Royal Holloway Freshers' Week: What to Expect

Freshers' Week - Royal Holloway calls it Welcome Week - is the run of days before term starts where you move in, meet your flat, and work out what there is to do for the next three years. It is busy and slightly overwhelming by design. This is a plain guide to what actually happens, when, and how to keep track of it without missing anything.

By Hasseeb Hussain, founder of RHUL Mobile.

The short version

• Welcome Week sits right before the Autumn term. For 2026/27, term starts Monday 21 September 2026, so Welcome Week and move-in weekend fall in the days before that.
• The freshers fair is the one event to prioritise. Every society and sports club has a stall in one place, one day - it is the fastest way to find your people.
• Most of it is turn-up-and-join, not pre-booked, though a handful of ticketed nights sell out early.
• The exact timetable is published by the SU closer to the date - check the events feature in RHUL Mobile for the live, day-by-day feed.
• The campus map works offline, which matters on move-in day when everyone is on the network at once.

When Welcome Week actually runs

Royal Holloway's academic year opens with the Autumn term, and Welcome Week is the run-up to it rather than a separate fixed date. For the 2026/27 year the Autumn term starts on Monday 21 September 2026, so move-in and Welcome Week fall in the days before that - most students arrive over the preceding weekend, with the fair, welcome talks and social events filling the days up to and including the first Monday. Your own move-in day depends on your hall, so treat your official arrival pack as the source for the exact date rather than a general rule. See the full term dates guide for how Welcome Week fits into the rest of the year.

Moving in

Move-in day is a logistics exercise before it is a social one: you arrive with parents or luggage, find your hall reception, get your keys, and then have to actually find your room, the kitchen, and the nearest shop before you can relax. This is where a lot of first-day stress comes from, and it is entirely avoidable with a working map. RHUL Mobile's campus map pins every hall entrance and routes you there on foot, and it works offline, which matters when the mobile network is overloaded with hundreds of families arriving at once. Once you are in, the laundry feature shows which machines in your hall are free without having to walk down and check.

The freshers fair

The freshers fair (also called the societies fair) is the single event to prioritise in Welcome Week if you do nothing else. Every Students' Union society and sports club - academic, cultural, sporting, hobby - has a stall in one place on one day, and you walk round and sign up to whatever looks interesting. Most societies let you join on the spot for free or a small taster fee before you commit to full membership, so there is very little downside to signing up broadly in your first week and narrowing down later. RHUL Mobile's societies feature lists every SU society and sports club with what they are about, so you can scan the list before the fair and know what to look for on the day rather than deciding on the spot with a queue behind you.

Everything else: talks, nights out and socials

Alongside the fair, Welcome Week is filled with department welcome talks (usually where you first meet your course tutors and coursemates), SU club nights, and society-run social events and taster sessions. The exact day-by-day schedule is set and published by the Students' Union closer to the date each year, so it is not something a guide like this can list precisely in advance without going stale. RHUL Mobile's events feature pulls the live SU and society calendar into the app, so you can see what is actually on that day rather than working from a printed timetable that changed at the last minute.

Freshers' Week on a budget

Welcome Week has a reputation for being expensive - club night tickets, takeaways because the kitchen is not stocked yet, taxis because you do not know the bus routes. The RHU service (and RH2 to Huntersdale) run through Welcome Week and are free for the daytime campus legs, and RHUL Mobile's deals feature lists real discounts at local Egham, Englefield Green and Staines businesses you can use from day one rather than waiting to discover them by word of mouth in week three.

Frequently asked questions

When is freshers week at Royal Holloway? In the days immediately before the Autumn term starts - Monday 21 September 2026 for the 2026/27 year - with most students moving in over the preceding weekend. Check your arrival pack for your exact move-in day.

Do I need to sign up in advance? Moving in and academic registration have official deadlines in your arrival pack. Most of the social programme - the fair, taster sessions, most club nights - is turn-up-and-join, though a handful of ticketed events sell out early.

What is the one thing I shouldn't miss? The freshers fair. It is the one place every society and sports club is in the same room on the same day.

Always confirm against the official schedule

Welcome Week's exact day-by-day schedule is set by the Students' Union each year and published closer to the date, so treat the outline above as how Welcome Week is structured rather than a fixed timetable. Check the official Royal Holloway and RHUL Students' Union pages, or the live feed in RHUL Mobile, for the confirmed programme once it is out.