Student orientation

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Student orientation or new student orientation (often encapsulated into an orientation week, o-week, frosh week, welcome week^[1] 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.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

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.^[9] 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.^[10] 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.^[11] 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.

The impact of COVID-19 will need to be addressed when considering orientation programs to support the transition for students moving from high school to post-secondary institutions. Because of the pandemic, there has been little to no opportunity for students to access the same supports they have accessed in previous years.^[12] Many of the programs to support transition to post-secondary have been cancelled or modified significantly.^[13][14]