Life at Warwick is exciting. It’s daunting. It’s everything in between.

Welcome to Warwick, your University, and recently named best in the UK for teaching quality by The Sunday Times Good University Guide! We are so pleased to have you with us whether you’re here on campus or are joining us virtually until travel allows you to be here.

I wish you a fantastic Welcome Week and I hope you make the most of all the events we have on offer, meet lots of new people and discover our green campus and friendly community.

We have some newly-opened spaces for you to discover during the year. On Friday we open the Warwick Arts Centre, our recently refurbished on-campus multi-artform centre, where you’ll find spaces for socialising and studying, and there will be free pop-up entertainment and creative workshops for you to explore. Before the end of term 1 we hope to open the new Faculty of Arts building with teaching, study, café and exhibition spaces open to all. And the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building has a 400-seat lecture theatre and collaborative learning and social spaces to enjoy.

Warwick Presents events were a highlight at Warwick last year, developed for a socially-distanced setting and this year they are back again. We have brand new activities and favourites from last year including a Fire Garden, inflatable assault course, virtual escape rooms, ice rink and film nights. I hope you’ll take advantage of these opportunities to relax and try something new.

Now to your learning experience this year. We’ve formulated a teaching and learning programme which blends excellent face-to-face engagement with online learning over the coming academic year which will keep you as safe as possible. And we will keep flexible if the situation demands we change things. We don’t know what the year will bring, but we’ll be ready for whatever comes.

We really encourage you to share your views so we can work together on continuing to improve all features of University life. You can talk with your course reps, who represent you on your department’s Student Staff Liaison Committee, and take part in our surveys and questionnaires throughout the year. You can also become a member of our student panel – for every focus group, interview or poll you complete, you'll receive an Amazon voucher for your time.

And finally, to the most important aspect of University life: your physical and mental wellbeing.

Please take time to familiarise yourself with our Stay Safe at Warwick pages, these hold details of all our Covid-19 guidance and support. We strongly advise all members of our community to get vaccinated as soon as possible. We have both symptomatic and asymptomatic testing facilities on campus, and you can access our campus vaccination centre too.

Wellbeing Support Services provide a range of services that can help you to develop the personal resources and skills you need to navigate the challenges and opportunities of student life. If you’re ever feeling like you could do with some help, take a look, take advantage of what’s on offer. Your personal tutor can also help to point you in the right direction.

All in our community have the right to feel safe and we don’t tolerate harassment or socially unacceptable behaviour of any kind. You will have completed the Warwick Values moodle as part of your registration, please remember it well, and If you witness or experience any of these behaviours, please report them in confidence through our reporting tool Report + Support (anonymously if you wish). We have an active bystander training course which I strongly encourage you to complete to equip yourself with the skills to appropriately react to and challenge inappropriate behaviour.

Thank you for choosing to come to Warwick to start your studies. Again, we are so pleased to have you with us.

With best wishes for an enjoyable, challenging and successful year ahead,

 

Stuart Croft

Vice Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick