Beginning the university adventure can be a daunting prospect. Finding themselves in a new place far from their home and friends, some students struggle to adapt and turn their university into their new home.
The Centre for Enhancement in Learning and Teaching (CELT) team at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) are dedicated to making students feel part of the BGU community from the minute they arrive and over the last few weeks they have been running events to help feel at home.
The ‘Escape Rooms’ challenge was held as part of the new year’s induction week. Fifty students split into teams of three to six people were set four tasks based around academic skills:
- Mind Game: An activity based around developing a ‘growth’ mind set where students were required to hunt for clues to solve a series of problems.
- Trivia Pursuit: An activity based around research where students were required to find the correct information by identifying what is a reliable source and what’s not.
- Divergent Thinking: A series of puzzles and problems requiring students to think literally and laterally to devise solutions to successfully complete the task.
- Lexical Neapolitan: An activity requiring a problem to be solved using software by merging together documents to obtain the answer.
The full event was designed to help students transition to their new surroundings, create a feeling of community and increase their mental and physical wellbeing. Feedback from the event was very positive with participants enjoying the activities and the opportunity to meet and mix with other new students.
Mature students in particular often find starting their university studies after a break from education intimidating; with concerns over connecting with their peers causing anxiety instead of excitement. With this mind the CELT team put together another special event designed specifically around their experiences. The half day event offered mature students an introduction to the support available to them from across the University along with providing them a chance to meet fellow mature students and begin planting their own roots.
BGU offer a range of different support services to help our students feel at home. If you’re in need of help and are unsure where to begin anyone from our Student Advice, CELT, BGSU and Chaplaincy teams will be more than happy to guide you.
You can keep up to date with all the upcoming events designed to support and inspire our students on our news and events pages.