Over the past few weeks, many thousands of students made enormous changes to their lives to begin their journey at UCL, and we were there to help them feel settled, find communities to be part of, and enjoy their first few weeks. We do this through a wide-ranging and diverse events programme – bringing students together to try new things.
Student expectations are high. Just 14% of students say they’re only at university to study*, and the vast majority expect to take part in extra and co-curricular activities during their time here. Welcome is the launch pad for all of Students’ Union UCL’s engagement programmes, and we aim to make student-led extra and co-curricular activity a core part of their UCL education.
Engaging in these programmes really impacts students’ sense of belonging and community. Just 35.5% of unengaged students feel part of the UCL student community, compared to 74.5% of students engaged in Student Life programmes*. That engagement leads to a sense of pride, with 83% of engaged students agreeing or strongly agreeing they feel proud to be part of the UCL student community, compared 61% of unengaged students. There’s a lot at stake – here’s what happened during Welcome 2025...
A Reimagined Welcome Fair
With the Main Quad out of action due to Bicentenary works, the largest event of Welcome Week, the Welcome Fair, moved to UCL East. This was the first time an event of this scale had been delivered on the UCL East campus, with more than 11,000 students making the journey, alongside more than 1,000 volunteers, to the Marshgate Plaza on Thursday 25 September for a one-day Welcome Fair. At the Fair students met 400 different student groups, from Hiking Club to History of Art Soc. The event set a new benchmark for what can be achieved on the East campus, and we hope it has put UCL East on the map for a new cohort of students.
A Festival in Gordon Square
Without a central space in the Main Quad to welcome new students to campus, the Union built a festival site in Gordon Square. With help from the Campus Experience team and Welcome and Induction teams, Gordon Square became the new centre of gravity for the Bloomsbury Campus, a place for students to gather, meet, and hang-out.
In the square, students could watch live music and performances from clubs and societies, take part in acting workshops (part of our artsUnlocked series) and Project Active classes, chill out on a deckchair in the Wellbeing Zone, take part in ever-popular SpeedFriending sessions, and browse hundreds of student groups at our mini-fairs.
On the first day of Welcome week, 7,000 students joined in and came to Gordon Square with the daily attendance staying high throughout the week.
A huge diversity of events
More than 800 events took place during the two-week Welcome period, delivered by the students’ union and our student-led groups.
Welcome week is all about fostering a sense of community, helping students settle into life in London, and take the first steps on a journey of engagement with our programmes of extra and co-curricular opportunities. Highlights include:
- An Intercultural Summit: 180 students gathered to learn about the different opportunities for intercultural engagement through Students’ Union UCL, from our Impartial Chairs programme to our Discover the UK trips.
- A fireside chat with Duolingo CEO and Co-Founder, Luis von Ahn: Covering everything from AI entrepreneurship to careers, with advice for students who are thinking about their own futures.
- Intro to British Politics: Our teams inducted international students on the quirks and complexity of British politics today.
- Sports Day by TeamUCL: giving hundreds of students a taste of our social leagues, helping them play regular sport without trials, training or pressure.
- artsUnlocked: a special series of free, inclusive artsUnlocked events in painting, drawing, acting and dancing, as well as our first series of artsSocials - Social Pottery, Gallery Walk and West End theatre trips - all of which sold out.
- A huge Volunteering Fair, the first hosted during Welcome, with students meeting 30 different local charities doing incredibly important work in local communities, from challenging LGBTQ+ inequalities to providing clinical, emotional and practical support for families of children and young people with life-limiting/life-threatening conditions..
Alongside engaging more than 20,000 students through our events programme, we also opened a fully refurbished Print Room Café, trained 6,301 students to be Active Bystanders, and launched a new mascot for UCL students – Jeremy Beartham. This year also marked the first year of the School of Management expansion in Canary Wharf, and the first year of activity for the newest branch of the Students’ Union. Working with local partners, the faculty, and societies, we launched a pilot suite of Welcome events which saw nearly 200 students take part, giving us excellent momentum going into Term 1.
Thank you for your support
We’re hugely grateful to colleagues in the Welcome and Induction team, the Campus Experience team, the Estates and Security teams, and all those who helped nudge their students towards doing more at UCL through their students’ union.
What’s next
Whilst planning for Welcome next year in a newly transformed Wilkins Building is already underway, we’re focussing on a huge programme of work, putting students at the heart of the Bicentenary celebrations.
2025-26 also marks the mid-point of the Student Life strategy, and there’s still room (and student demand) for growth. Help more students take advantage of all the opportunities open to them this coming year.
A powerful way you can help is by supporting your Departmental Society. Around half of all departments now have a students’ union affiliated society, and these groups are becoming vibrant hubs of student life. They bridge the academic and social spheres, offering students a sense of community, leadership development, and a conduit for feedback and partnership. Staff support is critical to their success.
Help out by:
- Getting your departmental society affiliated. If your departmental society is unaffiliated, work with Students’ Union UCL to complete the affiliation process and access funding and professional support.
- Encouraging your students to join their departmental society during the induction period.
- Work with your departmental society committee to arrange guest speaker events, trips, and social events.
*Data taken from a representative sample of 4,821 UCL students in fieldwork completed between February 25 – April 28 2025.