New Students

Transport and Arrival

The main University Campus is located on the outskirts of Newcastle -Under-Lyme. It is within easy reach of all major road networks. Once you arrive at Keele, Student Welcome guides and University staff will help you to find where you need to go.

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Arrival:
By Taxi
A taxi from Stoke-on-Trent train station will take around 20 minutes and should cost about £8.  There is a taxi rank just outside the station

By Bus
The nearest station is Stoke-On-Trent train station which about 30 minutes on the Bus Service 25 (First). Contact national bus timetable enquiries on 0870 608 2608 for more information. The local public bus services are very frequent with a 10 minute service to Newcastle, Stoke (station) and Hanley operated by First Bus and an hourly service to Madeley and Crewe operated by D & G buses. Both providers have a range of discount tickets and First Bus offer an annual pass to Keele students at a cost of £315. These are available from the Students’ Union Reception and give unlimited use of all First Bus services in Staffordshire and South Cheshire.
For more information see the company websites:-
http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/staffordshire_cheshire/journey_planning/timetables/index.php?operator=21&page=1&redirect=no 
http://www.dgbus.co.uk/

By Car
On arrival by car, simply follow the signs onto campus. There will be security staff and student Welcome Week Guides to direct you towards the various car parks on campus so you can go and enrol. There are no parking charges during Welcome Weekend (or any other weekend), however we do ask that you move your car away from the Chancellor’s Building car park and the car parks in the Halls of Residence as soon as you have enrolled and then unloaded your car.  This makes sure that there’s plenty of space for those who arrive after you.

Registration of vehicles and purchase of parking permits
If you have a car and wish to bring it onto campus regularly you need to register your vehicle and pay for a parking permit within 10 days of the start of your course. Vehicles are registered at Reception in Chancellor’s Building, Monday-Friday, between 9am and 5pm. Student parking is allocated on a zoned basis with a maximum number of permits issued to each zone.  Charges vary with cheaper parking available for car parks on the perimeter of the campus. Alternatively, if you visit only occasionally, you may use the pay and display parking facilities on the Horwood ‘E1’, Students’ Union ‘E2’ or Sports Centre ‘D’ (2 hours max) car parks only. Any car not displaying a permit or a parking ticket or parked on campus roads or unauthorised areas may lead to the issue of a civil parking notice.  If you are an undergraduate medical student or attending placements, please see the information contained in the induction pack provided by the School.

If you are registered with a disability and possess and display a ’Blue badge’, you may use any disabled space and do not need to display a permit. Students with disabilities or exceptional medical circumstances should contact Disability and Dyslexia Support for guidance and assistance (see page 52 of the welcome guide for contact details)

To bring a vehicle onto campus, you must hold a valid driver’s licence, insurance and vehicle test certificate, where applicable, and produce them for checking when making an application. This is to ensure that our campus remains a safe place to walk or drive and ensure that if the worst happens you can be compensated.

Please note that for students living in Campus accommodation Car permits will not be permitted. For more information about Car Parking Permits go to http://www.keele.ac.uk/feature/vids/gen_vid.html

Cycles on Campus
The Keele Campus and surrounding areas offer great opportunities to get out and about on your bike. Throughout the Halls of Residence there are a number of bicycle storage facilities for use by students. You can register your bicycle and obtain keys for individual storage units from the Student Accommodation Lettings Service in the Darwin Building by showing your Keele Card and on payment of a refundable £10 deposit. You will be reimbursed for the deposit upon return of the receipt and the key. Cycles are left at your own risk.
There are six storage areas for cycles at Hawthorns, two at Holly Cross/Oaks, one at Lindsay, one at Horwood, and one at Barnes. Most buildings on campus have covered cycle racks and there is a flourishing Keele Cycle Group for support, advice and arrange occasional social cycle rides. Most local cycle shops offer a discount to Keele students. 

For lots of really useful information about the support that is available to cyclists at Keele go to http://www.keele.ac.uk/kc/

Safety Bus
The KeeleSU Safety Bus is a free service operated by Keele Students' Union, supported by Keele University. The Safety Bus ensures Keele students return home safely to accommodation both on and off campus, in the evening and hours of the early morning. The Union has five Safety buses, which runs from the KeeleSU car park every night of the week in semester time, from 9pm. You can also hire them out for events, clubs or societies.
Disabled access to the Safety Bus is provided; please see KeeleSU Security at the main entrance for assistance or information. For more information on the Safety Bus service see www.keelesu.com/safetybus

Living on Campus

When making the journey to Keele, don't forget to bring things that will help make a home from home, in addition to the essentials. Students coming to University often want to make their new accommodation just like it is back at home. This is a great idea, though sometimes it is a physical impossibility to fit everything in. If you are living in University accommodation then you can check out what you need to bring with you, what we provide and what you shouldn’t bring at: http://www.keele.ac.uk/studyatkeele/accommodation/prospectivestudents/livingoncampus/whatweprovidewhatyouneedtobring/  

All new students will be sent our Welcome to Keele accommodation guide which contains lots more information and suggestions on how to prepare for moving to Keele whether you will be living on or off campus.  If you haven’t received your copy, contact accommodation@keele.ac.uk or you can download from our Accommodation web pages.

As the release of your grant/loan will take a few days, we advise that you bring some money to cover Welcome Week.  The amount that you spend will vary greatly depending upon how often you go out, how many things you sign up to and what you are used to spending. We would suggest you have about £200. Loading some of this money on your Keele Card will help you save some money around campus. You can load money at various self-service points across campus and use it to purchase food, to print and photocopy as well as pay any library fines (not that that will happen of course!).

The Keele Campus has everything you will need as a student, including bookstore, restaurants, supermarkets, bars, banks, a health centre, Chapel, Islamic Centre, and much more. Click here for a map of the campus. This will be useful in the first few days or weeks of your arrival.

When you arrive, we will suggest that you register with the health centre on campus,  if you are not already registered with a local practice. You should do this in the first week of arriving at Keele as you need to be registered with the National Health Service to receive treatment.
All new patients will have a short interview about their health. The Campus Health Centre has two doctors: Dr O’Byrne (male) and Dr Shahab (female), and there are 2 Specialist Nurse Practitioners. If you do not wish to register with the Health Centre please see the Independent Advice Unit web pages for a list of local GP surgeries, and dentists registering NHS patients. We would recommend that you arrange with your GP at home to have vaccines against MMR, poliomyelitis, tetanus and meningitis group C. If you have not had these they will be offered to you at registration. Please note that registration is particularly important if you have a medical condition.
If you are currently undergoing treatment, we advise you to ask your own doctor to write to the University’s Medical Officer, Dr Evan O’Byrne.

Timetable for registration at the Health Centre:

If you are unable to register at your allotted time or are enrolling at Keele at any other time other than September then you can register with the Health Centre during normal practice opening hours, which can be found here.

First Day/Week

Home students should aim to arrive on Saturday 28 September between 9am-3pm while International students should arrive on Wednesday 25 September.
When you arrive, there will be a real sense of excitement in the air. Lots of other students will be enrolling, collecting room keys, unloading cars, waving goodbye to parents and family, meeting new friends and exploring the campus. If you are living in campus accommodation, then once you have enrolled and picked up your room keys from the Chancellor’s Building, you should head to your Hall of Residence where you will be guided by security staff and student welcome guides.  Staff will also be on hand to answer any queries.

Enrolment
Enrolment is compulsory for all new students. It takes place from 9am-3pm on Saturday 28 September in the Exhibition Suite, Chancellors Building. It should take no more than about 30 minutes. The Enrolment team will guide you through this process at the end of which you will be issued with your Keele Card. If we have not yet received a photo from you then you will be issued with your Keele Card once we have taken your photograph.

There will be a late Enrolment Help Desk open in the Exhibition Suite, Chancellor’s Building on Sunday 29 September between 1-3pm and again on Monday 30 September between 9.30am-3pm. Any student who arrives after the 30 September should complete their enrolment at the Student Records and Examinations Reception. This is located on the Ground floor of the Tawney Building. The Reception is open between 9am – 5pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and from 10am-5pm on Tuesday and Thursday.

Please note that registration for Nursing and Midwifery students differs from that of other students. Enrolment for Nursing and Midwifery students will take place on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th September at the Clinical Education Centre. Registration should take approximately 1 hour and you will be invited to attend one of these registration days. The Enrolment team will guide you through registration day, at the end of which you will receive your Uniform. Further information will be sent out to you nearer the time.

For Postgraduate students starting before or after welcome week, your School will provide registration and induction information in full prior to your attendance.

Halls of Residence Key Collection
Accommodation keys will be available to be picked up on Saturday 28th September between 9am-4.45pm on 1^st Floor of Chancellors Building.  You will need to have your Keele Card to receive your keys so make sure that you have enrolled first. If you arrive after 5pm then you can collect your key from the 24 Hour Security Office in the Darwin Building.
Don’t forget to bring Boarding Pass (which you will receive on completion of the online pre-arrival accommodation induction) – we will need it before we issue you with your key.

Welcome Teams
To assist you as you arrive and to ensure you have a great first few days the University has two main teams of Welcome and Support guides. You won’t be able to miss these teams as you will see them (staff and students) in their coloured team t-shirts.

Black and Yellow T-shirts – Welcome Week and Enrolment Assistants/ International Orientation Assistants
The Student Welcome Week Assistants will be based at Touch Base and Info Point in the Chancellor’s Building Foyer Art Gallery. Here you can grab a cup of tea or coffee and sit and relax. We will have loads of information here about what’s going on during Welcome Week, as well as information about the local area including travel tips. You will also be able to get tickets for our different trips this week.
As well as being situated at a number of ‘Info Points’ the team will support you through the Enrolment process, answer  any questions you might have, point you in the right direction.  They will also be co-ordinating a number of events and activities throughout the week and working hard to ensure you have a great start to life as a Keele student.

Blue T-shirts – KeeleSU Fresher Guides
The student guides in blue t-shirts will be all over campus during Welcome Week. They know all there is to know about social activities, opportunities to get involved and anything happening in the Students’ Union. Over arrivals weekend they will be answering any questions, helping out in the Halls of Residence, giving campus tours and being a generally friendly and helpful team. Like the Welcome Week Guides, they were in your position just a few months or years ago so will be able to offer lots of advice if you want or need it.

...Finally! Don’t worry if it takes a little longer for things to fit into place, as they will eventually. If you feel a little uncomfortable about turning up to an event alone or haven’t found an event that suits you then you can;

• Go to the Touch Base Info Point to ask for advice and to find out about what is going on during the week
• Ask your Residence Support Assistant/Welcome Week Assistant/Personal Tutor for ideas of what events and activities you can get involved in
• Email support.centre@keele.ac.uk or call one of the team on 01782 734481

More information for international students orientation can be found here.