Why freshers’ week sucked this year - and it’s not just the pandemic to blame.

It was obvious from the get-go that freshers’ week this year was going to be different - clubs shut, limits on social group sizes, 10pm curfews - and this was only at the start of the academic year! But this (academic) year’s freshers’ week was significantly worse than previous years’ for many reasons - and of course the pandemic made a large contribution to this. But it cannot be blamed entirely on the government regulations - there were many COVID-safe activities to do - the problem is that they just weren’t done.

What some universities need to realise is that just because something works in real life, it does not mean it is going to work online, so sticking the word ‘virtual’ in front of a random activity does not make for a good activity that students are going to enjoy. For example, according to a student at the University of Warwick, ‘barely anyone attended’ virtual nightclubs and escape rooms created for freshers’ week - and who’s surprised? What would an online nightclub even look like? Just the thought of it is cringe-worthy…

Of course this doesn’t mean that online events don’t work - we’ve all seen the success of lockdown Zoom quizzes for example - so universities should’ve taken advantage of these successful activities more, rather than trying things that made absolutely zero sense when said out loud. There should’ve been more quizzes, more games, and maybe even some party games - basically things that would work both in person and online.

Now on the topic of COVID-safe activities, universities should’ve put more effort into creating socially distanced events in person. These events would’ve been COVID-safe and would incorporate the wearing of face masks to protect all those involved. Many non-contact sports can easily be done socially-distanced - and of course this isn’t the same as the partying and clubbing of a regular freshers’, but a sport like dance can easily be made fun, add an outdoor food and drinks space afterwards, and as long as there’s social distancing and masks are worn, a safe environment has been created for students to meet and make friends. Outdoor food and drink areas are a great way to allow students to mingle in a safe manner, and by having people on duty to make sure people are following government guidelines, freshers’ week certainly could’ve been a lot better, rather than sticking the word ‘virtual’ before any activity and calling it a day.