Wishing you a Happy New Year 2022!

How are you finding settling into the university community? For me, it has truly been a wonderful experience at the University of Reading getting to meet other students from all across the world.

There are many things that you could do to help yourself settling into the community. I’ll cover some personal experiences that made me enjoyed my time here at the University of Reading.

First of all, the university provides a wide range of services in order to help you settle into the university community and all of these services are freely accessible to all students. One of the services that I would like to highly recommend to you is the Careers service provided by the Career Centre in the Carrington Building. It is really good as they are helpful in providing you with guidelines for you to think about your future career plan and can offer one-to-one meetings to improve your CV and cover letter for future placement/job application. There are plenty of services ranging from your student support center, international advice team, student welfare team, counselling and wellbeing that you can choose from. More information about the services available to you, can be found here. Do make the most of these free services during your time here at the University of Reading.

In terms of the social aspects of settling in, I would like to highlight ‘Small World Café’. This is an International Café, hosted every Friday Night by the Reading University Christian Union society. I’ve enjoyed my time at Small World Café immensely and find that it’s the best place to make friends from across the world, play games, have fun, relax and learn about other cultures. Small World Café events are free to attend and take place every Friday night during term time from 7-9pm. Everyone is welcome to come and join. No matter where you are from, Small World Café welcomes you. During the night, we usually have an ice-breaker game, activities based on the theme for that particular night, games, chat and an optional bible discussion. If this is something you are interested in, do check us out on our Small World Café LinkTree and you are welcome to contact us on our Small World Café social media to understand what we do more.

Furthermore, there are lots of opportunities in the University such as the RED Award Programme. The Reading Experience and Development (RED) Award is the official University of Reading Employability Skills Certificate. This is a programme to help you make the most out of the extra-curricular activities and experiences available on offer for you on campus, outside of your academic programme, in which you undertake various activities to master a new skill or build on an existing skill. You can do volunteering work and train and develop your existing skills in a number of ways, such as through attending webinars hosted by the Careers Centre. Further information on RED Award can be found on the dedicated University Essentials page.

So, there are plenty of things available for you to explore on campus that helps you to settle into the community; make friends and develop your skills for future employability.

Hope this has helped you to settle into our vibrant community on campus!