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Student orientation or new student orientation (often encapsulated into an orientation week, o-week, frosh week, welcome week Welcome Week or freshers' week) is a period before the start of an academic year at a university or tertiary institutions. A variety of events are held to orient and welcome new students during this period. The name of the event differs across institutions. Post-secondary institutions offer a variety of programs to help orient first year students. These programs can range from voluntary community building activities (frosh week) to mandatory credit-based courses designed to support students academically, socially, and emotionally. Some of these programs occur prior to the start of classes while other programs are offered throughout the school year. A number of research studies have been done to determine the factors to be considered when designing orientation/transition programs.
Although usually described as a week, the length of this period varies widely from university to university and country to country, ranging from about three days to a month or even more (e.g. four or five weeks, depending on the program, at Chalmers). The length of the week is often affected by each university's tradition as well as financial and physical constraints. Additionally, institutions may include programming in the summer months before the first-year to aid in the transition. Some programs may be audience-specific, such as international orientation, transfer student orientation, graduate student orientation.
Orientation programming, regardless of length or format, aims to introduce students to both the academic and social aspects of an institution as they transition from high school. For institutions that have enhanced their orientations to serve as a comprehensive transition program, learning outcomes are developed to assess success. CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education provide objectives for what Orientation programs should aim to accomplish. In North America, organizations exist to share practices that are built upon these outcomes. Two prominent organizations are NODA-Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education and the Canadian Association Colleges and Universities Student Services (CACUSS), which has Orientation, Transition and Retention Community of Practice. The CACUSS community of practice specifically serves as a network for student affairs professionals to share best practices, research, and trends seen at Canadian institutions.
In Canada, first-year students are called "frosh" or "first-years", although the term frosh has been phased out as orientations have become dry events. The terms freshies and freshers are also emerging. In the United States, first-year university students are typically referred to as First year. In Australia and New Zealand, first-year students are known simply as "first-years", although in some the colleges of the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney they are also called "freshers". In the U.K. and Ireland, first-year students are known as freshers or first-years. Freshies is also an emerging term in New Zealand. In Sweden, the student is a nolla (a 'zero') during the orientation period and usually upgraded to the status of an etta (student who is in her/his first college term) at a ceremony involving a fancy three-course dinner and much singing.
In Canada, this shift happened much later due to the 1960s and 1970s, orientation functions were developed and created by student governments. In the 1980s this shift continued to orientation programming being completed by student affairs professionals as a way to eliminate risks associated with students developed practices. Like the United States, orientation programming was used by higher education institutions to focus on transition and retention. In Canada, information, research and data around orientation programming is shared at conferences such as CACUSS.
The overall message of getting familiar with the learning environment and institution has remained the same. The goals of the orientation programs are to create student's familiarity with the institution's regulations and academic standards, acquaint the students with their classmates and to learn about the other institutional members that will help students succeed.
Orientation programs also serve the purpose of introducing students to rules and policies that can help keep them safe. Legislation in different North American states and provinces has led to programming that addresses consent, gendered violence, and the introduction of the campus sexual assault policy.
In Australian universities, such as the University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales and University of Sydney, the last or second last night is usually celebrated with a large-scale event such as a famous band playing at an entertainment venue on campus. This is generally followed by continued partying and drinking.
The University of Adelaide O-Week runs from Monday to Thursday in the week before lectures begin. During O-Week sporting clubs and societies set up a variety of tented areas where clubs display their activities. The Adelaide University Union coordinates a variety of events centering around beer, bands and barbecues on the lawns near the Union complex. A major event for the week is the O-Ball (live entertainment and licensed areas) which takes place in the Cloisters (Union House). The O-Ball attracts many thousands of revellers, not all of whom are Adelaide University students. In recent times Sports and Clubs have sought to distance themselves from the student union and SAUA controlled activities and have set themselves up on the Maths lawns.
The Australian National University has a full week (Sunday to Sunday) of events, parties and social activities open to all students of the university, organised by the Australian National University Students Association. The residential colleges often have their own O-week activities catered primarily for residents as well as the annual Burgmann Toga Party held at Burgmann College open to students from all residential colleges. Burgmann Toga is the largest party held at a university residence in the Southern Hemisphere.
Each tutor group spends roughly fourteen days (and three to five days of pre-education in the spring semester) living on campus before the arrival of the new students (also called rusling s). These periods usually involve heavy amounts of drinking, partying and sexual activity among the tutors themselves. However most festive activities including alcohol only occur after 4 p.m. due to the alcohol policies of the university. Because of this policy, most daily activity is spent planning and preparing activities for the new students.
When the students arrive all tutor groups welcome the rusling s with the infamous Marbjergmark show – usually a display of wacky sketches such as naked people playing chess, smashing rotten eggs at bystanders or themselves or men chasing midgets with a butcher's knife (to name a few examples).
During the two-week period the tutor group teach and introduce the new students to life on campus, both the social and educational aspects. As it is with the preparation period, festive activities take place after 4 p.m., and educational activities are held during the day.
The two-week period ends in a four-day period in which the house will leave campus to varied destinations. During these days mostly social activities are held, including the more secret hazing rituals of the university.
The tutors uphold a strict set of rules to maintain a safe and pleasant tutorship to prevent harmful and humiliating hazing rituals. Examples are the presence of minimum two sober tutors at each party (in Danish ædruvagter). Engaging in sexual relations with new students is also strongly discouraged. Also, it is generally not seen as appropriate to force people to drink alcohol through various games and activities. Furthermore, the university dictates that each tutor must be taught basic first aid, as well as a couple of courses in conflict management and basic education psychology.
At DTU (Danish Faculty of Technology and Engineering), Copenhagen Business School and Copenhagen University, similar periods are held. They however vary, and are significantly shorter than the overall orientation period at Roskilde University.
Nowadays, however, orientation is more tolerable as physical abuse is now forbidden by law; however, it is still criticized by many psychologists and people as 'too much' because of excessive verbal harassment and the use of unusual and humiliating attributes typically found in orientations in junior high and high schools. As well, it is also criticized by many parents for being economically inconvenient. The reason cited by psychologists is that orientation is often used as a tool of revenge by the board of organizers for what the seniors did to them during their freshman year. Because of this, there are many people who believe that MOS or OSPEK are useless traditions that need to be erased. The cruelty of MOS and OSPEK varies between universities and schools in Indonesia, although in (most) major universities and institutes, that kind of humiliation and harassment no longer exists, or is greatly limited to pending applicants or pledges for certain campus organizations.
In New Zealand's main university towns such as Dunedin and Palmerston North (where students make up around one fifth of the population) orientation week leads a wide range of events. Many top overseas and local bands tour the country at this time, and the orientation tour is one of the highlights of the year's music calendar. The University of Otago in the Scottish-settled city of Dunedin traditionally holds a parody of the Highland Games called the Lowland Games, including such esoteric events as porridge wrestling.
Student pranks were once common during orientation week, but have fallen out of favour in recent years. Until recent years, many halls of residence also inducted new residents with "Initiation" (a form of hazing, though considerably milder than the rituals found among American college fraternities).
Although officially designated as a week, in several New Zealand universities and polytechnics orientation week stretches to over ten days.
At the old universities, these traditions have often turned civilized after a dark history of hazing. Today, many student unions have strict rules against inappropriate drunkenness, sexual harassment and other problematic behaviour.
At the technical faculties, the people who organize the nollning play roles in a theatrical manner and often wear sunglasses and some form of weird clothes. Most senior students who are mentors during the nollning wear their student boilersuits or the b-frack (a worn tailcoat). This kind of organized nollning developed at KTH and Chalmers and spread to the rest of the country.
For over 50 years, SOTUS – a hazing-based system used for college initiation in Thailand – has been involved in Thai universities. It stands for Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity, and Spirit. It is the system for freshmen to bring harmony to their friends and to show their pride through their institute. By seniors, freshmen have to do activities such as singing university songs. Moreover, freshmen are required to do a lot of things, for example, wearing a name tag and showing respect to seniors. These requirements lead seniors to try to make their juniors do what they desire and punish them if they do not follow seniors' orders.
Presently, there are adolescents and adults opposing those who had committed unethical or deadly actions to juniors. This group of adolescents has formed an "Anti-SOTUS" group and it has become one of the main issues in Thailand recently. They consider the SOTUS system to be "old-fashioned and a source of brutality". Since it was established, this has become a group of people who share their opinions about the SOTUS system based on their experiences.
On the other hand, some seniors who support this system resist the anti-SOTUS attitude. They tend to say that SOTUS makes them get along together and feel proud of themselves by becoming part of their institute. Some seniors, however, coerce their freshmen to attend every activity held by them as part of preparing them to be able to live happily in university. This becomes worse when some freshmen suffer from what their senior has done to them.
In Thai society, news related to this system has been reported almost every year, for example, recent news about a male freshman who died in this tradition. This news has resulted in people thinking that should end or, at least, be controlled.
In 2016, GMMTV made a television series based on this system, called starring Perawat Sangpotirat and Prachaya Ruangroj.
Live music is also common, as are a number of organized social gatherings especially designed to allow freshers to make new friends and to get to know their course colleagues. Because of the intensity of activities, there are often many new friendships made, especially in group accommodation, some not lasting past Freshers' Week and others lasting for the whole University career and longer.
Typically a freshers' fair for student clubs and societies is included as part of the activities to introduce new students to facilities on offer, typically outside their course of study, such as societies, clubs and sports. The various societies and clubs available within the university have stalls and aim to entice freshers to join. Most campuses take the opportunity to promote safe sex to their students and sometimes offer leaflets on the subject and free , as well as promoting the Drinksafe campaign. The aim is to lower the rate of sexually transmitted disease and to reduce the level of intoxication commonly witnessed in freshers' week.
Freshers' flu is a predominately British term which describes the increased rates of illness during the first few weeks of university. Although called freshers' flu, it is often not a flu at all.
In many colleges, incoming freshmen are made to perform activities such as singing of songs, engaging in group physical activities, and playing games. These activities are often done to help freshmen make friends at their new establishment, and also to bond with each other and the upperclassmen.
Despite the fact that most first-year students are below the legal drinking age (currently 21 years in all states), heavy drinking and binge drinking may occur outside the orientation curriculum. Some programs require their organizers to sign waivers stating they will not be under the influence of any substances over the course of the week as they are responsible for the well-being of the students. Most programs have one final party on the final night to finish off the week of celebrating, in which the organizers join in.
Although it has been officially banned at many schools, hazing is not uncommon during the week. This can be anywhere from the organizers treating the first-year students in a playfully discouraging manner to forcing them to endure rigorous trials.
The attitude of the events also depends on the school. Many colleges encourage parents to come to the first day to help new students move into their dormitory, fill out paper work, and get situated. Some schools view their week as an initiation or rite of passage while others view it as a time to build school spirit and pride. In towns with more than one university, there may be a school rivalry that is reflected in the events throughout the week.
At most schools, incoming freshmen arrive at the school for a couple of days during the summer and are put into orientation groups led by an upperclassman trained for the position. Their orientation leader will take them around campus, do activities with them, have discussions with them, help them register for the next semester's classes and make them feel comfortable about coming to school in the fall.
Freshmen orientation is usually mandatory for all new students, especially international students, which is one way to activate the status of their visa.
Many universities will hold another student orientation similar to freshman orientation for these transfer students. Freshman orientation lasts a few days or a week; on the other hand, transfer student orientation will typically last between one and three days. Transfer orientation's purpose is to acquaint transfer students with their new university. This usually includes campus tours, introducing transfer students to their adviser or perhaps a few of their teachers, and filling out paperwork for proper enrollment. At some colleges, transfer orientation is mandatory for all transfer students.
Unlike freshmen, transfer students are already familiar with the independence of college life. Therefore, their orientation focuses mostly on becoming familiar with the layout and policies of their new institution, providing information about essential campus resources, and getting acquainted with other transfer students so they may make friends at their new university. Transfer students may engage in games, conversations with University faculty, and discussions with current students to make acquaintances and learn more about the university.
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