Hello!
My name is Jun, and I am the new summer intern for the Orientation Programme. Don’t know what the Orientation programme is about??? Well… if you are going to be a student of the University of Manchester (I will type UoM for short from now on🙂) and you don’t already live in the UK, then this is the right place for you! The goal of our programme is to give you the kick start you need for you upcoming and exciting student life at UoM.
The aim of this blog is to help you with any enquiries (Yes, ANYTHING!!!) you may have before coming to the UK. So please feel free to leave a comment with your questions and I will try my best to answer help you. By commenting, you are also helping those who might have the same questions as you but are too afraid to ask. so you are also helping by asking!😉😉 There will also be regular updates here where I will talk about all the fun activities available in the UK and important information that you will need to know. So stay tuned.
If you have found this blog through the official university website, then please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates of this blog and this programme. This will be extremely useful during Welcome Week as we will post live updates on what we are doing from the 13th Sept to 16th Sept(this is when the Orientation events will be held)!! Also, if you have a friend who is coming to study at UoM from abroad, then be the good friend you are and guide them right here.
University of Manchester Orientation 
are there classes during welcome week? or do they start the week after?
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Hi Marcella, nope, no classes are on during welcome week. However, you might have events set up by your school that you have to attend(well…. you don’t really have to, but it’s nice to go if you want to meet some new friends haha), this can be meeting your academic advisor(he/she will be in charge of you throughout your whole degree so make sure you get to them well!) for the first time, and events that allows you to meet your new course mates, so everyone’s time table is different!
To make sure you don’t miss out on anything, I recommend you go to your main school building the first day of welcome week to get a time table for your course. if you dont know your school building you can tell me what course you are about to study and I will try to find it for you.
Thank you for your reply 😊
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as I forgot to mention, yes the classes start the week after the welcome week, when you can log into your My Manchester account, the first page will be your time table(where it will show the location , time of the lectures you will have). For more details stay tune on this blog😉
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Hello Jun,
Could you advise any places in which we can have lunch at uni or near university? Which is your favourite one?
Also, do you think Erasmus students have time to have a part time job as well?
thanks!
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Hello Charlotte!
Thank you for commenting! Yes, you have asked the right person about food(hahaha😉). The main campus is based on Oxford road, which is a HUGE LONG ROAD and we have all types of restaurants within walking distance from the campus, so you don’t have to worry about being hungry!!
For lunch, the most popular places are MacDonald’s(about 10min walk), Subway(next to McD), Pizza place(Dominoes, Pizzahut), Nandos(15min walk), …. you get it, the road is full of restaurants.
If you want something really worth your money then you can always pop into Morrisons(a super market, next to McD) and get the £3.50 meal deal where you can choose a main(mostly pasta, sushi, sandwich etc), a snack and a drink(this is THE BEST DEAL in town!!). I hope my enthusiasm has given enough hints that this is my favourite thing to eat for lunch.
Also, there are many Asian restaurants on Oxford road that is both delicious and affordable, so as a Chinese and have tried most of the places, I can tell you they are all really good! As for Halal foods, there are many places that serve halal meats so there are plenty of choices!
To answer your question or working part time, I think it depends on how busy and difficult your course is, for my course which is maths, I do find it very difficult to have to time to work a part time job, but if you are a hard working person unlike me, then you should be fine! There are tons of opportunities here so you don’t have to worry about getting a job, I advise you to settle down first and start looking for work after the first two or three weeks, this way you can make the most out of your welcome week and meet loads of new friends, and also have an idea on how busy you will be so you can decide whether to work or not.
Hope this is helpful, anymore questions just ask!
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Thanks for the reply, it was very useful! I’ll make sure to follow this blog 🙂
See you!
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What activities should we expect in the orientation week.
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Hello Jennifer!
I am going to assume that you are an international student; if this is the case then you will have lots and lots of things to do during the welcome week in Manchester. First of all, the Orientation programme for international students are held between 13th September to 16th September (this is the week before welcome week, so you should attend this and then the welcome week after to make the most of out your first Welcome Week), during this time, we will have events catered for international students to give them all the information they need for settling down in the UK, this includes, how to set up a bank account, registering with the police (only applicable if you are from Non EU countries and some exceptions. Soon, I will be posting guides here on all those topics and more so please stay tuned 😉), etc.
The Welcome Week starts Monday the 17th September; all the potential events are all written on the “What’s on guide” booklet, which you will receive soon on your mail soon. (A digital copy will be posted here when it is published so again, stay tuned 😉 😉 haha).
To give you an idea of what will be on, I will tell you about my experience with Welcome week instead. My school had a small test on the first week to assess where we are all up to (I study maths so it may only apply to the school of mathematics and you may not have to do one), we then had a meeting with academic advisor (or tutor) for the first time. Your academic advisor will be in charge of you throughout your whole degree, so if you have any problems with your course, he/she will be the first person you’d go to(he/she will also be writing your reference in the future so be sure to get to know them well!!!). Within my school, we had a few events where we were put into groups with other math students as a break the ice event for everyone to make some new friends(make sure you go to this kind of events because all the friends I met on that day are still my good friends until now!).
Outside of School specific events, there will be society events. This is where different societies have their own stands to display what they are about, make sure you go around these events (they are usually held on Tuesday to Thursday if I remember correctly) so you can see all the societies available to you and you can join any societies you may find interesting. There will also be bar crawls, café crawls etc. This is the events I remember, but if you want to know more, make sure to follow this blog and pay attention for the “What’s on guide” from mail.
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Any idea when we will be receiving the whats on guide ?
And what else will we be receiving by mail this summer ? And when ?
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Hi Mohamad, I apologise as I just realised I have made a mistake. New students won’t be receiving a physical copy of the “what’s on guide” this year(I got a copy from my year from mail two years ago so I thought they will do the same this year 😕) due to complicated reasons. However, you will be able to receive a copy of it on campus when you arrive. So make sure you do grab a copy on Welcome Week at the “University Place(a big grey tin can looking building on campu. IT’S VERY NOTICEABLE so you won’t miss it)”. I recommend you follow this blog as there will be a digital copy of the “what’s on guide” available soon. When it is available I will remind you here!
Thank you!
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Hey! When we arrive to Manchester, will there be any staff or counselor who will help me to find my accomodation, get to know my campus, etc.? Thanks:)
(int. Student)
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Hi Burcu, between the 11th to the 16th of September, there will be student ambassadors (they will be wearing a purple hoodies) at the Manchester airport from 8am to 9pm to help you with all your enquiries. If you ask them, they will guide you to your accommodation. When you arrive on campus (which is on “Oxford Road”) or your accommodation (if you live in university student halls) there will be more student ambassadors to help you!
If you have settled in and want to explore the campus, there will be campus tours given by our student ambassadors. You will be able to find them when you arrive at the campus between 12th of September to the 21st of September (my next post on this blog will be about our beautiful campus. I will go over all the main buildings and what they are about, please stay tuned).
Hope you find this helpful and if you are still unsure of certain things, please ask!
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Hi. Can you help me out with what to bring to the halls? Bedding, cutlery, towels…what else do you think is absolutely crucial?
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Hi Spatula in your pocket, I will be posting a planning guide today so stay tuned!
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Hello. I have read the Get Ready guide and found that I should bring an official proof of the English language proficiency, along with the other supporting documents that I submitted during the visa application process. Unfortunately, I have taken the TOEFL iBT and I was only given a soft copy of the test score. Also, I did not submit one during the visa application process, as it was mentioned on my CAS statement my English proficiency was assesed by the university. What should I do in this case???
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Hi Fares, we have a team that specialises in immigration and visa questions, please email your enquiry to visa@manchester.ac.uk and refer your student ID on the email as well.
Thank you
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