf virtually…I am intrigued to work out myself
and so Bath scores 17 for this wonderfully unique idea.
16th-DISNEY QUIZ TIME!
Glasgow university takes 16th place with the Digital Society’s massive
Disney Quiz being hosted online for all of freshers’. No matter what movies
you’re into, you can’t escape knowing at least one Disney hit song, so this
safe event ranks 16th!
15th-Grouped Club nights
Manchester university has revisited the traditional club night by allowing
students to create social bubbles of four to six in order to safely enjoy
the usual freshers' events’ in person without being unsafe. As a non
digital freshers’ events, there are obviously limitations (the number of
people for example) but this is a good way to ensure the sought after
experiences still happen.
14th-Crafternoon
Nottingham Trent’s freshers’ line up strikes again for another ranked
event, this one named ‘Crafternoon’ with the idea to- you guessed it- spend
time getting to know your fellow freshers’ through the medium of art. If
you’re not one for a pub crawl or you’re looking for a nice virtual event
that is safe to do within the current health standards, then a Crafternoon
session is the way to go.
13th-Virtual Running
Kings College London has come up with a rather ingenious way to keep
freshers’ not only running, but literally running. Signing up to
the virtual run for freshers brings you a digital warm up (optional) and
the opportunity to plan and run your own 5km or 10km route at any time
throughout the day. Keeping you healthy and safe at the same time, whilst
also a good way to make friends!
12th-Speed Mating
Glasgow university has come up with a unique take on Speed Dating online
with a freshers wide zoom call called speed mating. Hosted via zoom, the
idea of the event is to put freshers together in a speed dating fashion
with the idea that you make friends. There are even prizes for freshers who
end up exchanging contact details by the end!
11th-Treasure hunts
Plymouth University has come up with a safe way to introduce freshers not
only to each other but to the city. This is being done through a virtual
‘Welcome to the City’ treasure hunt! This being a fun way to make friends,
find your way around, and stay safe ranks 11th, bringing us now into the
top 10 adapted freshers’ events taking place this year!
10th- Jackbox Games
Bath University strikes again for 10th place by hosting a large Jackbox
games online night. Jackbox is an online gaming platform where players can
join the main game from their own phones to submit answers and vote for the
winners. There are a lot of fun games on Jackbox and you can play it from
anywhere, not even the same side of the country, so it’s a good way for all freshers to meet up, not just those on campus.
9th-Escape Room
Kings College London has had the brilliant idea to set up a virtual escape
room. New students will be grouped together in a zoom call and then
‘trapped’ in a virtual escape room which they have to work out the puzzles
for digitally! Again, this allows for not only on campus freshers’ to meet
and greet, and is also a great way to get to know other people and make
friends.
8th-Freshers’ goes virtual
Freshers’ Goes Virtual is an online platform that new university students
can sign up to. It is not university specific, so means that students from
across the country and outside of the UK can become members and take part
in the myriad of virtual events that are being hosted in order to meet
people at their university and also neighbouring universities.
This sticks as close to ‘traditional’ freshers fair as you could get, with
vouchers, freebies and job opportunities thrown at you from the safety of
your own phone!
7th-The Kent Olympics
However it’s Kent University that does one better not only keeping
Freshers’ Fair alive but the sports society too. The idea is to host a safe
socially distanced Olympics, replacing close contact sports with safer ones
like archery! Great way to meet new friends and polish up on your skills!
*6th-Stitch and Btch**
Leeds university just misses out on the top five with their Stitch and
B*tch session, a virtual knitting workshop combined with a nice chat!
Learning how to do something new as well as making new friends but also
this one is not limited to those who can come on campus or those who are
not shielding.
Which brings us to the top 5!
5th- One Minute Movies
Again a Leeds university freshers’ event, one minute movies challenges you
to recreate a movie scene yourself in just one minute and submit
it for judging. This sounds hilarious and entertaining, and the best bit is
they’re offering prizes for the best videos! Who wouldn’t want to recreate
that famous Star Wars scene or dress up as Gandalf when there’s a prize
involved?
4th- The Mask-a-Rave Ball
Royal Holloway’s freshers’ line up is inventive and also all unique,
allowing it to take three of the top five spots here.
The activity that ranked fourth was the brilliantly named ‘Mask-A-Rave
Ball’ which is a sit down dinner service in social bubbles followed by a
ball where the theme is…masks! This is a fun take on a dress up ball and
also turns face masks into a main feature, so bust out your sewing skills
and get dressed up!
3rd-Cocktails in a Box
Royal Holloway gets another creative entry by replacing the crowded bar
night with Cocktails in a box. For £30, you and your flat mates can be sent
a party box complete with all the things required to make three Mango and
Passionfruit cocktails so you can recreate a bar night from the safety of
your own kitchen!
2nd-Wine Down time
Edinburgh university strikes second here, with the brilliant idea of
virtual ‘Wine Down’ time. This is a combination of… wine drinking and yoga!
Done from the safety of your own room, the idea is to unwind and drink wine
whilst getting to know other freshers’! As inventive as this is, it wasn’t
quite enough to take top spot though.
As we reach the end of this top 20 list, Royal Holloway returns with a
massively awesome freshers’ plan.
1st-Festival in a Box
Royal Holloway’s best freshers’ idea yet (at least according to me) has to
be the Festival in a box. Recognising the fact club nights aren’t the same
anymore, the university has got around that by instead bringing the club
night to you.
For £30 you will be sent a box complete with bunting, flower crown
headbands, glow necklaces, body glitter in two colours, festival lanyards
and even the cups to drink from! Not only that, but to complete your club
experience from the safety of your accommodation bubble, they will even
send a DJ to some of your halls so you get the full experience!
So that concludes the top 20 freshers’ events happening this year, and it
turns out that freshers 2020/2021 have a lot to look forward to! There are
plenty of other awesome events happening, others not mentioned include
virtual origami (Leeds university), bingo and laser tag (Manchester) and
several movie nights from various universities.
Turns out there really has been a fresh take on freshers after all, and
it’s created some wonderfully different events this year.
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By Jordan Darlington
Is staying on trend more important than standing against morally corrupt branding?
Our recent survey found that despite more people valuing ‘design and popularity’ over ‘brand morals’, 75% of the respondents stated that they would |
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