Students holding Furness welcome banners

Welcome to Furness!

Arrivals at Lancaster is a great way to orientate yourself and settle in to student life before your studies begin, and in Furness we aim to facilitate a smooth arrival for you and get you acquainted with the college.

On-campus students

Furness arrivals has been planned to ensure that your move onto campus is safe and well-organised. This year, our main arrivals day is Saturday 28 September 2024, our College Reps will be placed in and around college spaces to direct you to your key collection point and to your accommodation, where you can settle in and get to know your housemates. Our College staff and JCR will be available throughout the day should you have any questions or queries.

Off-campus / commuter students

If you're joining us this October as a first year undergraduate student and are set to commute to University rather than live on campus, then you're invited to our Commuter Student Welcome event from 10.30am-2pm on Wednesday 25 September 2024. It will include a campus tour, introduction to your college and a chance to meet other new students. You can book your place via LibCal.

We understand that starting university as a commuter student can be daunting, this welcome event is intended to provide an overview and an opportunity to familiarise yourself with your college, explore campus before Welcome Week and meet other students in the same position who you can share your university journey with. Students from all eight of the undergraduate colleges are invited to attend.

International students

New students choosing to study at Lancaster from outside the UK often have a lot of questions as they begin to adjust to a different cultural environment. Our International Buddy Programme aims to help with the transition to support new international students adapt to living and studying in the UK by matching them with a current Furness student.

If you are coming to Lancaster this September 2024 and are interested in being paired up with a buddy, please complete the expression of interest form. If you are interested in finding out more about the scheme, contact Furness Buddies.

Welcome Week

The University will run a series of events to ease you into academic life so it's up to the colleges to focus on creating a home for you and making you feel like part of the Furness family. To help your transition, our Junior Common Room (JCR) have created a range of events to help introduce you to college life, and once you are all settled in, we will formally welcome you through our College Community events. We always have a College trip to the Lake District, and this year we are going to Grasmere.

For more information see the University’s Welcome Week website. You can also browse the Welcome Week schedule via the iLancaster app.

If you have any questions at all during welcome week, or just feel a little lost, please do speak to a member of College staff, a member of the JCR, or your Rep. We are all here to help, and make sure you have the best time possible.

Travel for road and rail users

To help you plan your journey, we’ve added a section to our Welcome site that offers travel information, as well as links to the latest updates. Please regularly check the page for new information before you begin your journey.

Welcome from our Principal

Hello,

I would like to warmly welcome you to Furness College! We hope that you will be very happy in Furness. Here in Furness, we try to offer a home-from-home, a welcoming community where lifelong friendships are forged, and through which you can access a range of activities and opportunities to help you have an enjoyable and successful time at university.

A couple of key people who are here to help you; our College Manager is Jo, who oversees the day-to-day running of the College and who is a popular figure with both students and staff alike. She will be your first port of call should you have any queries about the College. Furness also has an Accommodation Manager, Andrew, who is available to help with any issues relating to the on-campus accommodation, and a team of Porters who work a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week shift pattern during term-time.

One of the vital roles of the College is to provide pastoral and welfare support to our student members. The College Advisor Team (FurCAT), headed by Sam our Senior Advisor, are a team of staff who are available alongside their substantive roles to chat with students and to offer advice, or just as a friendly face. You can find out more about the support available to students on the College website.

We also have a Deanery team, headed by our Dean, Natalie. They oversee student conduct within the College, through though that team also has an important welfare role and work closely with FurCAT. The Deanery team are there to help you, so please do feel free to introduce yourself to them.

Lyndsey is our International Activities Co-ordinator and runs the International Buddy programme. Further information about the Buddy scheme and how you can take part can be found on our Welfare and Support page.

You will also get to meet our Junior Common Room (JCR) Executive Committee, who are elected by Furness' students to represent them and to take the lead on making sure that students' voices are heard in College. They organise an annual calendar of social events which include campaigns, wellbeing and sporting, and plan socials such as the Winter Ball, the Fifteen Hour Social, and the weekly Trev Quiz which is held every Thursday in Trevor bar. You might even decide that you want to stand for election! Elections are held each year, towards the end of the Michaelmas term, and you would be very welcome to stand for election.

We all hope you enjoy your time in Furness College. If you have any queries or concerns throughout your time at University, please feel free to get in touch with myself, Jo, FurCAT or one of the JCR team, and we will all be very happy to try to help you.

Welcome to Furness!

Dr James Mawdesley

Furness Principal

There's no better place!

There's no better place to be than our welcoming community, and there are plenty of friendly faces ready to make you feel part of our Furness family. There's something for everyone here - from our Trev Quiz to our variety of sports teams - and despite being the smallest college, we make sure we are loud and proud at Lancaster! We can't wait to meet all our new members.

Victoria Phillips, JCR President 2021.

Aside from any departmental inductions there will be a number of events taking place through Welcome Week that you are expected to attend including the Welfare and Deanery talks. You will be able to find them all in your Welcome Week Schedule, so please look out for the Furness events and go along to them.

More Events