Our student communities are built on our commitment to providing an exceptional experience that empowers students to enter a journey of self-discovery from the moment they join UCL. At the core of university education, is student life - a thriving environment to try new things, grow confidence, and ultimately, become future leaders and decision-makers.
For many, this starts by igniting their inspiration at Welcome. This year, we welcomed our largest-ever cohort and supported them to settle in quickly, form new bonds, and imagine their new life here at UCL.
After a brilliant Welcome 2023, which led to a record-breaking year of impact, we were more determined than ever to make Welcome 2024 our best yet, raise the bar for student life, and deliver on our mission to make more happen at UCL
With the support of the entire UCL community and in particular the Welcome and Induction Team based in Student and Registry Services, we set out planning our biggest Welcome yet.
This article shows a snapshot of our 2024 Welcome activity, and what we achieved. Unless specified, the figures relate to the two-week period from 16 September to 29 September.
Welcome 2024 in Numbers
→ Together with our student-led groups, we hosted more than 787 events, up from 727 in 2023
→ Almost 300 students found their perfect volunteering opportunity through our online Directory.
→ Almost 150 students kick started their London volunteering experience right at the start of their 2024-25 UCL journey.
→ More than 11,000 students joined a club or society during Welcome
→ 46% of all new intake students booked a ticket to an on-campus event, with many more attending without a ticket.
→ More than 9,800 tickets were booked for big nights out across London
→ More than 15,000 students attended our two-day Welcome Fair
→ We showcased 60 live club and society
performances on the Main Quad festival stage
→ More than 51,000 tickets were booked by nearly 17,000 students for events during Welcome, with many more students attending non-ticketed events
→ Over 1300 tickets were booked to UCL East events during the week, a 50% increase on engagement on last year
→ Our events programme was diverse and wide-ranging, with 78% of Welcome events alcohol-free.
We’re here to help students make the most of their time at UCL; to help them feel part of the UCL community and help them achieve the things they want to during their time here. We’re the route to more than 410 Clubs and Societies, countless volunteering opportunities, events, great places to eat, drink and chill in, an Advice Service when students need it, and if students want to make lasting change at UCL, we can help them do that too.
Welcome is our chance to connect thousands of students with opportunities to do more at UCL. We want students to form friendships, find groups to join, experience new things, learn about the Union, UCL and London as they settle into university life and have fun.
We start the Welcome planning process by setting out our aims. This year, we wanted to:
- Help new students settle into life on our campuses, and into London, meet each other, form friendships, and find communities to be part of,
- Develop high levels of trust with new students,
- Introduce new students to the Union and our Sabbatical officers, and
- Welcome new students into our Students’ Union spaces, and help them feel at home.
These aims set the framework for the everything that is delivered over the summer and during the first few weeks of term
Welcome 2024 was the last year of Welcome in its current format (with exciting UCL200 legacy works transforming the space for the future), and we went big to celebrate. We ran more events than ever, including drop-in events during Move-In Weekend, a dedicated fair for our Departmental Societies and adding a brand-new Community Takeover Day to the programme.
We focused on perfecting our annual Welcome events, showcasing them to the highest standard before the Quad renovations bring a wave of exciting change to our Welcome programme.
We doubled the number of events during International Welcome Week and created a lively hub on campus for students during.
From a cycle cinema to wine and cheese evenings, trips to the British Museum to karaoke, breakfasts to mahjong - we had it all. The Welcome week calendar has never been fuller, more diverse, or as exciting. Once more we have been able to show off our amazing campus, as well as the city of London, to incoming (and returning) students and put everything we have to offer as a Students' Union on display.
More than 51,000 tickets were booked by nearly 17,000
students for events during Welcome
Exploring London
Our students live in one of the best cities on Earth and during Welcome we help them explore, settle in, and feel at home in London.
From vintage London Routemaster bus trips to crazy golf at Birdies, food markets to bike tours and visits to London's top museums - we showcased the very best of what London has to offer.
Every one of our London excursions sold out, with more than 320 students exploring our beautiful city with us.
Going out-out...
Although a small part of our Welcome programme in terms of the number of events, our club nights attract thousands of students.
These events help students experience the best of London nightlife, with events at venues like the world-renowned Ministry of Sound and Fabric. The events are run with student safety as priority, with welfare zones created in the venues and staff on-site trained to support those attending.
9,800 tickets booked for nights out across London, up 19% from the previous year
Introducing students to life at UCL
Once again, we delivered a programme of in-person induction talks. Working closely with the Welcome and Induction team, thousands of students came along to a Student’s Guide to UCL session in the Bloomsbury Theatre or other major spaces on campus across International and Welcome Week.
Hosted by our Sabbatical Officers and student volunteers, A Student’s Guide to UCL gave students a personal perspective on life at UCL, covering how to navigate the first term and make the most of the support and opportunities on offer.
Getting students active
Our beginner friendly mass participation programme Project Active kicked off during Welcome, encouraging both new and returning students to get active.
Between 16 September – 30 September, Project Active held 60 classes, up from 27 last year. These ranged from Dance Fit to Rooftop Yoga, Twerk Fit and Sound Meditation.
In total, the programme engaged 967 students across the Welcome period- an increase of 200 students from last year and a fantastic start to the year.
967 students got involved with Project Active across Welcome
Building communities
Over the five days of Welcome week, our cafes were host to Welcome Breakfasts and Speedfriending for our seven student Networks: the People of Colour Network, the Women's Network, the LGBTQ+ Network, the Disabled Network, the International Network and the Research Network.
These events help to encourage those students who identify as part of these groups to meet up with others and feel at home at UCL.
Our Networks also hosted games nights, picnics, movie nights and more, helping to create an inclusive and welcoming community at UCL.
Supporting the local community
By strengthening our work with local communities, partners, supporters and students, we continue to drive change and give back.
For the first time during Welcome, the Student Social Impact Team hosted it's own Community Fair, bringing together student community projects and local organisations to explore endless opportunities to work together.
Running a programme connecting students with diverse communities across London saw students supporting older adults, young people, and marginalised communities across seven projects.
Helping to Reduce Isolation
Craft-With-Purpose brought students together to create holiday cards for isolated community members and knit items for fundraising. The chosen charities were Fulham Good Neighbours and Centre 404.
Honouring our Green Spaces
We partnered with Bloomsbury Gardens and Green Spaces Association, to offer students a tour with a difference – focusing on the green spaces that make the area around our campus so special, and local citizen knowledge.
The Big Help Out
Almost 100 students turned up early in the heavy rain to take part in a local litter pick, sorting jumble for a charity’s fundraising activities, and cooking with a local community kitchen as part of our Big Help Out initiatives.
These opportunities helped to launch the Volunteering Service during Welcome in the lead-up to the Volunteering Fairs in the following week.
Over 1,000 students enquired about volunteering with 9o community partners during Welcome
UCL East
Our suite of events and activities at UCL East continued to grow, with over 1300 ticket sales to events based at the East Campus. We were really pleased with our flagship event, a collaboration social with London College of Fashion, where we saw over 250 students from both institutions meet and mingle over a variety of creative and artistic activities!
We also saw over 450 students attend our Students’ Union and Support Services fair on the Friday, encapsulating a great week all round at the park. Altogether, we sold over 1300 tickets to events during the week, representing a 50% increase on engagement from last year!
The week was capped off with a campus takeover by the V&A on Saturday, who are set to open their own doors to their east London site next year. This exciting night spanned seven levels of our Marshgate building, and invited 1500 students and members of the public to explore themes of place, communal care, resistance, and the in-between spaces often inhabited by the Latinx diaspora.
The weird and wonderful
We hosted an Upcycling Fashion Show and an Outdoor Film Screening powered by bikes in the Main Quad, as well as a Live Music Gig. These events drew huge crowds to the Main Quad at twilight.
For the first time this year we hosted 120+ students to our Introduction to British Politics sessions, giving them a grounding in the workings of Parliament and our influencing work as a union.
We also ran a Niche Societies Night to showcase our Magic, Graphic Novels, Sci-Fi, Board Game, Pokémon, and Gaming societies with over 100 students coming together to celebrate their passions!
For the first time this year we hosted 120+ students to our Introduction to British Politics sessions, giving them a grounding in the workings of Parliament and our influencing work as a union.
Once again, we transformed the main campus into a festival, with two stages for live music and performance, food stalls, and more. This put Students' Union UCL at the heart of student life on campus, showcasing everything we have to offer from our clubs and societies to our cafés and bars.
The stage, lights, music, performances and decoration around campus, as well as the cultural, sport, community and arts society takeovers brought a festival atmosphere to UCL.
Club and Society Takeover Days
Every day of Welcome Week our student groups took centre stage. For the first time this year, we added an extra Takeover Day on Friday to showcase our volunteering projects, local partners and societies doing community outreach. As with our other Takeover Days, our new Community Takeover was a huge success and gave a spotlight to our students doing social impact work.
Each day was packed with performances, demonstrations and workshops for our different student groups.
Alongside these performances, we hosted fairs for our sports, arts, volunteering and cultural student-led groups. These fairs enabled students to find and join clubs and societies before the Welcome Fair took place.
Welcome Crew 2024
This year we took on more student staff than ever before to help deliver our expanded events programme. Over the summer we recruited and trained 56 students to be this year's Welcome Crew, supporting all things Welcome. Across the Welcome period, the Welcome Crew helped set up events, scanned tickets, stewarded, answered questions, and were ambassadors for the Students' Union and for UCL.
They ran speedfriendings, took students to museums and food markets, hosted quizzes, ran bar crawls and led Welcome breakfasts. Our Welcome Crew were central to everything happening on campus and across London. We could not have achieved what we did without them!
100% of surveyed students would recommend joining Welcome Crew to a friend
Increasing engagement with our commercial services remained a priority for us this year, and the focus was on engaging students with our spaces as soon as they arrived at UCL. We refreshed and refurbished our spaces, increased our advertising, including putting 5000 flyers in student rooms, showcased our bar events earlier, and increased the student created content across our channels.
The Hanger
Over the Welcome Fair weekend, the Hanger set up shop on the Wilkins Terrace with a selection of hoodies, tops and accessories- and students loved it.
1,700 items sold over Welcome Fair weekend
Our brand-new Spin the Wheel game drew huge crowds to the Wilkins Terrace during Welcome Fair for a chance to win some prizes across our bars, cafes and shops. The game increased our Instagram followers by over 2000 across the weekend.
Bars
From a Silent Disco to the legendary LGBTQ+ night Glittoris, our bars provided a safe, accessible and fun environment for new students to enjoy.
We reimaged our Know Your Union bar crawl and empowered our Welcome Crew to run three crawls across Welcome. The events were a huge success and introduced over 300 students to our venues.
Cafés
Our cafés have been paving the way in sustainability. The reusable cups available at all outlets are going down a storm with over 172 sold in the Welcome period with money off every drink when using a reusable cup.
172 reusable cups sold over Welcome
Bloomsbury Fitness
From gym tours to taster classes, Bloomsbury Fitness made their mark on Welcome. The legendary Bloomsbury Fitness games returned to Team UCL Takeover Day on Wednesday, with crowds of people waiting for their turn to take on the challenges.
Membership sales are up by 9% compared to September 2023
Welcome Fair
Welcome Fair is the biggest event of Welcome fortnight. Two days of clubs, societies, live music, freebies and thousands of students keen to explore everything the Union has to offer.
The Welcome Fair takes place all over campus, with 240 stallholders spread out across the Wilkins Building, main quad, lower refectory and JBR. In the main quad, the Portico provides the perfect backdrop for live performances from our incredible clubs and societies.
15,000 students attended this year's Welcome Fair, the most ever.
Watch our Welcome Fair video below
We're planning for another record-breaking year as we embark on a pivotal year for Student’s Union UCL. We’ll continue to grow in every aspect, delivering more activity than ever, with more engagement and student involvement - all against the backdrop of a changing campus in preparation for UCL’s bicentennial anniversary. Help us make more happen at UCL by following the links below.