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Hi everyone,

Last week, we had a wonderful welcome week for our students. Campus was electric with activity and even the rain couldn’t drown out the excitement and positive spirit. I had the joy of welcoming everyone at our faculty induction sessions on Friday and I got the chance to speak to quite a few of you as well. It was great to hear so many stories about what brought you to ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ, and it reminded me of how wonderfully diverse our community is. It’s one of my favourite things about ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ.

If you’re returning for your second or third year, it’s great to have you back. I hope you’re ready for another year of learning, personal growth, and great experiences.

This year, we’ll have even more people studying on our block learning model. Over the past two years, we’ve had much feedback from you saying that block really works for you, because it allows you to balance life and studies – whether that’s working, supporting a family, or commuting to campus. Only studying one module at a time also makes it easier for you to do well, because you can focus, and do your assessment as part of the block.

We can already see the impact of block on student success, as highlighted in Zainab Girach’s story on our website. End of year marks show impressive improvements since we introduced block two years ago. We now have significantly fewer students who fail, and we have many more students who get a 1^st or 2:1. This is brilliant news and well done to our second and third year students for all their hard work and dedication.

We’re always looking for how we can make things even better. We’re working on making classes more active and your learning even more engaging. Throughout the year, you can use our Student Voice meetings to share your ideas for how we can make our university even better.

At the end of this academic year, our first undergraduates studying on our block model will graduate. I feel confident that we will see the same great results with more 1^st and 2:1 as we have seen over the past couple of years. Just remember, though, research shows that students who attend classes get better results, and we expect you to attend 80% of all classes.

I hope you have a brilliant year, and I look forward to seeing you around campus.