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Your first few days

Orientation and Welcome Events

Before the academic year and the teaching starts, there is a lot you will need to do on campus in order to become a Brunel student. This includes enrolling on your course, attending your school induction, receiving your timetable, making friends and settling into your new home. Brunel International and the University have prepared a lot of events and activities to help you get the best start to your studies.

Three-day day orientation (20-22 September 2012)

Brunel International is hosting a three-day orientation programme for all international and EU students prior to the start of the academic year. The event is free for international, fee-paying students and £95 for EU and exchange students. It's is designed to help you familiarize yourself with the campus and Uxbridge before starting your course. This is a great opportunity to make a lot of friends and to enrol onto your course before all other students arrive. You will get information sessions on banking, immigration and free services offered on campus and the Union of Brunel Students. Activities during those three days will include a day trip, a campus and Uxbridge walking tour and lots of social events. All meals are included in the event; all you need to do is pay for your accommodation and book your place for the orientation online.

Freshers’ Week 2012

Freshers’ Week or Induction Week will start on Sunday 23 September 2012 and is organised by the Union of Brunel Students (UBS). The UBS is a democratic organisation run by Brunel students to represent your rights and your voice on campus. During Freshers’ Week they will run many events, most of which will be free. The UBS will have over 150 student helpers in colourful t-shirts who are trained to help you, direct you and make you feel welcome. So if you should need any help, don’t hesitate to ask them.

School Orientation and Welcome Packs

During Freshers’ Week, all Schools will hold their own orientation events, which will include chances to look around your school, meet your tutors and find out about what they expect from you during your studies and how they can help you. They will also provide you with a welcome pack containing important information for your first few weeks. You will receive a timetable from your school with important induction events, such as welcomes by your lecturers, information sessions on the student portal (e-vision) and online learning platform (u-link), which are vital for your studies. As soon as you can after you arrive, you should go along to your school office to pick up your welcome pack and find out more.

Enrolment

Once your offer has been made unconditional, you will receive a confirmation letter a month prior to the start of the course advising you on how to register with Brunel.

The registration is completed in two stages.

Stage 1

You can start Stage 1 of the registration process prior to coming to the University by using Brunel’s online student portal eVision. You will need to check that the personal details we already hold about you are correct and provide information about how you intend to pay your fees. You will also be given the opportunity to upload or post a passport-sized photograph of yourself for your student ID card (if your course starts in September). Once you have completed the task, you will be asked to print a Registration Summary Letter. You should bring this to the second part of Registration, which takes place on campus.

Don’t panic if you don’t have internet access at home – there will be provision to complete the task when you arrive, but it will make part two of Registration much quicker if you can complete it before arriving at Brunel.

Stage 2

Here are some of the things you MUST bring to register successfully - we cannot register you otherwise.

Passport: you cannot register without it – If you don’t have one already please apply immediately. If at the time of Registration you do not have one, please visit our website http://www.brunel.ac.uk/induction/faqs for further advice
Visa: You should make sure that you apply for a visa that covers the full length of your course.
Your Brunel offer letter or another document containing your seven-digit Student Number (usually starting 11)
Your Registration Summary Letter (you can print this once you have completed the online registration task)
Original academic certificates (unless we have already seen them). If in doubt, bring them along
Original English language certificates (unless we have already seen them). If in doubt, bring them along
Sponsorship letters (applicable only to students receiving external sponsorship)
Documents to complete the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check (Teacher Training, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Social Work students only – you will have been sent details of what to bring if the check is not yet complete)
Receipts of any payments made

If you are joining a Professional Course you must also bring your:

ID documents to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
Criminal Conviction Disclaimer
Medical Questionnaire
Immunisation Card (for physiotherapy and occupational therapy students)

Information about your enrolment will be sent to you separately.

Registering with OVRO

A condition of your visa may be that you need to register with the police once you arrive in the UK. This is only for students from certain countries and depends on whether this is stated on your visa. When you receive your visa for your studies please check the conditions to see whether it tells you to register with the police. If so, you will need to visit the Overseas Visitor Records Office (OVRO) in central London. Please look at both the following websites:

If you change your address once you have registered with OVRO you will need to visit the local police station.

Registering with the Medical Centre

All students who are on a course that lasts over 6 months are entitled to free NHS medical care while studying in the UK.

If you are planning on living on campus, you should register with the medical centre on site. You will need to fill out an NHS patient form, and visit the Medical Centre with your passport and tenancy agreement. You will be given a form to fill out about yourself and your medical history during the enrolment process. If you are arriving in September, there will be special appointment sessions to do all of this during your registration time; you should receive more information about this when you are sent details about your school registration programme. Find out more about the Medical Centre here. If you are planning to live off campus, you will need to search online for your local medical provider and contact them about registering at their facilities.

Opening a Bank Account

Please visit your current local bank to see if you are able to open a bank in the UK before you arrive. This may save you time and additional costs when you arrive in the UK. If you are unable to do this, we advise you to open a UK bank account once you have arrived and fully enrolled at Brunel. You will need to get a letter from the Student Centre, confirming that you are a Brunel student, before you can do this. Please see the BBA website and download the leaflet to get advice on opening a bank account in the UK.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed?

Culture shock

When you have just arrived in a new country for the first time, you may feel a bit tired and overwhelmed by all the new and different customs, the new language and the different weather, food and time-zone. This is what we call "culture shock".

It is normal to feel a little overwhelmed, so try to take it easy in your first few days. There are things you can do to help yourself settle in:

Try to arrive a few days before the start of your course so you have a chance to adjust to the new time-zone
Talk to fellow students at orientation or in your accommodation; try to make a few friends. It’s likely they are feeling the same as you.
Talk to our advisors in Brunel International or in the Students’ Union or your school, who can help you to find what you need and give you some useful tips
Get lots of rest, try to eat well and get some fresh air (even if it is raining!)
Within a few days everything will start to seem quite normal and before long it will seem like home!

Brunel International

Brunel International is here to support all international students studying here. We have dedicated teams in finance, immigration, marketing, admissions, student services, English and foreign languages. You can contact Brunel International for more details.

Support Services

As well as support at the support from Brunel International you can also use of the various other support sevices available at Brunel. The Students’ Union has an Advice and Representation Centre (ARC) which gives free advice and guidance on a whole range of things including money and debt, housing, and academic issues.

Futhermore, Brunel also has a free counselling service for all students, which offers appointments where you can go to talk through any problems.

The Student Centre is here to support all students and deals with most general enquiries, or will advise you where you need to go for further help. Enquiries the centre deals with include producing bank letters, car parking permits, and student status letters. The Student Centre can be contacted by telephone on +44(0)1895 268268 or by email.

For a full list of services at Brunel, please see: www.brunel.ac.uk/services