students receiving prize for best fresher events

The winning students with the Mayor of Charnwood and the Vice-Chancellor

Loughborough Vice-Chancellor awards prizes to students for their innovative Freshers events

In October the Vice-Chancellor ran a competition to find the student committee, hall, group or club that ran the most innovative and fun event during Freshers Week.

Groups had to send in a written and video submission, explaining what event they had run, how it was kept COVID secure and how successful it was and the winner would receive £1,000 that could be spent on their group.

The judges were so impressed by the submissions that five groups and halls were crowned the winners and presented with £1,000 each. The Mayor of Charnwood visited campus to host a socially distanced prize giving for the groups.

Telford Hall impressed with their Challenge Night which saw each committee member create a challenge based on their role. Households had to complete these tasks and send in a video – the first to do won a prize. Challenges included a Telford wide blackout set by the FREEC rep and a press-up competition set by the Sports Sec.

William Morris Hall created an escape room in their common room, with a series of codes and keys to break and track down in a race against time. It was so popular that they are planning to use their prize money to run more escape rooms for households.

The Irish Dance Society took their new members on a virtual tour of campus, showing off their dancing skills in front of iconic places on campus including the Hazlerigg-Rutland fountain and the library.

Falkner Eggington Hall ran a host of events during Freshers Week for their residents including a birthday party for all those who had celebrated their birthdays in lockdown – with each household given a pass-the-parcel, cake and party hats.

Finally, Hazlerigg-Rutland Hall ran a Taskmaster event, based on the popular TV show. Flats had to complete a variety of challenges, competing against each other for points.

The Vice-Chancellor said: “We were impressed with the range of ways our student leaders found to help make sure our new students could have a taste of what makes Loughborough special. COVID has created many challenges for our students. I am incredibly grateful to those who came up with COVID secure ways to run Freshers events. We simply couldn’t pick one. Congratulations to all involved.”

The Mayor added: “It was wonderful to see students having such fun in such difficult circumstances. The judging panel enjoyed watching all the videos. I am so proud to see so many of our students coming to join Loughborough University, adhering to the rules, but also having a good time.”

All the events helped to ensure that first year students were given a great COVID Secure Freshers experience despite the circumstances.

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