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Dude, where's my Freshers' Festival?!
Posted on Thu 17th Sep, 2009 .
Some of you might be scratching your heads. Not because youre unsure of what to expect when you come to LSE, or why Emmanuel Adebayor decided to stamp on Van Persies head at the weekend, or how on earth deep-sea, icy jellyfish ever evolved. No, its because youre asking yourself this very simple question: Why has Freshers become Orientation?!
Luckily, weve got the answer for you. The main thrust for the change in of name for the time when new students come to LSE emanates from two facts about the LSE student body: That there is a majority on international students, and over half of those that study here are post-graduates.
Its clear that the latter group are not freshers i.e. first year undergraduates. They have sailed through their batchelors degree to find themselves on the sunny intellectual island known as LSE, thankfully leaving the freshers name tag somewhere in the back of their minds (along with those embarassing family photos of days past).
Through researching how other countries celebrate new arrivals, it became clear that freshers is either the exception to the rule or has some rather unsavoury connotations. For example, in New Zealand, new students are often plunged into a week long O-Fest!. Across the pond, its not uncommon to find freshmen going through orientation (and doing some very silly things in the process). There are many, many other places around the world that place a greater emphasis on helping new students become accustomed to their new environment than singling them out as fresh meat.
And herein lies the third argument for Orientation. The notion that you can learn everything about your new university in a Freshers Fortnight is losing salience for new LSE students. Instead, the LSE and the Students Union would like to help newcomers get to know their new surroundings in a continuing process that doesnt abruptly end after two weeks.
So, Orientation Festival it is! Although we know you wont have an encyclopedic knowledge of LSE and London once the Festival is over, were gonna try as hard as we can anyway! And, hopefully, youll have just a smidgen of fun along the way
Luckily, weve got the answer for you. The main thrust for the change in of name for the time when new students come to LSE emanates from two facts about the LSE student body: That there is a majority on international students, and over half of those that study here are post-graduates.
Its clear that the latter group are not freshers i.e. first year undergraduates. They have sailed through their batchelors degree to find themselves on the sunny intellectual island known as LSE, thankfully leaving the freshers name tag somewhere in the back of their minds (along with those embarassing family photos of days past).
Through researching how other countries celebrate new arrivals, it became clear that freshers is either the exception to the rule or has some rather unsavoury connotations. For example, in New Zealand, new students are often plunged into a week long O-Fest!. Across the pond, its not uncommon to find freshmen going through orientation (and doing some very silly things in the process). There are many, many other places around the world that place a greater emphasis on helping new students become accustomed to their new environment than singling them out as fresh meat.
And herein lies the third argument for Orientation. The notion that you can learn everything about your new university in a Freshers Fortnight is losing salience for new LSE students. Instead, the LSE and the Students Union would like to help newcomers get to know their new surroundings in a continuing process that doesnt abruptly end after two weeks.
So, Orientation Festival it is! Although we know you wont have an encyclopedic knowledge of LSE and London once the Festival is over, were gonna try as hard as we can anyway! And, hopefully, youll have just a smidgen of fun along the way